Stock market today: US futures tip lower as investors look for inspiration
05/09/2024 19:10
Stocks have lost their bounce after a growing chorus of Federal Reserve officials made it clear that interest rates will need to stay higher for longer.
Ahead of key CPI Index release next week, one grocer weighs in
Hopefully you have May 15 off from work - the latest CPI Index will be reported pre-market and could trigger all sorts of market volatility.
I am sort of saying this tongue in cheek, sort of.
Nonetheless, the report is likely to show still elevated food prices for American shoppers. In large part those high prices are being found at the country's grocery stores.
So I put this simply question to Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel at the Milken conference this week: "Is there any relief coming in food prices?"
Buechel tells me he is working double time to ease the food shopping pain continuing to hammer households.
"I mean this has obviously been on the minds of customers for a while now. One of the things that we have been doing is working with all of our suppliers to find ways to minimize this impact. There are a number of ways that we have been doing this. One, we have increased the number of promotions for our customers and as a result, we have actually seen double-digit [percentage] unit growth on promotional items," Buechel said.
Continued Buechel, "We have also been putting some price investments in for our 365 items [private label]."
To say inflation at the supermarket has been on the minds of consumers may be an understatement — it may end up deciding the presidential election in November.
The cost of groceries increased 1.2% in March, according to the latest CPI Index data out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It marked the first month of year on year acceleration in US grocery prices since August 2022.
Dating back to the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the cost of food at home has risen a startling 24.6%.
Appreciate the discounts at Amazon (AMZN) owned Whole Foods, Jason.
Full watch of our chat below.
Hard to poke holes in Robinhood's quarter
Robinhood (HOOD) getting a nice pre-market pop after earnings last night.
The bears would say the first quarter is the high water mark for Robinhood on the back of strong crypto trading volumes (crypto sales +232% year over year in the quarter). However, the realists would see a company that has come a long, long way from the meme stock insanity.
The company's new credit card is being released out into the wild, expenses are well under control and the platform is really starting to suck in retirement assets from competitors.
Coming later this year will be index options.
I'm not on board with Bernstein's call this morning that Robinhood could double sales by the end of 2025. But, I could see how the company may prove me wrong.
Tune into Yahoo Finance Live in the 3p ET hour for my chat with Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev.