CMG

McDonald’s sales drop for first time in four years–this is what a McDonald’s economy looks like

McDonald’s sales drop for first time in four years–this is what a McDonald’s economy looks like

I’ve started to call this The McDonald’s Economy–where the long-term effects of high inflation on prices damps consumer purchasing, but where the recent drop in inflation has limited companies’ “cover” for price increases. The result is that companies are seeing lower sales volumes at the same time as consumers push back ore strongly against price increases. McDonald’s isn’t the only company caught in this vise. Customer traffic at U.S. fast-food restaurants fell 2% in the first half of the year compared to the same period a year ago, according to Circana, a market research company. Circana expects high inflation and rising consumer debt will also dent traffic in the second half of 2024.

Chipotle misses on sales and earnings–that’s not good news for the consumer economy

Chipotle misses on sales and earnings–that’s not good news for the consumer economy

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) missed comparable sales and profit expectations for the fourth quarter. Comparable store sales rose 5.6% in the period. Wall Street had expected a 7.1% increase. Earnings rose 48.6% to $8.29 a share. But analysts had expected earnings of $8.90 a share. Revenue climbed to $2.18 billion in the quarter. That was below analyst estimates of $2.23 billion. Shares fell 5.2% in after-hours trading on the news. A couple of red flags for the entire consumer sector

Chipotle misses on sales and earnings–that’s not good news for the consumer economy

I’m selling Chipotle Mexican Grill out of my Jubak Picks Portfolio

In yesterday’s YouTube video I explained that a recession works by peeling the sock market onion. With each step down in the economy, more stocks report negative surprises or issue negative guidance. Investors and traders sell those stocks–Snap (SNAP) for example fell 39% in the day–and buy the shares of companies that have, for the moment, shown the ability to dodge the economic bullet. (So Alphabet (GOOG) climbs 6.47% when it reports that advertising revenue hasn’t dipped as much as the Snap results threatened. But I pointed out, each time the recession peels away a layer of the stock market onion, it leaves fewer and fewer stocks on the “safe buy” side. And if the recession gets deep enough, many of these safe buys will wind up showing the same problems as earlier hit their sector peers. So tomorrow, Friday, July 29, I’ll be selling shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) out of my Jubak Picks Portfolio.

This week is last stand for growth stock earnings hopes

This week is last stand for growth stock earnings hopes

Going into this earnings season, the hope was that strong, surprisingly strong perhaps, earnings from the big growth stocks would put a stop to the selling. Earnings would be strong enough to convince investors that the market wasn’t over-valued since at these growth rates stocks would be seen to be quick growing into current extended valuations That hasn’t exactly worked so far. But this week the earnings story from growth stocks hits its stride. If the companies reporting this week can’t make the case for growth stock earnings, there probably isn’t a growth stock story to be made in the light of Federal Reserve interest rate increases, supply chain disruptions, and fears of a recession.