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What’s happening: Shares of The Walt Disney Company rose sharply on Wednesday, after the company released results for its fiscal second quarter.
What happened: The media and theme park giant posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings and raised its guidance.
Disney also announced plans to open a new international theme park in Abu Dhabi.
How were the results: The Burbank, California-based company reported single-digit growth in sales for its fiscal second quarter.
Why it matters: Walt Disney continued to add subscribers during the latest quarter. With 2.5 million subscriber adds, the company closed the quarter with 180.7 million subscribers for Disney+ and Hulu combined. Disney+ alone saw 1.4 million new users and had a total of 126 million paid subscribers.
Entertainment revenues climbed 9% to $10.68 billion, while Sports revenues rose 5% to $4.53 billion. Experiences revenue grew 6% to $8.89 billion.
For fiscal 2025, management raised their guidance for adjusted earnings of $5.75 per share, up 16% from fiscal 2024.
Disney also announced plans to build its seventh theme park resort on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The company said it will build the project in partnership with Miral, a leading developer of entertainment destinations in Abu Dhabi. Although the company has not disclosed any opening date, it said the park would be its most advanced and interactive one.
“As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting-edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways,” CEO Bob Iger said.
How shares responded: Disney’s shares jumped 10.8% to settle at $102.09 on Wednesday, following the release of quarterly results. The stock has added around 23% over the past month.
What to watch: Investors will continue monitoring subscriber additions. Developments related to the upcoming theme park in Abu Dhabi will also remain in focus.
Context: The GBP/USD forex pair rose this morning as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.
Details: The Federal Reserve concluded its two-day meeting on Wednesday and announced to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the 4.25%-4.50% range. However, the US central bank warned that risks of inflation and unemployment had increased, while uncertainty remains about the country’s economic growth outlook.
Data released on Wednesday showed the S&P Global UK construction PMI rising to 46.6 in April, from 46.4 in March. This signalled a contraction in construction activity for the fourth straight month, with uncertainty in business causing delays in new projects and declines in fresh orders.
Data released this morning showed that UK’s house price balance had declined to 3% in April, from +2% in the previous month. Although this was its weakest level in nine months, the latest reading came in better than market estimates of -5%.
Strength in the US dollar limited gains for the GBP/USD pair this morning. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance versus a basket of major peers, rose around 0.1% to 99.68.
The GBP/USD pair added 0.4% to reach 1.3345 this morning.
What to watch: Investors await the Bank of England’s interest rate decision (1502 UAE Time) today. The BoE is projected to lower interest rates by 25 basis points to 4.25%, amid rising concerns over slowing economic growth due to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Other Markets: US trading indices closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones index, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 up by 0.70%, 0.43% and 0.39%, respectively.
Former US President Joe Biden blamed Donald Trump of appeasing Russia by forcing Ukraine to give up territory. The news sent the RUB/USD pair higher in forex trading this morning.
Philippines’ GDP grew by 5.4% year-over-year in the first quarter. This being an acceleration from the 5.3% recorded in the previous quarter lent support to the PHP/USD forex pair.
Indonesia’s 2025 growth outlook was cut by global rating agency Fitch from 5% to 4.9%, which sent the IDR/USD pair lower in forex trading this morning.
Chile’s trade surplus widened to $1,923 million in April, from $1,921 million in the year-ago month. The latest reading topping market estimates of $1,745 million lent support to the CLP/USD forex pair.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority held its base rate at 4.75% during its recent meeting, sending the HKD/USD pair lower in forex trading this morning.
South Africa’s manufacturing production (1500 UAE Time), Turkey’s foreign exchange reserves (1530 UAE Time) and treasury cash balance (1830 UAE Time), Brazil’s PPI (1600 UAE Time), car production (1800 UAE Time) and new car registrations (1800 UAE Time), Mexico’s inflation rate (1600 UAE Time), US initial jobless claims (1630 UAE Time), nonfarm productivity (1630 UAE Time), unit labour costs (1630 UAE Time), continuing jobless claims (1630 UAE Time), wholesale inventories (1800 UAE Time), EIA natural gas stocks change (1830 UAE Time) and consumer inflation expectations (1900 UAE Time), Canada’s financial stability report (1800 UAE Time), as well as Argentina’s industrial production (2300 UAE Time).
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