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https://www.barrons.com/articles/6-beaten-down-food-stocks-buy-c93ad194
Food stocks are worth a nibble after their worst showing relative to the
S&P 500
in …
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A storied part of the White House complex — the Situation Room — has emerged from a $50 million makeover, with President Joe Biden taking part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this week to mark the occasion.
The White House Situation Room is actually a highly secure complex of rooms on the West Wing’s ground floor, including a reception area, a main conference room known as the “JFK room,” a smaller conference room, breakout rooms and a 24-7 operations center called the “watch floor.”
The operations room is shown in the photo above, while the main conference room is shown in the photo below.
White House handout
Biden shared a video on Friday that shows the ribbon-cutting ceremony and his tour of the revamped facility, writing in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it’s “incredible.”
The renovation involved digging five feet underground to make more room and install cutting-edge technology allowing White House officials to bring together intelligence from different agencies with the push of a few buttons. The goal is to never need a complete renovation again, as now panels can be removed and updated and new technology swapped in.
The Situation Room’s yearlong renovation came up in July when cocaine was found in a heavily traveled part of West Wing. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, criticized what he described as “questionable reporting” on the room’s connection to the incident.
“The Situation Room is not in use and has not been in use for months because it is currently under construction. We are using an alternate Situation Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,” Sullivan told reporters in July. “There was no issue with the Situation Room relative to this. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Starbucks’ annual launch of its fall-themed Pumpkin Spice Latte sparked a spike in visits to the coffee giant, according to foot-traffic data from analytics company Placer.ai.
The Pumpkin Spice Latte, or PSL, made its return with the launch of Starbucks’
SBUX,
fall menu on Aug. 24, marking the 20th year that the company has offered the beverage. “Starbucks excels in driving traffic to its venues during otherwise unremarkable times through recurring seasonal menus and special promotions,” wrote Placer.ai’s Head of Content Shira Petrack, in a blog post, citing the company’s “WinsDays” promotion that offered Starbucks Rewards members 50% off cold drinks ordered through the company’s app on certain Wednesdays in July and August.
“The promotion drove traffic to the chain during the typical midweek lull and may have gotten visitors excited about the main event later in the month — the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte,” Petrack added. “So when the fall-themed drink hit Starbucks stores on Thursday August 24th, visits spiked once more.”
Related: Starbucks’ new CEO Laxman Narasimhan takes over. ‘The world needs Starbucks,’ Howard Schultz says.
Petrack explained that visits to Starbucks on the Pumpkin Spice Latte launch day had been on a steady upward trend in the years leading up to the pandemic before, understandably, falling significantly in 2020. “And while the foot traffic trends improved in 2021 and 2022, Starbucks visits on the day of the PSL’s return still remained below 2018-2019 levels,” she wrote. However, this year’s fall menu rollout drove a 25.1% increase in visits on launch day, compared to 2017’s PSL drop day, marking the largest spike in recent years.
Placer.ai also noted that on the Saturday after this year’s Pumpkin Spice Latte launch, Starbucks visits surged by 41.1%, compared with the 29.5% increase on the Saturday following the 2022 PSL launch.
“During a period when budgets are still tight and consumer confidence is shaky, the option to splurge on an affordable treat and indulge in the comfort and nostalgia of the fall flavors may seem particularly attractive,” Petrack wrote.
Related: Starbucks sees a big rebound in China, but results fail to impress investors
Starbucks also launched two new seasonal beverages on Aug. 24: the Iced Apple Crisp Oatmilk Shaken Espresso and Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte. It also introduced a new Baked Apple Croissant.
The company’s stock has risen 7.7% this year, compared with the S&P 500 index’s
SPX
gain of 9.9%.
Of course, Starbucks is not the only company tapping into the pumpkin-spice craze. Dunkin’ Donuts brought back its Pumpkin Spice Signature Latte on Aug. 16, a full week before Starbucks dropped its PSL.
Further evidence of pumpkin spice mania came last month when Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Busch Beer released Pumpkin Spice Dog Brew. The non-alcoholic dog treat is made with vegetables, spices and water.
According to market researcher NielsenIQ, sales of pumpkin-flavored retail products were $803 million for the 52-week period ending in late July 2023, an increase of almost 15% on the prior 52-week period. However, unit sales, or the actual number of pumpkin-flavored products purchased, declined 1.5% for the 52-week period ending in late July.
Charles Passy contributed
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Usually, the announcement of a CEO change at a struggling company brings optimism and maybe even a stock pop. Not for
Walgreens Boots Alliance
Its shares have tumbled since Rosalind Brewer announced on Sept. 1 that she was stepping down. That could present a buying opportunity if the company makes the “right” choice…
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“Super apps” have never truly existed in the United States, and it is apparent at this point that they never will.
That isn’t stopping some executives and investment analysts from still dreaming of becoming one-stop shops for their users’ needs, something only a small handful of apps in Asia have managed to do. The most prominent is Elon Musk, the Tesla Inc. TSLAchief executive who purchased Twitter last year and has proclaimed that he will turn it into an “everything app” called X that resembles super apps in China.
“I…
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Apple Inc. shares sold off for the second session in a row Thursday amid swirling concerns about the company’s China business, but some analysts say those fears may be overblown.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that China was banning government officials from using iPhones for work purposes, while Bloomberg News reported that the ban could ultimately extend to government-backed agencies and state companies. The question for investors is whether the issue will be limited to state-affiliated employees in…
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/amc-stock-price-all-time-low-e7512c35
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New York Fed President John Williams on Thursday sounded content with the current level of interest rates, but said he will be watching data closely to make sure the level of rates is high enough to keep inflation moving down.
“We’ve done a lot,” Williams said during a discussion at a conference sponsored by Bloomberg News.
“Right now, we’ve…
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Electric-vehicle startup VinFast Auto Ltd. has seen its market capitalization fall more than $140 billion in less than two weeks, weighed down by a six-day losing streak for the company’s stock.
Shares of VinFast
VFS,
soared last month after the company went public through a special-purpose acquisition company deal, taking its market cap to an eye-watering $231.3 billion on Aug. 25 — easily surpassing established automakers such as Ford Motor Co.
F,
and General Motors Co.
GM,
VinFast is on pace to extend its losing streak to seven days. Shares of the low-float company fell 26.3% Thursday, taking VinFast’s market cap to $85 billion, according to FactSet data. Ford’s market cap is $47.7 billion and GM’s is $44.5 billion, FactSet data show.
Related: This EV company has a bigger market cap than Ford or GM. But you may not have heard of it.
The EV maker is a majority-owned affiliate of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, one of the largest publicly traded companies in Vietnam. VinFast said that as of June 30, 2023, the company has delivered close to 19,000 EVs.
About 99% of VinFast shares are controlled by Vingroup chair and VinFast founder Pham Nhat Vuon, making only a small portion available to investors.
Related: EV startup VinFast may be worth more than Ford or GM, but there’s a catch
VinFast is importing its vehicles into the U.S. and is also ramping up its North American presence. In July, the company broke ground on an electric-vehicle manufacturing site within the Triangle Innovation Point in Chatham County, N.C. The startup says the plant will eventually have the capacity to make 150,000 vehicles a year.
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Another big corporate borrowing blitz to kick off September has gotten under way, but this one isn’t looking like the rest.
Instead, the flurry of new bond issues shows how the Federal Reserve’s higher interest rate environment has begun to seep in a year later, by making major companies far more hesitant to tap credit for longer stretches.
“The…
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Nvidia Corp.’s revenue doubled while its cost of goods barely crept up, so there must be something fishy, right? A company is using their Nvidia graphics processing chips as collateral for billions in loans — that doesn’t sound right, does it?
As Nvidia NVDA shares fell 3.1% to close at $470.61 on Wednesday, Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon must have been hearing from clients all day who were worried after reading the most recent conspiracy theory on why Nvidia’s 222% year-to-date stock gain must somehow be fixed.
“Recently…
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This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-3fac9192
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Shares of GameStop Corp. rose in extended trading Wednesday after the videogame retailer and original meme stock reported second-quarter results that beat expectations, lifted by international sales gains and what the company described as “a significant software release.”
The company — which over the past few months has made some big leadership changes — reported a net loss of $2.8 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with $108.7 million, or 36 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue crept higher to $1.16 billion,…
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The Federal Reserve’s inflation fight has been particularly brutal for anyone not already a U.S. homeowner before interest rates and mortgage rates rose to 15-year highs.
With mortgage rates around 7.2% to kick off the post–Labor Day period, the difference between the rates on a new 30-year home loan and on all outstanding U.S. mortgage debt (see chart) has not been so wide since the 1980s.
Glenmede, FactSet
“Generally, climbing interest rates curb demand and cause housing prices to fall,” Glenmede’s investment strategy team wrote, in a Tuesday client note, but not this time.
Instead, U.S. homes remain in critically low supply after more than a decade of underbuilding, and with most homeowners who already refinanced at low pre-pandemic rates being “reluctant to leave their homes,” wrote Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research, and his Glenmede team.
Also, while homes prices have come off their prepandemic highs, they still were fetching $416,000 in the second quarter, based on median sales prices, above $358,700 in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to U.S. Census and HUD data.
“Until the supply gap is filled by new construction, home prices and building activity are unlikely to decline as meaningfully as they normally would given the headwind from rising rates,” the Glenmede team said.
Read: Housing affordability is now at its worst level since 1984, Black Knight says
The Glenmede team, however, does expect more pressure on consumers in the coming months, particularly as student-loan payments resume in October and if the Fed keeps interest rates high for a while, as increasingly expected. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y,
which underpins the U.S. economy, was back on the climb at 4.26% Tuesday.
Meanwhile, shares of home-vacation rental platform Airbnb Inc.
ABNB,
rose 7.2% on Tuesday, after the Labor Day weekend, and 66.4% higher on the year so far, according to FactSet.
Don’t miss: New York City cracks down on Airbnb and other short-term-rental listings
Shares of Invitation Homes Inc.
INVH,
which grew out of the last decade’s home-loan foreclosure crisis to become a single-family-rental giant, were up 14.3% on the year, according to FactSet.
Dallas Tanner, CEO of Invitation Homes, said he expected “the rising costs and the burden of homeownership” to continue to benefit his company, in a July earnings call. The company recently bought a portfolio of about 1,900 homes and has been snapping up newly constructed homes. Companies can borrow on Wall Street at much lower rates than individuals.
Stocks closed lower Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
off 0.5%, and the S&P 500 index
SPX
0.4% lower and the Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP
down 0.1%, according to FactSet.
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The U.S.-listed shares of Manchester United PLC suffered a record beating Tuesday, after a report that the iconic English football club was set to be taken off the market.
Manchester United MANU UK:MNL fell 18.2% on the day to log its biggest one-day selloff since the company went public in August 2012. The previous record drop was 13.8% on March 12, 2020, at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
The…
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Arm Holdings is set for a blockbuster initial public offering which will test market appetite for an important technology company. However, its targeted valuation suggests it is accepting it won’t be the next
Nvidia
…
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Shares of Chinese property developers rose sharply Monday, as more major Chinese cities said over the weekend that they would ease mortgage policies in a bid to shore up the real-estate sector.
The Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index rose 8.2%. Hong Kong-listed Longfor Group Holdings
960,
climbed 10% and Seazen Group
1030,
jumped 17%. Shanghai-Listed Gemdale
600383,
added 4.1% and China Vanke
000002,
gained 1.4%.
Major Chinese cities across the country, including Beijing and Shanghai, lowered mortgage requirements for some home buyers late last week, lowering the bar for home purchases.
“This nationwide policy measure marks a significant step in stimulating the property sector, as top policymakers become increasingly worried about the collapse of the property sector, the downward spiral, and a rising number of credit risk events among major developers and financial institutions since mid-August,” Nomura analysts said in a note.
Separately, news reports over the weekend saying that property giant Country Garden Holdings
2007,
received creditor approval to extend a bond also lifted the mood and supported the company’s shares. Country Garden shares were last up 9.0% at 0.97 Hong Kong dollars (12 U.S. cents).
Year to date, Country Garden’s stock has slumped 64% after the company posted its worst loss since going public 16 years ago and missed $22.5 million in interest payments on its dollar bonds in August.
Despite Chinese authorities’ supportive policies and Country Garden’s bond extension, some analysts warned that the extension could just be a near-term reprieve.
“With the lack of an eventual resolution [for Country Garden],” headwinds linger for the Chinese property sector, IG Asia analysts said in a note.
“Persistent earnings weakness will no doubt drive the sector’s leverage higher,” said S&P Global Ratings credit ratings analyst Oscar Chung.
S&P believes industry leaders and real-estate companies with a diverse business mix such as rental and service incomes can better withstand declining development margins.
Write to Bingyan Wang at bingyan.wang@wsj.com
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After nearly two years of concerns about a recession, growing optimism about the economy is starting to filter down into Wall Street’s expectations for individual companies’ quarterly results, with analysts growing more upbeat about corporate profit in the months ahead
While expectations for those quarterly results usually trend lower as earnings season arrives, analysts over the past two months have actually nudged their profit forecasts higher for the first time in two years, according to a FactSet report released Friday….
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Looking to spend your entertainment dollars wisely in September? Watch Hulu and read a book or two.
That pretty much sums up a hugely underwhelming lineup from streaming services, which burned through their best shows in the spring and have little to offer for the start of the traditional fall TV season. That’s not to say there aren’t a handful of promising shows — there are — but is one decent new show per service worth the price of multiple monthly subscriptions? Almost certainly not.
It’s…
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