(KRON) — In today’s installment of Winners & Losers, financial expert Rob Black discusses the GDP signaling a recession, a jump in solar stocks and a drop in Meta stocks.

Loser: Stocks pause as GDP signals recession

All three indexes soared Wednesday, with the Nasdaq seeing its best gain since April 2020. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has gained nearly 11% since hitting its intraday low for the year in mid-June.

The gains have been driven by the narrative that the Federal Reserve will soon slow down the pace of interest rate hikes, which are meant to cool high inflation by reducing economic demand.

GDP fell 0.9% in the second quarter, the second straight decline and a strong recession signal.

Senate Democrats want to include $21 billion in new spending on COVID-19 and monkeypox vaccines and treatments as part of a year-end funding bill, according to The Washington Post.

JetBlue has reached a deal to buy Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion. The agreement follows Spirit’s termination of its merger with Frontier Airlines.

The European Union could create a new unit to enforce antitrust regulations.  This is bad news for Apple, Amazon, Meta, Twitter, Google and Microsoft.

Winner: Solar stocks jump on climate spending deal

Solar stocks jumped after the Senate said it has reached a deal on what would be the most ambitious climate spending package in U.S. history.

The “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” includes $369 billion for clean energy provisions.

The entire clean energy industry just breathed an enormous sigh of relief.

The Invesco Solar ETF added 9.6% on Thursday morning.

Residential solar installers Sunrun and Sunnova jumped 26% and 33%, respectively.

SunPower gained more than 12%. SolarEdge and Enphase Energy each added more than 10%.

The bill, which the full Senate will consider next week, includes a 10-year extension of clean energy tax incentives.

The package would also include incentives for domestic manufacturing.

Provisions for electric vehicles, hydrogen and nuclear power are also included in the proposed funding.

Loser:  Meta stock slides on disappointing results and a weak forecast

Meta Platforms reported disappointing results, and a outlook that was dramatically below Wall Street Street estimates.

Meta continues to grapple with a difficult advertising environment, increasing competition for user time and ad dollars from TikTok and the continuing fallout from Apple’s recent push to protect privacy for iPhone users.

“I expect us to get more done with fewer resources,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Meta posted revenue of $28.82 billion, down 1% from a year ago.

Operating income from the company’s “family of apps” segment was $11.2 billion, down 24.5% from a year ago.

Reality Labs had an operating loss of $2.8 billion. Revenue from Reality Labs was $452 million down from $695 million in the first quarter.

Advertising revenue was $28.2 billion, down slightly from $28.6 billion a year ago.

Meta said monthly active Facebook users were 2.93 billion, up 1%, while daily active users rose 3% to 1.97 billion.

On the metaverse, Zuckerberg said he continues to see a “massive opportunity,” which he thinks can unlock “hundreds of billions or even trillions” in value over time.