
Strong start for earnings season creates support for Wall Street's record highs

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New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
As Consumers Lose Their Appetite, Food Brands Fight to Keep Wall St. Happy
For generations, Cool Whip topped pies. Tropical punch Kool-Aid was served at children's birthday parties. And an Oscar Mayer bologna sandwich was a lunchbox staple. But in recent years, the big packaged food brands that dominated American pantries and refrigerators for decades are struggling as consumers spend less on brand-name cookies, spaghetti sauce and cream cheese. The companies are grappling with a number of stressors. Shoppers, feeling pinched by higher food prices over the past two years, are cutting back or trading down to less expensive private labels. Others are eschewing highly processed foods for healthier, more natural items. And the continued rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are reducing cravings for sugary and salty snacks. Among the debates consuming executives in boardrooms of U.S. food companies is which brands consumers are buying and avoiding — and how large and lasting the impact of the weight-loss drugs will be, said Charlie Hadid, Morgan Stanley's head of consumer investment banking in the Americas. As growth in the packaged goods industry stalls, its stocks have lagged. While the broad S&P 500 index has gained 40 percent over the last two years, an index of food and beverage stocks has flatlined. To jump-start growth and satisfy investors, companies are starting to re-engineer some of the big deals of the past, banking on a smaller-is-better, or narrower-is-better, strategy. Source: FactSet By The New York Times Want all of The Times? Subscribe.


Bloomberg
28 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Wall Street Is Challenging the Low-Cost-Investing Revolution
Ordinary investors have won the battle of fees. The challenge will be holding on to that victory as Wall Street mounts a counteroffensive. Investing today is as easy as opening a free brokerage account and buying a low-cost, commission-free index fund that tracks the broad market, then sitting and marveling as it blossoms. Since I started my first professional job in the mid-1990s, an investment in a cheap S&P 500 Index fund would have grown more than 17-fold, beating virtually every professional investor over that time.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
BofA's Hartnett Renews Warnings Around Bubble Risks for Stocks
(Bloomberg) -- The risk of a bubble in stock markets is rising as monetary policy loosens alongside an easing in financial regulation, according to Bank of America Corp. strategists. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom The team led by Michael Hartnett said the world policy rate has fallen to 4.4% from 4.8% in the past year as central banks in the US, UK, Europe and China slashed borrowing costs. The rate is forecast to drop further to 3.9% in the coming 12 months, he said. At the same time, policymakers are considering regulatory changes to boost the share of retail investors in the US. 'Bigger retail, bigger liquidity, bigger volatility, bigger bubble,' Hartnett wrote in a note. The strategist correctly forecast that international stocks would outperform the US this year. He had warned in December that equities were beginning to look frothy after a strong rally in 2024. The S&P 500 Index sank as much as 18% after he issued that call, before rebounding in early April. Hartnett said again in June that stocks could end up in a bubble on the back of expected rate cuts. US stocks have rallied to record highs on optimism around resilient economic growth and corporate earnings even in the face of higher tariffs. Still, the benchmark S&P 500 is trailing international peers this year. Some market forecasters such as Morgan Stanley's Michael Wilson have said there's reason to remain bullish on stocks given positive earnings momentum, robust operating leverage and cash tax savings. However, strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG have warned the market may be getting too complacent about lingering trade risks. Focus next week will be on the Federal Reserve's policy meeting for clues on the path of rate cuts. --With assistance from Michael Msika. Burning Man Is Burning Through Cash Elon Musk's Empire Is Creaking Under the Strain of Elon Musk It's Not Just Tokyo and Kyoto: Tourists Descend on Rural Japan Confessions of a Laptop Farmer: How an American Helped North Korea's Wild Remote Worker Scheme A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data