CE 100 Index Loses 2.1% but ‘Have Fun’ Pillar Gains Ground

It was a week of widespread losses for the CE 100 Index.

Only the “Have Fun” pillar gained ground, up 1.1%.

Spotify shares gained 17.6%, leading that “fun” segment higher, as the company named a new chief financial officer this past week.

As reported, Christian Luiga is joining Spotify from Saab AB, a European defense and security company, where he served as deputy CEO and finance chief, the Swedish company announced.

Before that, Luiga held leadership roles, including CFO and acting CEO and president at European telecommunications company Telia.

The appointment follows last month’s announcement that Spotify was venturing into video-based learning in the United Kingdom.

Meta Modifies its AI Approach

Meta shares gathered 8.6%. As reported here, Meta has modified its approach to handling media that has been manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI) and by other means.

Three of the company’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — will now label a wider range of content as “Made with AI” when they detect industry-standard AI image indicators or when the people uploading content disclose that it was generated with AI, as detailed in a company blog post.

As detailed earlier in the week, Instagram and WhatsApp suffered reported outages in the United States and some other countries.

A status page of Meta Platforms, the parent company of both Instagram and WhatsApp, said at the time that there were “major disruptions” in its ads transparency tools, according to reports.

WhatsApp’s outage affected thousands of people globally and lasted for hours before being restored, Reuters reported Wednesday.

In addition to those in the U.S., there were reports of outages by users in India, the United Kingdom and Brazil, per data from Downdetector.

Ocado Loses Ground

Ocado shares, which lost nearly 17%, helped bring the “Shopping” segment of the CE 100 Index lower by 3.6%. The company said last week that revenue for the quarter that ended in March rose to 645.3 million pounds ($815.3 million) from GBP583.7 million a year earlier.

Average weekly orders surged 8.4%, outpacing the value of the average basket, which logged a 2.1% gain. Average selling prices were 2.2% higher. The company’s forecasted growth rate will be in the mid- to high-single-digit percentage points for the consolidated top line.

Peloton shares lost 15.5%, taking the “Be Well” pillar down by more than 4.3%.

As reported by CNBC, data from business intelligence firm Creditsafe shows Peloton among the firms that have failed to make timely payments to vendors.

“If relationships with vendors sour, it can in some cases be an early sign a company is in financial distress,” CNBC said.

Separately, and as we detailed during the company’s most recent earnings report, the company is looking to capture businesses’ corporate wellness spending to drive subscription growth.

The company reported in its second-quarter fiscal 2024 financial results that total revenue was down 6% year over year for the quarter, even as subscription revenue rose by 3%.

On a call with analysts, Liz Coddington, the firm’s chief financial officer, noted that the quarter saw the company’s subscription business face new challenges, with existing offers expiring. Now, Peloton is focusing on revitalizing the growth of this sector, and B2B might help give a tailwind to growth.