00:00We have encouraging signs for Macy's. Of course, they've been mired in that years-long sales slump.
00:05They reported fourth consecutive quarter of comp sales gains. They said an overhaul of the
00:12merchandise and better customer service, among other things, resonating with customers.
00:16They raised the outlook, comp sales rising 3% during the first quarter, higher than the 1.8%
00:22gain we saw during the final quarter of last year, the strongest first quarter for such sales in four
00:29years. The Bloomingdale sales stores delivered a 10.2% increase. That was actually the highest
00:35first quarter sales volume on record. And then they had the cosmetics chain Blue Mercury had a 6.4%
00:44comparable sales gain. The company's beefed up customer service. They've also been trying to
00:48differentiate the luxury business from their rivals. Appealing to high-income shoppers could
00:55actually benefit Macy's in light of the bankruptcy of Saks Global Enterprise, which of course is
01:02shutting their stores. So, you know, Saks go to Macy's stores. So we'll see. If you've been to a GameStop
01:09lately, and I seriously doubt either one of you has ever been to a GameStop, you'll see them
01:15piled high, not with, you know, the gaming stuff, but collectibles, like Pokemon collectibles, the big
01:25plushy things. I bought a ton of Pokemons back in the day. The ones, GameStop, well, yeah, GameStop shares
01:31climbing as much as 13%. This was after hours trading. They reported a record quarterly profit driven by the
01:38collectibles business. These are actually real numbers. Sales overall climbing 14%, 835.3 million,
01:45a net income of 389.6 million, the highest ever for a quarter in the company's history. They've been
01:54looking to sell more items like the Pokemon cards and action figures. Their consumers increasingly buy
02:00video games outside of the physical stores. So it's like a modern blockbuster. Who knows?
02:06I'm not sure about that comparison. Of course, the board of directors approving a $2 billion share
02:12buyback. They did attempt to purchase eBay. eBay, of course, rejected that offer, but they're still
02:19trying to get eBay. The CEO there, Ryan Cohen, says he would pay, he would be half cash, half stock,
02:26urging eBay shareholders to still consider this proposal. So far, there's been met with crickets.
02:33Let's finish up with Palo Alto Networks. Supposedly, AI is going to expand the addressable market for
02:42cybersecurity software companies. Maybe we're seeing that. Investors did want more from Palo
02:48Alto Networks, even though they beat forecasts. So the shares fell pre-market. The stock has nearly
02:54doubled in value since April. Palo Alto Networks releasing a forecast for adjusted earnings stronger
03:00than anticipated. So we're seeing ongoing demand for security services. They see adjusted earnings
03:06of $0.96 to $0.98 this year for the next quarter, above the average analyst estimate. And of course,
03:13the ever-present Mandeep Singh of Bloomberg Intelligence says, the more data that we're
03:19dealing with, the more these cybersecurity companies tend to do better. There are certain segments within
03:25cybersecurity that will definitely get a bigger lift from AI than others.
03:30I have to be on my own. I don't remember. I mean to make a big difference.
03:30I can see if you're big, not a big difference. You're a big difference.
03:30So using that, you know, 80-shirt line, that's a good noite.
03:30I've got a big difference.
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