CNBC Daily Open: Disney wins proxy showdown

Robert Iger, President and CEO of Walt Disney Company announces a $5 million dollar donation with Mickey Mouse for the New Hospital Building at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, October 30, 2006 in Los Angeles, California.

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

What you need to know today

Wall Street mixed

The Dow Jones Industrial Average extended its losses to a third straight day, falling 0.11% to 39,127.14 — dragged by a more than 8% dive in Intel shares after the company posted operating losses in its semiconductor manufacturing business. The S&P 500 ended up 0.11% at 5,211.49 to clock its first winning session of the week. The Nasdaq Composite finished up 0.23% at 16,277.46.

More evidence please

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday policymakers will take more time to assess the state of inflation, suggesting the timing of any potential interest rate cuts remains uncertain. Hedge fund managers Steve Cohen and David Einhorn said it would be difficult for the Fed to get inflation down to its 2% goal. In fact, Einhorn’s loading up on gold positions in anticipation of a pick up in inflation.

Tech layoffs

Amazon’s cloud computing division said Wednesday it’s cutting hundreds of jobs in its physical stores, technology and sales and marketing units. Sales growth in the division has declined in recent quarters as companies trim their cloud computing expenditure. These cuts comes as Amazon confirmed it’s ditching unmanned checkouts at its Fresh supermarkets in the U.S.

Elon lawsuits

Another former Twitter executive is suing Elon Musk and X for breach of contract and a failure to pay severance and benefits. Nick Caldwell, now chief product officer at Peloton, is claiming Musk and X “cheated” him and other executives out of a combined $200,000,000 in severance benefits. This lawsuit is similar to the one filed by other Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, claiming they were owed $128 million in unpaid severance.

[PRO] Autos winners

A Tesla short-seller named two auto stocks that he believes have the potential to deliver 100% upside for investors.

The bottom line

So in the end, Disney won the fight with activist investors.

After blowing a reported $40 million battling Nelson Peltz-led Trian Partners and former Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, Disney’s shareholders elected the company’s full board at the media conglomerate’s annual shareholders meeting Wednesday.

It wasn’t all that close. Peltz lost out on his bids to oust director Maria Elena Lagomasino by a fairly large margin.

For all Peltz levelled at Disney’s management about their strategy for the company’s streaming business, he failed to convince shareholders that he had a credible alternative plan.

Still, Peltz made some claims that stuck somewhat, including one that questions Disney’s search for chief executive Bob Iger’s second successor. Iger returned as CEO in 2022 after Bob Chapek was fired.

Peltz, however, is not going away as Trian Partners owns a 1.8% stake in Disney.

The attention will return to Disney’s challenges with its streaming business and what it’s going to do to revitalize ESPN — and the question of Iger’s succession.

— CNBC’s Alex Sherman, Rohan Goswami and Sarah Whitten contributed reporting.