00:00About two minutes away from the end of the trading day, Katie Greifeld and Bailey Lipschultz.
00:04He's in for Romain Bosick. And here to help take us through the closing bell,
00:08it's Global Simulcast. We're joined now by Carol Masser and Tim Stenevich,
00:13bringing together all of our various audiences across the different platforms. And Carol,
00:18we're off session highs, but once again, this looks like a market that is really eager to sort
00:23of shake off the last month and go higher, even though we're hearing different things when it
00:28comes to what the U.S. is saying and what Iranian state media is saying.
00:32Yeah, we just saw President Trump apparently telling ABC that the U.S. is talking with the
00:36Speaker of the Iranian Parliament. The back and forth continues, you know, Katie, and we continue
00:40to see markets trade that way. Having said that, we're definitely off our best levels of the session.
00:44And I think at this point, I think we're all kind of eager to see what President Trump has to
00:48say
00:48in that evening address tonight. Yeah, I'm glad you went there, Carol. I know I'm going to be
00:52watching that. We're going to have it here on Bloomberg, of course. Bailey, I'm also watching
00:56oil in the convergence of WTI and Brent. Prices that have over the last few weeks sort of been
01:00far apart from one another now converging. WTI just shy of $100 a barrel. Brent at about $101 a
01:08barrel. Both of those down just by about 2 percent. But Tim, we're still talking about an oil market
01:13that for the most part is driving the markets. And again, $100 barrel oil would have been
01:19inconceivable a month ago. But here we are. We're talking about how potentially breaking below that
01:23is positive. Yeah, it's really interesting to see it not really weighing down the equity market
01:28at this moment. But to Bailey's point, $100 a barrel. I mean, these are pretty high absolute
01:34levels relative to recent history. If we stay there, how high can the equity market remain?
01:40That's a question that we're going to be asking. But the S&P 500, at least on this Wednesday, this
01:45April 1st, going to finish about seven tenths of a percent higher on the S&P 500. We did break
01:52above
01:526600 earlier in the session. We've taken back some of those gains. You take a look at the NASDAQ.
01:58That's going to finish higher by about 1.2 percent. The Dow, it's lagging here, higher by about
02:03half a percent. Do with that what you will. The small caps also getting in on the action. But a
02:09similar trajectory to the S&P 500, Carol, started out, saw big session highs, and then faded a little
02:14bit heading into the close. All right. Back to the S&P 500, I go. Most names, more names,
02:20I should say, in the S&P 500, actually higher for this Wednesday session, about 301 to the upside,
02:26Bailey, 201 losing ground. Then you've got two unchanged. Yeah. And a lot of the weakness when
02:31we look on the sector level, energy and consumer staples, energy down almost 4 percent on the day.
02:37Big outperformers for the session were communication services, industrials, and materials all up more than
02:431 percent, as was Infotech. All right. Let's get to some of the individual gainers, if I may,
02:48in today's session. So let's look at some of the stocks that actually were momentum performers
02:53as of late. And so take a look. You've got Western Digital, a high flyer last year, up another 10
03:00percent.
03:01You also had Seagate Technology. That was up 8 percent in today's session. You have Micron up almost 9 percent.
03:08That was another one that gained almost 240 percent last year. And so just looking through
03:13some of the write-throughs, especially when it comes to something like Western Digital
03:17and a few others, I did see a note by Evercore ISI. Actually, it was, I think, Investors Business
03:24Daily pointing this out. We believe AI-driven data demand remains fundamentally robust,
03:29providing a durable tailwind for the HDD market. Again, this is Evercore ISI writing in a note today.
03:35Crucially, the transition from AI training to inference could create a structural opening for HDDs.
03:41So nonetheless, I don't know. Momentum players getting some love on this Wednesday.
03:46Also getting love, Intel. This, too, was top in the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100, a gain of
03:52just shy of 9 percent.
03:54The chipmaker agreed to pay $14.2 billion to buy back half of a plant in Ireland.
03:59DA Davidson writing that the move bodes well for the company's turnaround story.
04:03Transaction financed with cash on hand and the issuance of about $6.5 billion in new debt.
04:08It is expected to add to the chipmaker's earnings per share and kind of reflects Intel's growing confidence
04:14in its business and its belief that its products can play a bigger role in the boom in spending on
04:19AI infrastructure.
04:20You probably don't do a deal like that unless you have some confidence about your outlook.
04:24And then here's an interesting AI data center play, kind of unexpected.
04:28TH is the ticker. The company's target hospitality up about 36 percent there, soaring as much as 43 percent intraday.
04:38It's a $1.2 billion market cap provider of workforce lodging and hospitality services,
04:43and they secured a multi-year contract worth over $550 million to construct and provide comprehensive facility
04:50and hospitality services for a top five hyperscalers data center development in North Texas.
04:56So I guess they're going to be providing food and lodging.
05:00You've got to feed the data center.
05:01Well, this goes to – we've talked to workplace or housing people, right,
05:05who are doing workplace housing where, like, all this stuff is going on because workers need places to live.
05:10Anyway, there you go. Big, big mover.
05:13You had a lot of gainers to choose from.
05:15I had some decliners that stayed in the red all day today, which is great.
05:18I do want to start with shares of Nike falling today by more than 15 percent.
05:23And late yesterday, the company gave this gloomy outlook for the year ahead.
05:26Revenue expected to decline 2 to 4 percent in the current quarter.
05:30Headwinds include all the stuff that we've talked about for years at this point.
05:34Elevated inventories in Europe and the Middle East, weakness in greater China.
05:38Nike CEO Elliot Hill said the direction is clear and the foundation is getting stronger,
05:42but acknowledged that parts of the turnaround are taking longer than expected.
05:45We've got a great story on the Bloomberg.
05:47Lily Meyer writing it up about getting a recording of a call that Elliot Hill had with staff yesterday
05:52and really trying to rally the troops, given that shares of this company are at lows not seen in more
05:58than a decade at this point.
06:00So trying to get some excitement and trying to get them to win and also expressing his own frustration.
06:04Yeah, that was a great piece of reporting.
06:07I mean, you have to imagine that, you know, if you're constantly in a state of turnaround
06:11and it doesn't seem like it's getting traction, especially when you take a look at the share price,
06:15that has to be a pretty killer for morale of the employees at that company.
06:19Well, I also, Tim, what shoes were you wearing in October 2014, the last time the stock was this low?
06:24I don't even remember.
06:26Gosh.
06:26It's not good.
06:27What was I?
06:28I don't even know.
06:29Like, what were they?
06:31Adidas?
06:32I don't even know.
06:32Bailey, what were the Nikes in 2014?
06:35I'm trying to think.
06:35I was probably in college.
06:37I was in college.
06:38You were in college.
06:38Katie was also in college, so that was probably, I wore sparrows and Vans.
06:42That's enough out of you, too.
06:43All right.
06:44We're going to keep going here.
06:45What else do we got on the decliners menu today?
06:48How about a little more retail?
06:49Let's talk about RH, the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware.
06:52Shares fell today by more than 19%.
06:55They were down as much as 23%.
06:57They closed at their lowest levels going back to April of 2020.
07:00Remember what happened then was we were in the demand shock of the COVID pandemic.
07:05We were in the depths of that.
07:06The company forecast revenue for the first quarter that missed the average analyst estimate.
07:11Analysts out and said that the forecast was pressured by execution, supply chain disruptions
07:15also.
07:15An interesting note from an analyst over at Citi said the company lags peers in the home furnishings
07:21industry, and it also reflects a weaker European consumer demand environment.
07:25It'll be interesting to hear from more companies as we do get into the next quarter, like, I don't
07:31know, the banks in a couple weeks about what the demand environment is looking like in the United
07:34States.
07:35And finally, how about some French fries or potatoes that go to French fries?
07:40This is Lamb Weston Holdings.
07:42They make frozen French fries from potatoes.
07:45Biggest customer?
07:47McDonald's, right?
07:48I had McDonald's for lunch today.
07:49There we go.
07:49I tried that.
07:50Oh, Bailey.
07:51It was Alexa.
07:51Biggest customer is McDonald's.
07:53Shares fell to the lowest level going back to 2017.
07:58The company's full year forecast implied weaker than expected fourth quarter performance.
08:02They don't have your...
08:02Did you get fries with that, Bailey?
08:03I did.
08:04I got a medium fry.
08:04It was like five bucks, though.
08:06But I will say, I tried the Arch.
08:07It's a $10 burger.
08:08Yeah.
08:08Worth every penny.
08:09It was kind of...
08:10Oh, is that the one that the CEO ate?
08:11I was just going to say, you should do an Instagram video about it, Bailey.
08:14Next time.
08:14Maybe.
08:15Next time, I'll do it, Tim.
08:16I'll get you one, too.
08:18Tim, I don't know if you would eat an Arch.
08:20It doesn't seem like you.
08:22I had Chick-fil-A for the third day in a row.
08:24No one asked, but I'll tell you.
08:26Anyway, let's talk about the bond market and what happened there.
08:29It was pretty quiet.
08:30Once again, you're seeing fireworks to the upside when it comes to the equity market.
08:35Can't say the same for the bond market.
08:37It's been kind of nonplussed over the past two days.
08:39But nevertheless, the two-year Treasury yield, which Bailey highlighted earlier, rising by about one basis point here.
08:45But then you take a look at the rest of the curve, and there you go.
08:48The 20-year yield now unchanged as well, in addition to the 30-year yield.
08:52And I think you can go ahead and call the 10-year Treasury yield unchanged as well,
08:56though we are looking at fairly high absolute levels.
09:00Two-quarter pound, four ounce, 100% beef patties.
09:03That's the Arch.
09:04That's a lot of beef.
09:04It's over 1,000 calories, so I kind of felt a little bloated, but I walked around.
09:09They say it's protein heavy.
09:11There's nothing like eating 1,000 calories and then going on air.
09:15Oh, we can't talk about 12 metric tons of stolen Kit-Kat bars.
09:21Speaking of...
09:22Maybe we save it for tomorrow ahead of...
09:24A big meal.
09:25...the holiday weekend.
09:26A lot of Kit-Kat's going to be eaten over Easter weekend.
09:29And then some.
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