Stock splits, long out of favor, are making a comeback.

It started with Walmart, which announced a 3-for-1 stock split on Jan. 30, with the additional shares being distributed on Feb. 23.

And from there, it picked up steam. On Thursday, Williams-Sonoma announced a 2-for-1 split, and on Wednesday, Broadcom announced a 10-for-1 split.

Stock splits are far less common now than 20 or 30 years ago. During the tech and internet bubble of the late 1990s, stock splits were common. David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, noted that roughly 15% of Russell 1000 firms split their stock each year in the late 1990s, but that proved to be an anomaly.

By the mid-2000s, roughly 5% of the Russell 1000 members split their stock each year, and after the great financial crisis from 2008-2009, stock splits practically ceased.

Importantly, splits did not increase after the market began recovering in 2010.

The likely reason is the institutional base for stock ownership has come to dominate the market. Institutional investors invest by dollar value, not by shares. They would typically buy, for example, $10 million in stock and wouldn’t care what the price is.

But recently, there are signs of a subtle shift. Some of it may be because the price of some stocks reached absurd levels. Chipotle, for example, has never split its stock and is trading over $3,200 and will soon split 50-for-1. Nvidia was over $1,200 by the time it split 10-for-1.

More importantly, some companies appear to be more interested in appealing to retail investors.

Nvidia noted that the purpose of the split was to “make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors.” Chipotle said the same thing.

Walmart also cited these factors in its statement announcing the split: “The stock split is part of Walmart’s ongoing review of optimal trading and spread levels and its desire for its associates to feel that purchasing shares is easily within reach.

In theory, no. The value of the company remains the same.

However, many academic studies have noted various changes in trading patterns for stocks that split, though these changes are not uniform. One academic study published in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management in 2023 found several positive benefits:

1) Trading volumes go up

2) Liquidity, or the ability to trade a lot of shares without moving the price, improves

3) Stock splits increase the shareholder base for the company

These changes may have subtle impacts on the stock price.

If companies with a retail focus are suddenly more sensitive to their prices, there are some obvious candidates. The “over $1,000” club in the S&P 500 is small and getting smaller: Chipotle ($3,230), Broadcom ($1,679) and Lam Research ($1,032) are all splitting their stocks.

The holdouts include Booking Holdings ($3,852), Autozone ($2,809), and Deckers Outdoors ($1,026).

Other high-priced stocks with a retail focus include Costco ($843) and Super Micro Computer ($872), which recently joined the S&P 500.

However, if corporate America smells that there is a trend and can attract attention by splitting stocks, retail-facing companies with much lower price profiles may also become candidates.

That might include Spotify ($305), Ulta Beauty ($397) or even ServiceNow ($715), which has never split its stock.

More homeowners are listing their homes for sale, but properties are taking longer to sell as potential buyers face high prices and interest rates.

New listings from home sellers jumped in May, up 13% from a year ago, according to the latest market report by Zillow.

“You have an increase in sellers coming back on the market,” said Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.

But with buyers not returning to the market, many new listings are just adding to inventory. The number of homes on the market rose 22% compared with last year, Zillow found.

“Homes are staying on the market for a bit longer because the sales are not keeping up with the flow of homes coming on the market,” Divounguy said.

Almost two-thirds, or 61.9%, of homes listed on the market in May had been for sale for at least 30 days without going under contract, according to a new analysis by Redfin. About 40.1% of homes that were for sale in May had been listed for at least two months without going under contract, Redfin found.

“The market is slowing down. Homes are taking longer to sell and that allows inventory to accumulate on the market,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Yet despite the recent jump in supply, “we’re still starved for inventory in the for-sale market,” said Divounguy. The housing inventory in the U.S. is still 34% below pre-pandemic levels, according to Zillow.

“We’re short nationwide of about 4.3 million homes,” he said. “We’re still in a housing unit deficit.”

Homebuyers are waiting on lower mortgage rates

As mortgage rates have remained high and housing affordability has strained household finances, buyers have been unable to enter the market, Divounguy explained.

“Buyers are facing these incredibly high mortgage rates, at least relative to what they were during the pandemic,” said Fairweather, who believes homebuyers might lack the motivation and financial ability to purchase a home.

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage in the U.S. slid to 6.95% on June 13, lower from 6.99% a week prior, according to Freddie Mac data via the Federal Reserve. 

While mortgage rates could “change pretty quickly” or “on a dime,” said Fairweather, buyers are unlikely to see big movement in the near term. The Fed held rates steady at its June meeting and now anticipates just one rate cut this year. Its next meeting is July 30-31.

“There’s no right answer for homebuyers who are deciding whether to wait or not,” Fairweather said. “It’s just up to chance when mortgage rates drop. Nobody really knows when that will happen, so it’s hard to plan your life around that.”

Some markets in the U.S. are seeing a significant increase in unsold inventory. About 60.5% of listings in Dallas, Texas, stayed on the market for at least 30 days, up from 53% a year earlier, according to Redfin.

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the share of unsold listings that have stayed on the market for at least 30 days is 75.5%, up from 68.2% a year prior, Redfin found.

A similar increase is happening in two other areas in Florida. The share of unsold homes in Tampa that have been on the market for 30 days is 68.7%, up from 61.9% a year ago; in Jacksonville, 69.2%, up from 62.9% in the same period, per Redfin data.

“When you give buyers more options, that means they have more bargaining power,” Divounguy said.

If you notice homes for sale linger on the market for longer in your area, “there’s probably an opportunity to get [a property] for under its listed price,” Fairweather said.

If you make it into the home inspection process and you learn about issues that were neither noticeable during the initial walkthrough nor disclosed, it may be worth asking the home seller to do repairs, she said. 

But don’t overdo it: “You don’t want to be nit-picky and ask for every single repair,” such as chipped paint, Fairweather said. 

Other markets are still in favor of home sellers as inventory remains tight, Divounguy said. Not only do many homeowners have record home equity, they also have low mortgage payments.

If a home seller needs to move this year due to upcoming life changes and their area is experiencing high levels of unsold listings, they may need to be prepared to cut their asking price to draw interest.

“Price cuts sell homes,” he said.

Boeing is investigating a new quality problem with its 787 Dreamliner after discovering that hundreds of fasteners have been incorrectly installed on the fuselages of some undelivered jets, two people familiar with the matter said.

The latest in a series of manufacturing snags affecting the U.S. planemaker involves incorrect “torquing” or tightening in a Boeing plant of more than 900 fasteners per plane — split equally between both sides of the jet’s mid-body, they said.

There is no immediate concern about flight safety but Boeing is working to understand what caused the problem and will decide how much if any rework needs to be done once its investigation is complete, the sources said, asking not to be identified.

Boeing confirmed the checks in response to a Reuters query on Thursday and said it saw limited to no impact on deliveries.

“Our 787 team is checking fasteners in the side-of-body area of some undelivered 787 Dreamliner airplanes to ensure they meet our engineering specifications. The in-service fleet can continue to safely operate,” a spokesperson said.

“We are taking the time necessary to ensure all airplanes meet our delivery standards prior to delivery. We are working closely with our customers and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and keeping them updated.”

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told reporters in Washington he could not comment on the fastener issue, but said he was headed to Boeing’s 787 plant in South Carolina on Friday and would hear from people in the facility.

Shares of Boeing initially fell 1.7% before paring losses to be flat.

The U.S. planemaker has been under scrutiny from regulators and customers since a January 5 incident in which a smaller 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.

The latest manufacturing flaw was discovered inside the company’s South Carolina plant where the 787’s lightweight carbon-composite skin is attached to skeletal supports inside the fuselage sections called longerons.

The sources said the affected fasteners had been torqued from the wrong side, using the head instead of the associated nut.

In January, Boeing issued a bulletin to suppliers that laid out practices to ensure bolts are properly torqued following inspections of 737 MAX 9s grounded in the wake of the blowout.

Tracking data confirmed that 787 deliveries are continuing, albeit at a slower-than-usual rate in the wake of a previous and unconnected production slowdown. FlightRadar24 said one 787-10 model departed for its European customer on Wednesday.

Airlines are concerned about existing delivery delays, with some buyers estimating average delays of several months.

Netflix is trying to get ready for some football.

The streaming giant has been reaching out to broadcasters this week in the hopes of finding a partner to produce the NFL games it will air on Christmas Day this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Netflix will show two games on Christmas Day this year, followed by at least one matchup in both 2025 and 2026, the company announced last month.

This is Netflix’s first real foray into traditional live sports, driven by the company’s ambitions to grow its advertising tier. The company signed a deal earlier this year with WWE to be the home for its live “Raw” events, but Netflix dubbed that deal as “sports entertainment.” Unlike WWE, Netflix’s deal for Christmas NFL games doesn’t come with a full production team. That’s left the streamer looking for help.

Netflix has been in touch with the broadcasters that currently air NFL games, including Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, said the people familiar, who asked not to be named because the discussions have been private. Disney won’t produce the games because it already has college football obligations the same day, two of the people said.

In-depth discussions haven’t begun with the other broadcasters, but Netflix’s options may be somewhat limited.

Fox and CBS Sports already produce various games in different regions each week, which could make taking on additional games for Netflix a burden, some of the people said.

There’s also competition to consider.

Amazon inked a deal with NBCUniversal to produce its NFL games before its first season of “Thursday Night Football” in 2022, but there may be more resistance among current NFL partners to help out Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because Netflix could be auditioning as a future long-term media rights partner for NFL games in place of a legacy media company, such as Paramount, Fox or NBC.

The NFL has an out clause in its current media contracts that allows it to select new media partners after the 2029-30 season.

Representatives for Netflix, the NFL, NBCUniversal, CBS, ESPN and Fox declined to comment.

Netflix announced its entry into the NFL in mid-May ahead of its Upfront presentation, when it tried to woo advertisers for its burgeoning ad-supported platform. Netflix said last month it has reached 40 million global active users for its advertising tier, which costs $6.99 per month in the U.S. and debuted in November 2022.

In May, co-CEO Ted Sarandos told CNBC that the NFL was the right fit for Netflix because it matched the streamer’s event strategy — effectively allowing Netflix to own the day. Netflix will pay the NFL roughly $75 million per game, CNBC previously reported.

For the NFL, Netflix represents the chance to reach a global, younger audience. There’s also the potential to lay the groundwork for Netflix to become a future bidder on a larger package of games.

The NFL signed long-term deals in 2021 with Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon for its five primary packages of games.

While there is some trepidation among current media partners to produce games for a potential rival, pressure from the league — and a hefty paycheck from Netflix — could convince broadcasters to strike a deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

“There aren’t that many players in the space who are capable of doing this at a level that you would want to trust when you’re launching as a new partner with a league as important as the NBA or the NFL,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at law firm Perkins Coie, adding that the production side “can be a big hole for streaming partners.”

Netflix and the league are looking to mirror the partnership that Amazon’s Prime Video lined up with Comcast’s NBC Sports for “Thursday Night Football” games.

While NBC Sports’ Fred Gaudelli produced the 2022 season of “Thursday Night Football,” Amazon appointed Mark Teitelman, one of its own employees, to the role of lead game producer in 2023.

Amazon produces all of its pregame, halftime and postgame coverage, but NBC Sports is in charge of the extensive production work that goes into an NFL game, and employs the vast majority of those workers.

Netflix is interested in finding a similar partner, according to people familiar with its plans.

If a deal can’t be made with one of the incumbents, Netflix could find other options with third-party producers. Endeavor Group Holdings’ IMG is the production partner for Major League Soccer, which is offered through Apple.

“It’s not easy to do an NFL game at a level that people are used to watching, which is a very high level and well produced,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investment. “But there’s a number of options out there that can pull it together without [Netflix] having a fully staffed sports division.”

Amazon Prime Video was the first streamer to obtain exclusive rights to NFL games as the league pushed to broaden its media partners and have more streaming offerings to widen its audience.

Amazon reached its deal to carry “Thursday Night Football” in 2021 in conjunction with the rest of the media rights deals for the NFL — an 11-year media rights agreement worth over $100 billion, with an opt out clause at the seven-year mark.

Given the recent NBA media rights negotiations, which are beckoning top dollar from various media companies, many in and around the industry expect the NFL to exercise the clause and look for new partners.

Since the NFL has inked its deal, streaming services for Comcast, ESPN and Paramount have begun to simultaneously stream games, and in some cases, hosted games exclusively. Alphabet’s YouTube TV is also the new home of the “Sunday Ticket” package of games.

Sports, particularly the NFL, have been the glue holding the traditional TV bundle together — and have also proved to be a boost to streaming. NBCUniversal said in April its exclusive NFL wild-card game on Peacock helped to add, and then retain, more customers than expected.

The league has been vocal in its push to add more streaming partners in an effort to widen its audience.

That was the thinking behind the deal with Netflix to stream these Christmas Day games.

When the “Sunday Ticket” rights negotiations were underway, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC the longtime package offered only by DirecTV would move to streaming.

“I think that’s best for consumers at this stage,” Goodell said at the time.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump failed to impress everyone in a room full of top CEOs Thursday at the Business Roundtable’s quarterly meeting, multiple attendees told CNBC.

“Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said one CEO who was in the room, according to a person who heard the executive speaking. The CEO also said Trump did not explain how he planned to accomplish any of his policy proposals, that person said.

Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported Friday on “Squawk Box.”

A spokesman for the Trump campaign did not reply to a request for comment from CNBC on the CEOs’ remarks.

Among the topics on which Trump offered scant details were how he would reduce taxes and cut back on business regulations, according to two other people in the room who spoke to CNBC.

Meeting attendees and people who spoke with them were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about the private event.

The same CEOs who were struck by Trump’s lack of focus “walked into the meeting being Trump supporter-ish or thinking that they might be leaning that direction,” Sorkin reported.

“These were people who I think might have been actually predisposed to [Trump, but] actually walked out of the room less predisposed” to him, Sorkin said.

Trump’s energy in the meeting was also noticeably subdued, according to two people who were in the room. At no time during his remarks was there any noticeable applause for Trump, two attendees told CNBC.

This was in contrast to Trump’s meeting earlier in the day with House Republicans on Capitol Hill. Attendees at that meeting told CNBC that the former president was animated and engaged and that Trump received several rounds of applause in separate meetings Thursday with both House and Senate Republicans.

Trump’s low-key energy at the Business Roundtable event could have been deliberate, one attendee told CNBC. Trump had wanted the CEO meeting to be “more like a business meeting than a speech,” the person said.

“At one point he discussed his plan to bring the corporate tax rate down from 21% to 20% … and was asked about why he had chosen 20%,” Sorkin said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And he said, ‘Well, it’s a round number.’”

“That unto itself had a number of CEOs shaking their heads,” Sorkin reported.

In 2023, corporate income taxes contributed approximately $420 billion to federal revenues, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Wall Street has bristled over the past three years under President Joe Biden’s aggressive antitrust enforcement, pharmaceutical price caps and progressive tax policy.

Boeing and Airbus, the two biggest commercial airline makers, may have used titanium sold using fake documents, according to evidence from a supplier that has triggered a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.

The FAA said in a statement to NBC News on Friday morning it would look into allegations from Spirit Aerosystems that the two aviation giants used titanium in their planes that came with paperwork verifying its authenticity that could have been falsified.

The news adds to a troubled period for Boeing, which is the subject of ongoing federal investigations for alleged safety problems. But the news also brings its fierce rival, France-headquartered Airbus, into the wider scrutiny the aviation industry is facing.

An Airbus assembly site in Colomiers, France, in 2022. Valentine Chapuis / AFP via Getty Images file

Spirit Aerosystems, based in Wichita, Kansas, which raised the alarm on the titanium issue, said it acted fast to remove all the suspect titanium from the supply chain.

“This is about titanium that has entered the supply system via documents that have been counterfeited. When this was identified, all suspect parts were quarantined and removed from Spirit production,” the company said in a statement.

Spirit added that “more than 1,000 tests have been completed to confirm the mechanical and metallurgical properties of the affected material to ensure continued airworthiness.”

‘Boeing reported a voluntary disclosure to the FAA regarding procurement of material through a distributor who may have falsified or provided incorrect records,’ the FAA said in a statement confirming yet another investigation into Boeing.

‘Boeing issued a bulletin outlining ways suppliers should remain alert to the potential of falsified records,’ the statement added.

Airbus controls about 60% of the commercial airline market with Boeing taking the remaining 40% — the companies’ grip on the industry has been called a duopoly.

Boeing said in an emailed statement: ‘This industry-wide issue affects some shipments of titanium received by a limited set of suppliers, and tests performed to date have indicated that the correct titanium alloy was used.’

Boeing added that it was ‘removing any affected parts on airplanes prior to delivery. Our analysis shows the in-service fleet can continue to fly safely.’

Airbus released a statement saying the company ‘is aware of the situation.’

‘Numerous tests have been performed on parts coming from the same source of supply,’ the statement said. ‘They show that (aircraft) airworthiness remains intact. The safety and quality of our aircraft are our most important priorities and we are working in close collaboration with our supplier.

Earlier on Friday the FAA said it was investigating how a Boeing 737 Max jet became caught in a so-called “Dutch roll” incident while flying from Phoenix to Oakland last month.

Boeing’s tumultuous year began when a door panel blew off a 737 Max-9 mid-air in January.

The FAA is also investigating whether Boeing completed required inspections on its flagship 787 Dreamliner jets.