Cyber chaos
Crowdstrike goes down
Happy Monday, diligent analysts. This is your Stock Market Rundown for July 22nd, 2024. Thank you so much for joining me. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: SYSTEM FAILURE
Flights grounded, passengers stranded, ATMs malfunctioning, and broadcasters going off air. The past few days have seen global chaos, thanks to a major outage of a widely-used cybersecurity software made by Crowdstrike.
The source of this systemic snafu wasn’t a nefarious hack, an electromagnetic pulse from space, or a cat walking across a keyboard. It was just plain old human error.
Early Friday morning, some software developer—maybe preoccupied with thoughts of his weekend World of Warcraft plans—accidentally shipped an update that was incompatible with Windows. Result: the blue screen of death hit millions of computers.
As a software company specializing in threat monitoring, Crowdstrike is an industry leader—it’s deployed at over half of Fortune 500 companies, with a customer list that includes tech titans like Google and Amazon.
So, a screw-up of this magnitude was a big, nasty surprise. Crowdstrike’s stock price plummeted as news of the outage spread worldwide, and businesses from FedEx to Union Pacific were disrupted.
Luckily, within a day or so a fix was pushed and things were getting back to normal. But the Crowdstrike outage was a bleak reminder that our modern technological world is only as reliable as its weakest link. Who knew the apocalypse could be ushered in by a typo?
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
There’s another electric flying taxi prototype in the works—this one’s from European defense company Embraer, and it’s expected to make its maiden flight in early 2025. Sailing over rush-hour traffic will be the ultimate five-star ride.
Speaking of flying, the aviation industry may have suffered some turbulence recently, but thanks to passenger demand, planemakers have a tailwind. Boeing raised its outlook for industry-wide jet deliveries, and forecast that the global aircraft fleet will double over the next two decades.
A top activist investor has bought up a stake in Starbucks and is pressuring the coffee giant to boost its profits. Idea: add a menu option to put a shot of Kahlua in everybody’s morning cappuccinos.
Fizzling out? The French wine industry reported that champagne sales are down 15% from year-ago levels, due to economic uncertainty. Bottle service at the club just doesn’t hit the same with a bucket of Bud Lights.
That’s it for today, pals; let’s circle back later this week for further updates. Yours in capitalism, The Axe
Thank you so much for reading. If you enjoyed today’s Stock Market Rundown, the #1 thing you can do to help me out is forward it to a friend.