CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Friday told investors what to pay attention to next week on Wall Street, highlighting the nonfarm payroll report and earnings from GitlLab and CrowdStrike.
“To those of you who want the Fed to cut so badly that you’re staying on the sidelines until they do,” he said, “you’d better hope we get some weakness in the employment numbers next Friday.”
GitLab will report on Monday. Cramer said he’s waiting to see how the company will perform because some in the enterprise software sector see issues with sales. He noted that GitLab’s last quarter was disappointing. It seemed to him as a one-off situation at the time, but maybe the report was a precursor of trouble to come in the industry, he said.
Tuesday brings quarterly results from CrowdStrike, and Cramer said the cybersecurity company has been doing better than many of its peers.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ferguson and PVH also report Tuesday. Cramer will be waiting to see how HPE stacks up against competitors like Dell. According to Cramer, Ferguson is a great way to invest in infrastructure. He’ll also be watching PVH, known from brands like Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, but said he prefers Ralph Lauren in the apparel space.
Dollar Tree, Campbell Soup, Jack Daniels maker Brown-Forman and Lululemon will report on Wednesday. Cramer said he wonders if Brown-Forman will be able to explain what’s hurting liquor sales, as well as whether a difficult and crowded market for athleisure is already “baked into” Lululemon’s stock.
On Thursday, JM Smucker and DocuSign are due to report. Cramer said JM Smucker needs to find something to make the company grow faster, and he wondered how DocuSign will figure out how to turn its business around.
Friday brings perhaps the most important event of the week, according to Cramer, the Labor Department’s nonfarm payroll report for the month of May. He stressed the Federal Reserve won’t be inclined to cut rates until the unemployment rate reaches 4%. In April, the jobless rate inched up to 3.9% from 3.8% the previous month.
Here are Tuesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Wells Fargo upgrades Air Products to overweight from equal weight Wells said it sees robust earnings growth. “We are upgrading APD to OW from EW given its mega project backlog is expected to come on stream over the next several years boosting EPS growth.” JPMorgan reiterates Alphabet as overweight JPMorgan said it’s standing by its overweight rating heading into earnings next week. ” GOOGL has been the quietest of the FANG names in our discussions w/investors recently, perhaps a function of less controversy & very limited forward outlook provided at earnings.” Wells Fargo initiates Toll Brothers, Lennar, PulteGroup and D.R. Horton as overweight Wells said in its initiation of several homebuilders that “volatility presents opportunity.” “We initiate coverage of U.S. Homebuilding & Building Products, with DHI, LEN , MAS, PHM & TOL OW; KBH, FERG & OC EW; and MHK UW. Recent volatility presents opportunity.” Stifel initiates Amazon as buy Stifel said no other platform can come close to Amazon. “Initiating coverage with a Buy rating and $173 target price. No other e-commerce platform comes close to matching the scale that Amazon has amassed.” Read more about this call here. Raymond James initiates Lam Research and Applied Materials as outperform Raymond James Lam and Applied Materials that the valuations appear reasonable for both names. “We view geopolitical factors as a net neutral and expect any additional risk from China export controls to be modest. Valuations do not appear stretched, and a case can also be made for multiple expansion given higher trough earnings.” Loop initiates Microsoft as buy Loop said growth is set to accelerate for Microsoft. “We are initiating coverage of Microsoft with a Buy rating and $425 PT. In our view, MSFT growth is set to accelerate driven by the two most strategic businesses, Azure and GenAI products (M365 Copilot).” JPMorgan upgrades ViaSat to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it sees an attractive entry point for the satellite company. ” VSAT shares have sold off ~56% since the 5/31 close of the Inmarsat deal vs SPX +~5%, and we believe the sell-off offers an attractive entry point with the stock now trading at 5.4x our FY25 EBITDA.” JPMorgan upgrades CyberArk to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it sees “accelerating demand” for the cyber company. “We see opportunity for upside in the wake of accelerating demand as CyberArk has some of the most favorable exposure to high priority Security spending within our coverage.” Evercore ISI reiterates Tesla as in line Evercore said Tesla shares will be volatile. “we raise our price target to $180 from $165 on the rollover to ’26. We believe the recent re-rate due to AI/NVDA correlation will be sustained, but TSLA may see increased volatility the next 6 months on 15% EPS risk to ’24/25 resulting in a very wide $140-$265 range.” Evercore ISI upgrades Mobileye to outperform from in line Evercore said it sees a compelling entry point for the auto tech company. ” MBLY currently trades within our $35-45 ‘corridor’ (25-35x ’25 EPS of $1.20- $1.30) but with the rollover to ’26 probability-weighted EPS of $1.85 would be a $45-65 stock.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Dollar Tree buy from neutral Goldman said in its upgrade of the discount retailer that it sees improving earnings growth. “We are upgrading DLTR to Buy from Neutral, as we see strong earnings growth potential supported by continued market share gains from improving traffic trends with sticky new customers, an improving discretionary cash flow outlook for lower and middle income consumers in 2024, and better shopability/in-stocks after recent investments.” Citi upgrades Sunnova to buy from neutral Citi said the solar company’s valuation is compelling. “While we believe NOVA’s 3Q consensus has downside, valuation is too compelling for us to ignore Goldman Sachs initiates TripAdvisor as buy Goldman said it sees upside to estimates for the travel website company. “For TRIP , our view is that the structural growth profile of the business is changing as metasearch gives way to lower funnel businesses that are exposed to secular growth tailwinds and see upside to Street estimates on the back of faster revenue growth at Viator/Experiences & scale/operating efficiencies leading to better profitability.” Bernstein initiates Exxon Mobil as outperform Bernstein said the oil and gas giant is well positioned. “We rate XOM Outperform. We reach our target price of $140/sh by applying a 7.0x multiple to 2025E EBITDA of $73.5B and incorporating additional FCF to shareholders.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said investors should buy the dip in shares of the climate solutions company. “We believe the sell-off in HASI is overdone and incongruous with business fundamentals. Read more about this call here . Bank of America reiterates Apple as neutral Bank of America said its survey checks show iPhone lead times are picking up for Apple. “Our proprietary interactive dashboard shows that iPhone 15 Pro & Pro Max availability picked up from October 9th to October 15th.” JPMorgan initiates Teck Resources as overweight JPMorgan said the metals and mining company is its preferred play. ” Teck is our preferred copper play given its extensive pipeline of copper projects and likely exit from its carbon intensive coal business, which should drive a meaningful rerating.
Family Dollar voluntarily recalled dozens of over-the-counter drugs, products and medical devices sold at its stores because they had been stored at improper temperatures, according to the Food and Drug Administration late Tuesday.
On the FDA’s website, the regulator said products affected by the recall were stored “outside of labeled temperature requirements by Family Dollar and inadvertently shipped to certain stores on or around June 1, 2023 through September 21, 2023.”
The items were sold at stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, between June 1 and Oct. 4, the FDA said.
A Target department store in North Miami Beach, Florida, May 17, 2023.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
More grocery purchases, fewer ambitious do-it-yourself projects and last-minute splurges at the store.
This week, some of the biggest retailers in the country reported earnings and described how their customers are shopping. As Home Depot, Target and Walmart reported their quarterly sales and shared full-year outlooks, the companies offered up the latest clues about the health of the American consumer and previewed what could be ahead for the economy.
Some smaller retailers also offered warning signs for the current quarter and this year.
So far, at least five retailers — Target, Walmart, Tapestry, Bath & Body Works and Foot Locker — have spoken about sales trends across the country getting worse.
As the three-month period went on, shoppers spent less, especially on discretionary merchandise, Target CEO Brian Cornell said on a call with investors. Walmart noticed the same pattern.
Both big-box retailers reported a sharp sales drop after February.
Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey attributed the decline, in part, to the end of pandemic-related SNAP benefits and a decrease in tax refunds.
Cornell said headline-grabbing events could have shaken consumer confidence too. He pointed to the March banking crisis. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed that month, sparking fears of broader economic woes.
Bath & Body Works saw sales fall off in March.Yet, sales recovered in April as the retailer turned to a common playbook: promotions.It got a boost as customers spent money at sales events toward the end of the quarter, CFO Wendy Arlin said on a Thursday earnings call.
Foot Locker also said it may have to motivate shoppers with markdowns for the rest of the year. The company cut its full-year forecast Friday, as it reported earnings that missed expectations. CEO Mary Dillon said in a statement, “sales have since softened meaningfully given the tough macroeconomic backdrop.”
On a call with investors Friday, Dillon said the sneaker seller’s sales got hurt by lower tax refunds and high inflation as customers spent more on food and services. While she said sales rebounded in April, “they did not improve nearly to the extent we expected, and that weakness has continued into May.”
A few other retailers that reported earnings had specific factors working in their favor.
When Tapestry, the parent company of Coach and Kate Spade, reported earnings last week, the company said sales softened as the quarter progressed and into April as consumers became more cautious.
But it has a factor going for it that some other retailers don’t: A growing business in China and other international markets to offset some of those softer sales.
Home Depot bucked the slowing sales trend, but that may have to do more with what it offers than consumer health.
Spring is peak season for home improvement. The retailer’s comparable sales in the U.S. declined 4.6% in the quarter versus the year-ago period. In February, its comparable sales were down 2.8%. March was its weakest month of the quarter, as comparable sales fell nearly 8% year over year in the U.S.
Home Depot’s trends were still negative in April but saw a slight improvement as comparable sales slid 3.7%, according to CFO Richard McPhail. Customers may have been buying more spring items such as potted plants.
Inflation is easing, according to a Labor Department report this month. Yet, that’s cold comfort for shoppers who are still paying a lot more at the grocery store than they were a few years ago.
Stubbornly high prices, especially for food, are a storm cloud that hangs over many families who shop at Walmart, and looms over the retail industry as a whole, the big-box giant’s CEO Doug McMillon said. On a call with investors Thursday, he called the persistent inflation “one of the key factors creating uncertainty for us in the back half of the year.”
“We all need those prices to come down,” he said on the call. “The persistently high rates of inflation in these categories, lasting for such a long period of time, are weighing on some of the families we serve.”
For example, he said general merchandise costs in the U.S. are lower than a year ago, but still higher than two years ago. In dry grocery and consumables categories, Walmart is seeing high single-digit to low double-digit cost inflation on items such as toilet paper or paper towels. For food, inflation has climbed more than 20% on a two-year basis, according to Walmart’s Rainey.
A shopper browses the eggs section at a Walmart store in Santa Clarita, California.
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters
Walmart is feeling the inflation crunch even though it is better positioned to manage higher costs than other retailers. As the nation’s largest retailer and biggest grocer, Walmart can use its scale to manufacture private-label merchandise or negotiatewith vendors over price.
In plenty of other categories, however, inflation is still driving a higher average ticket for customers, Home Depot CEO Ted Decker said on an earnings call Tuesday.
Target, Home Depot and Walmart all saw a noticeable pattern: fewer pricey and fun items in shopping carts.
At Home Depot, customers boughtfewer big-ticket items such as appliances and grills in the fiscal first quarter.
Home projects got more modest, too, Decker said on an investor call. Contractors and other home professionals noticed a change from large-scale remodels to smaller renovations and repairs.
Decker said consumers’ increased focus on value could be contributing to that shift, along with an uptick in spending on traveling, dining out and other services. He added some homeowners already tackled big projects and bought some high-priced home items during the early years of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving less for them to do or to buy now.
The trend extended beyond home improvement.
Customers at Walmart have become more selective when shopping for electronics, TVs, home items and apparel, Rainey told CNBC. The items have become a tougher sell and when customers do buy them, they often wait for a sale, he said.
At Target, sales declined in some discretionary categories as much as low double-digits as customers bought less clothing and home decor, Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington said on an investor call. Groceries and essentials drove a bigger portion of the retailer’s quarterly sales.
One exception? Beauty. Hennington said Target’s beauty category was its strongest in the fiscal first quarter. Sales grew in the mid-teens year over year, showing shoppers are still willing to replenish the cosmetic case and get a new tube of lipstick.
Walmart is eager for warmer weather too. Sam’s Club has noticed slower sales of patio sets, perhaps because of the later-to-hit spring weather, its CEO Kath McLay said on an investor call. Walmart has seen a sharp drop in air conditioner sales at its big-box stores, its CFO Rainey said.
“We’re ready to get some spring or summer weather,” he said on a call with CNBC.
Target noted it’s looking forward to another upcoming season: back-to-school.
The discounter expects to get a sales boost in the back half of the year due to the big shopping season, Hennington said on an investor call. She said the return to classrooms and college dorms triggers sales across almost every department of its store, from lunch ingredients in the grocery aisles to new outfits in the kids’ clothing department.
Retailers may be saying so long to the days of stockpiling and early shopping.
Company leaders said there are signs shoppers are reverting to some of their old ways.
At Walmart-owned Sam’s Club, McLay said shoppers are not just opting for lower price points. They’re also shopping later for seasonal items. For example, she said, customers used to buy patio furniture just as soon as it was set at the stores.
“Now we’re seeing people wait a little bit later into the season,” she said.
It saw a similar pattern with Mother’s Day sales, she said.
McLay said that may indicate people have returned to shopping habits of 2018 and 2019. The trend could be fueled by shoppers’ reluctance to open their wallets or because they’re not as worried about out-of-stock items — or a combination.
At Target, shoppers have also embraced more procrastinator tendencies, especially for discretionary items such as apparel.
“Guests are shifting to shop more just in time in these categories, as they wait until the last moments before key events to invest in new decor or wardrobe refreshes,” Hennington said on an earnings call.
We just had three fantastic quarters from three disparate banks, and I didn’t read a good word about them. Think about this. JPMorgan (JPM) reported such an outstanding quarter that I had to read it twice to believe how it could possibly have been that good to rally this very big-cap stock by almost $10-per-share. Almost $10. This is not some tech stock beating faux estimates and being loved by idolatrous research analysts. This is JPMorgan, like the House of Morgan. I have not liked the stock of Citigroup (C) after it began to diverge immensely from its tangible book value (TVB). I do not understand how it could be double the price of the stock when the TVB means that if you closed the bank that’s what you would get. Hmmm, you buy Citi at $50 per share and you get almost a double if CEO Jane Fraser decides to close it? I don’t think so. Put aside that nagging oddity for a second and you have to be impressed with the quarter. I would go as far as to say that Citi seems to become just plain cheap, especially if it sells Banamex, one of Mexico’s biggest banks, for a good price. Looks like the celebration of the far-flung is, at last, joyously over. I know the stock of Wells Fargo (WFC) didn’t do much after it reported. That was just a wrong reaction. The bank, a core position of my Charitable Trust, really did beat the top and bottom line quarterly numbers handily, bought back $4 billion in stock — and yet, it added so much more capital that it has more than it did before the buyback started. It’s oozing with cash. WFC YTD mountain Wells Fargo YTD peformance More important, Wells Fargo is almost done peeling back the regulatory onion. It has had to spend fortunes in fines and technology and risk management hires that I can’t believe it had such a good efficiency ratio, a number I regard as important as all of those net interest income and margin numbers that everyone is so possessed about. Those were, of course, great, too, but that’s simply a question about how stupid the deposit base is. The dumber the base the less likely it is to leave for greener pastures. Wells Fargo’s base seems pretty dumb, but we might see dumber this week. Now, I offer the story of these banks as a preamble to what I see happening in the stock market right now. Bank stocks are notorious underperformers in the aggregate and have been labeled uninvestable by many including, at times, yours truly. That’s because they have become trading vehicles. They screw up too often. Which is why Friday was so remarkable. Bank trading is like playing Russian Roulette with three bullets. Usually, half are going to blow your head off. Instead, we went three for three. Have bank CEOs suddenly become the most brilliant CEOs in the world? No. But this is one special moment for the U.S. economy. First, you have everyone running scared, which is, by nature, good news because banks make far fewer mistakes when they run scared. And, they are making far fewer mistakes. Second, all three showed that the American consumer is still pretty flush and is not living beyond their means. There’s a little increase in bad debt, but nothing like we used to see before Covid. Maybe the aftermath of the pandemic has introduced still one more new wrinkle on the financial landscape: people want to spend but they don’t want to go broke. Third, this commercial real estate boogie man, while real, may not be real for those who know how to lend. We spill barrels of ink, or billions of characters, on how commercial real estate is the graveyard we whistle past or the most hated cliche of my era, the canary in the coal mine, and we never talk about who owns the bad loans on “Class C” and “D” buildings. I know who doesn’t: these banks. Now, I know the cynic says that the grade is in the eye of the beholder. That’s just not true, though, because what these companies do, quite cleverly, is describe where these buildings are because what seems to matter most is density. If there is a shortage of real estate then a not-so-hot piece of real estate earns a “B”, not a “C” or “D”. Yes, that’s me talking, but if you want to go over every building that has a loan that’s current and decide that it isn’t, well, don’t own any banks, period. Finally, there’s a really interesting backfire going on here with what the Federal Reverse is accomplishing, and it’s not all bad. The pandemic produced savers with miserable savings rates. Now these same savers are getting very big, safe, returns on their capital. Their frugality — except, I think we will find when they are on vacation — is matched by their better returns on their holdings. Sure, Wall Street snobs will laugh at those who have $100,000 and are now picking up a few extra percent. But these are the same jackasses who live six months and a day next to The Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where a dozen stone crabs cost $779 and they don’t mind. So, what they heck to do they know? This brings me back to the most important point of what happened Friday: Our worst fears about spiking bad loans of the auto, credit and home variety didn’t come true and therefore won’t come true this coming week. Amazingly, like the “stays-in-Vegas” cliche — what happened at a bank that loaned against pre-IPO companies while investing at a moronic part of the bond market yield curve, seems to have stayed at Silicon Valley Bank. Or, at least, it has stayed long enough that if there is another bank failure, there’s been plenty of time to come up with a plan. I don’t want to conflate a day of good bank earnings with a month of good stock prices. We are still overbought and are now getting less overbought, which is actually a time when stocks tend to go down. We also know that there are so many people who like to talk about the Fed that there will be a steady drumbeat of negativity. The Fed never inspires positivity — and if you ever say that it does, you are branded an idiot rather quickly. But if are going to name-call, I can tell you that the only thing easier to opine on without doing any homework besides politics is the Federal Reserve. Can there be any other explanation why recently you could go from a prediction of a 50-basis-point interest rate hike, to a 25-basis-point hike, to no hike, to a possible emergency cut, then back to no hike and then all the way back to a 25-basis-point hike, and still be taken seriously? Only if everyone is telling the same idiotic tale. Still, because we live and die by Fed chatter, you can’t rule out some rollercoaster action, not in the plain vanillas that define the week ahead— from the likes of Club holdings Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley (MS) on Wednesday and Procter & Gamble (PG) on Friday — but in the over $500 billion club of techs that always manage to be at the forefront of stock despair. Not economic despair. Just stock despair. Bottom line Maybe that’s why nothing is grabbing us right now, nothing new, nothing exciting. It’s not like we demand lower prices, but believing that things aren’t as terrible as we thought and deciding to put money to work should not be confused. I think it’s fair to say that earnings could ratify prices not necessarily boost them, so why not wait for better prices for more committing of capital? We have made our sales. We have our cash. I am not asking for Dollar Tree pricing (the store, not the stock). But would a bit of a discount from Hermes and Vuitton be too much to ask? (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
People walk past a Wells Fargo branch on January 10, 2023 in New York City.
The pandemic-fueled personal-computer boom has ended, so how will that affect demand and pricing for PCs and the retailers that sell them this holiday season?
A sense of the fallout will be provided in the week ahead with results due from PC makers Dell Technologies Inc. DELL, +0.67%
and HP Inc. HPQ, +0.17%,
along with videoconferencing platform Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, -1.15%
and electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc. BBY, +2.88%
All of those companies will report amid signs of deep holiday discounting for products such as clothing and electronics, after many customers — stuck at home in 2020 and 2021 — loaded up on laptops and other goods and turned Zoom into a digital conference room. But this year, decades-high inflation, and a return to prepandemic spending on travel and hanging out in person, have forced retailers and electronics makers to adjust to a world where more people are spending on essentials.
The companies report during a shortened, quieter week — thanks to Thanksgiving — and after concerns about a recession have hung over much of the year. With 94% of S&P 500 SPX, +0.48%
companies having already reported third-quarter results, only a dozen are set to release earnings in the week ahead.
But among those 94%, there are signs that preoccupations with a downturn might be easing, after the economy grew during the third quarter and reversed after two quarters of declines.
FactSet senior analyst John Butters, in a report on Thursday, said 179 companies have mentioned the term “recession,” during earnings calls in the third quarter. That’s still above the average over 10 years, but it’s below the 242 companies that mentioned a recession in the second quarter.
Elsewhere on Monday, J.M. Smucker Co. SJM, +1.11%
— best known for Folgers and Jif — reports results, following concerns about higher food prices and how much higher they might go. Life-sciences electronics maker Agilent Tecnologies Inc. A, +1.21%
report results on Monday as well. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box Inc. JACK,
reports Tuesday. Tractor and construction-vehicle Deere & Co. DE, +0.31%
reports Wednesday, following production and supply-chain snarls but steady demand.
The calls to put on your calendar
Clothing demand, discount demand: Urban Outfitters Inc. URBN, +2.44%
reports Monday, while Burlington Stores Inc. BURL, +4.63%,
Nordstrom Inc. JWN, +1.71%
and dollar-store chain Dollar Tree Inc. DLTR, -0.21%
report on Tuesday.
The discounting wave across clothing retailers, an effort to clear inventories, might attract more consumers, but it’s worried Wall Street analysts focused on margins and the bottom line. Still, some analysts have said that more younger shoppers feel like their wardrobes are getting stale, and they say Nordstrom, whose customers tend to have more money, is best geared for “an upcoming wardrobe refresh.”
Off-price clothing and home-goods retailer Burlington, meanwhile, will report after rival discounters Ross and TJX received a lift from investors this week.
Ross’ chief executive, Barbara Rentler, noted that rising prices had hurt its lower-income consumers. But Jefferies analysts said that Burlington and other discounters, which often buy up goods that other retailers don’t want, stood to benefit from the inventory purge.
Dollar Tree, meanwhile, reports as more shoppers seek cheaper grocery options, but as food prices rise nonetheless. But Bank of America analysts, in a note last month, said traffic data implied a “slowdown” heading into the results.
The numbers to watch
Demand trends for PCs, electronics: Dell and HP report in the wake of deeper job cuts across the tech industry, while Zoom tries to tack on more features — such as calendar and email functions — to appeal to small business and adapt to a hybrid-work world.
The PC boom’s demise hit home at Dell during its prior quarter, reported in August, after personal-computer sales at the company came in below estimates. Executives, at that time, said PC demand had fallen and that “customers are taking a more cautious view of their needs given the uncertainty.”
Some analysts, however, signaled that some degree of investor pessimism was already baked into the stock prices.
“We recognize the deteriorating industry fundamentals in relation to PCs as well as incremental slowdown in IT Infrastructure. That said, we believe the magnitude of the cuts last quarter set up Dell to be less exposed to another round of material earnings revisions,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note. And even as HP feels similar pain, analysts there said share buybacks could be “a bright spot.”
Results from HP and Dell could also have implications for Best Buy, which sells laptops, TVs, phones and other electronic devices.
“Recall that initial expectations for the year were that BBY would face pressure as it lapped stimulus-fueled spending and broad-based demand for technology products and services,” Wedbush analysts said in a note on Friday.
“However, the macro has been more volatile than expected with consumers facing significant inflationary pressures and lower-income households are making decisions to trade down in some categories such as televisions.”
