Investors have heard a lot about how tight the job market is right now. Often, that gets portrayed at the macroeconomic level as a good thing, as it empowers consumers to get better-paying jobs and hopefully boost their income. Indeed, after several days of downward movements, the stock market looked poised for a modest recovery Wednesday morning. Shortly before the market open, futures contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.56%), S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.88%), and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -2.05%) had clawed back anywhere from 0.25% to 0.75% from recent losses.
The tight job market is also affecting big companies at the executive level. The latest example of this came from Snap (SNAP -4.04%), which saw its stock fall as a competing company in entertainment poached some of its top talent in the advertising space. Read on to learn more about Snap's conundrum as well as why pet-lovers' favorite Chewy (CHWY 0.19%) also saw its share price decline Wednesday morning.
Snap loses some leaders
Shares of Snap were down more than 8% in premarket trading Wednesday. The parent company of social media favorite Snapchat fell after reports showed that two well-known executives were leaving the company amid broader layoffs.
Reports on Tuesday suggested that Snap might look to reduce its workforce by roughly 20%. Like many fast-growing tech-related companies, Snap had been aggressive in boosting the size of its employee base during the boom times. In particular, the company looked likely to reduce the size of its hardware division, with the implication that Snap would refocus its efforts on its core Snapchat business.
More troubling, though, was news that Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor had left Snap. The two executives, who played major roles in promoting advertising activity within Snap, will now work for video streaming giant Netflix (NFLX -9.09%). Netflix shares moved slightly higher on Wednesday morning.
Even as the once-hot tech sector starts to see more layoffs, executive leaders who bring key expertise to the table remain in high demand. Investors can expect to see more cross-poaching of top talent for the foreseeable future, and that could make it difficult for some of the smaller companies that have seen the most volatility in their stock prices to hold onto people who would prefer more certainty in their paths to success.
Chewy stock plays dead
Meanwhile, shares of Chewy were down, falling 10% in premarket trading. The pet products retailer reported quarterly financial results that generally seemed solid, but shareholders wanted more clarity on some key strategies and what the future is likely to bring.
Chewy's financials indicated continuing success for the pet-oriented business. Revenue rose 13% to $2.43 billion, and Chewy reversed a year-ago loss with net income of $22 million. Adjusted pre-tax operating profits more than tripled year over year as the company said it was able to expand its margin performance considerably.
However, some aspects of Chewy's business showed signs of faltering. The number of active customers rose just 2% to 20.5 million, as the pet specialist cited the weak macroeconomic environment for weakness in discretionary spending and customer acquisition.
Worst of all, Chewy cut its guidance for the full year. The company now expects to bring in $9.9 billion to $10 billion in revenue for 2022. That still represents growth of 11% to 12% from fiscal 2021 levels, and Chewy also said it expects its margin performance to be better than it previously expected. However, shareholders are fearful of any cut in growth lately, and Chewy will need to prove it can recover well in order to regain investor confidence fully.
