Target is probably still missing the mark: Opening Bid top takeaway
There will be no shortage of market-moving events this week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be back in Washington after President Trump met with Vladimir Putin last week. Other European leaders will also be at the White House, namely French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
And this meeting coincides with the start of the Fed's Jackson Hole event.
Fed officials will do some fly-fishing at a stuffy old lodge in Wyoming. The bulls hope they catch a fat signal on a September rate cut as stocks trade around record highs.
The centerpiece of the Jackson Hole meeting will be Jerome Powell's speech on Friday. The Fed chair has used his speech as a clue dropper on rates in the past.
Last year, he signaled a rate cut was likely coming soon. The Fed went on to cut rates at its September and December meetings. But it's still a confusing event for traders to gauge.
"Powell could pave the road for a 25 basis point cut in September, he could push back on those expectations or he could simply not discuss policy much at all. From a market standpoint, any hint of promise of a rate cut will be welcomed, and push back on rate-cut expectations will likely cause a market decline," Sevens Report Research founder Tom Essaye said.
Chipotle (CMG) has only known high growth over the past decade.
High growth in terms of store openings, sales, and earnings. That's in large part because of the company's generous portion sizes and messaging of healthy ingredients.
Its shares are up 264% in the past 10 years, according to Yahoo Finance data, compared to the S&P 500's (^GSPC) 212% advance and McDonald's (MCD) 224% gain.
But now, Chipotle is heading into an interesting five-year period.
The company is adding new restaurant technology to drive efficiency. It's expanding into new countries such as Mexico. And it's picking up the pace of new menu offerings.
All of this comes as new fast-casual restaurant concepts sprout in Chipotle's backyard. Plus, consumers continue to be cautious about dining out as menu prices rise.
"The brands that are winning in this very tough consumer backdrop are the brands that are innovating in a really meaningful way. Innovation at Chipotle has always been very measured, and it will remain a measured process," Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright told me in a new episode of the Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast. "I think we need to move up the speed of innovation."
The stock has dropped 27% in 2025 as the company clocked two quarterly traffic declines in a row.
Full listen below or watch here.
Earnings and outlooks this week from Target (TGT), Walmart (WMT), and Home Depot (HD) will give clues on how consumers are navigating the Trump administration's tariffs.
They will also go a long way in showing whether big retailers are raising prices because of tariffs and how that may play out for the crucial holiday shopping season. The results could vary widely.
Target is slated to report another terrible quarter. Its prices are seen as too high, and the company has had a series of operating missteps.
"We see increasing longer-term sales and margin risks for Target given slowing digital sales growth, a lack of scale in digital advertising and third-party marketplace, elevated tariff, pricing and merchandising headwinds, and increasing competitive threats from Walmart and Amazon (AMZN)," BofA analyst Robert Ohmes warned in a note ahead of the results.
Ohmes slashed his rating on Target's stock to Underperform from Neutral.
Walmart's low-price messaging is stealing market share away from Target.
And Home Depot may have gotten a slight tailwind from mortgage rates falling from their highs. Shares of Home Depot and rival Lowe's (LOW) have also begun to price in a September rate cut. Home Depot is up 11% in the past month, and Lowe's has gained 17%.
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
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