Stock Movers

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- CarMax (KMX) shares rise after comparable sales and earnings per share for the first quarter that beat consensus estimates.
- Darden (DRI) share rise after the company reported comparable sales growth for the fourth quarter that topped the average analyst estimate.
- Circle (CRCL) shares rise after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for crypto currencies pegged to the dollar.

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On this episode of Stock Movers:
- CarMax (KMX) shares rise 10% ahead of the bell after the used-car seller reported comparable sales and earnings per share for the first quarter that beat consensus estimates.
- Shares of Darden (DRI,) the parent company of casual dining chains Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, are up 3.3% in premarket trading after the company reported comparable sales growth for the fourth quarter that topped the average analyst estimate. The company’s board also authorized a new share repurchase program worth up to $1 billion of common stock.
- Accenture (ANC) shares are down 4% in premarket trading, after the IT services company reported its third-quarter results and gave an outlook. Analysts highlighted bookings as a weak spot of the print.
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) shares are set to extend gains, rising 14% in premarket trading. The stablecoin issuer rallied almost 34% on Wednesday after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for crypto currencies pegged to the dollar.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Stock Movers:

- CarMax (KMX) reported earnings per share for the first quarter that beat the average analyst estimate.

- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) shares are set to extend gains, rising 14% in premarket trading. The stablecoin issuer rallied almost 34% on Wednesday after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for crypto currencies pegged to the dollar.

- Home Depot (HD) has made an offer for GMS Inc., potentially setting off a bidding war with QXO Inc. which this week made a $5 billion offer for the building-products distributor, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The offer from Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, is for an undetermined sum, the Journal said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

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Meta Platforms Inc. has finalized a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI and recruited the startup’s chief executive officer to join its artificial intelligence efforts — an unusual deal that signals a heightened push by the social media giant to catch up on AI development.   

Meta said Thursday that it has backed Scale, without including details. The size of the investment was $14.3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal values the startup at more than $29 billion, including the money raised, Scale said in a blog post Thursday.   

As part of the investment, Scale CEO and co-founder Alexandr Wang is set to take on a new role at Meta on its AI team. Wang will join the company’s “superintelligence” unit, focused on building AI that performs as well as humans, a hypothetical advance often referred to as artificial general intelligence. Wang will stay on at Scale as a board member.   


Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec discuss the move with Bloomberg Opinion Columnist Dave Lee, who wrote the following column on the matter:   

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- It sounded like something that should have come from the sports desk — a $14.3 billion transfer fee for a young up-and-coming prospect as Meta Platforms Inc. looks to rebuild its team for the tough season ahead. The head coach is an under-pressure Mark Zuckerberg, and the hot talent is Alexandr Wang, 28. His company is Scale AI, and Meta is taking a 49% stake, it was confirmed last week. 

Were this an acquisition, it would be the second largest in Meta’s history after its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. But it’s not an acquisition, so don’t call it that, even though it bears many of the hallmarks of one. 

Wang is going to join Meta as a top executive tasked with running a crack team to build an AI superintelligence, sitting next to Zuckerberg at Meta’s headquarters. Other Scale AI employees will join, too, according to multiple reports. So — definitely not an acquisition, just an investment that also includes putting the the company’s top talent on Meta’s payroll. Meanwhile, Meta has been trying to poach AI talent from Google and OpenAI with the promise of “seven- to nine-figure” salaries, the New York Times reported. 

In its defense, Meta is hardly a pioneer here. As Bloomberg Tech’s Jackie Davalos mentioned in her analysis, this kind of squad building is becoming a regular occurrence. Microsoft Corp. signed Inflection AI’s co-founders; Alphabet Inc. hired Character.AI’s founders; Amazon.com Inc. took on Adept AI’s chief executive officer. On none of these occasions did they acquire the actual companies.

Two forces are driving this approach. The first, glaringly, is that the big companies are particularly keen to avoid being seen to be making acquisitions right now when judges are deep in consideration over whether earlier actions, such as Meta’s purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp, should be deemed illegal. For Meta, structuring the Scale AI deal as an investment means avoiding a long, turbulent timeline that would come with a buyout effort.

But the second factor is what I find more interesting. Ever since the launch of ChatGPT, there’s been no shortage of soul-searching among big tech firms as to why they didn’t get there first. How could it be that the pioneering work was done outside of their campuses by individuals and companies with relative pennies compared with their R&D budgets? The reason, as evidenced by these hirings and investments, is the very nature of bigness. Now that the big tech companies are mature businesses, never has their inability to move quickly and take risks been more apparent.

Does an Alexandr Wang find success at a place like Meta had he been hired as a young engineer? A company with 77,000 employees and a fierce focus on keeping Wall Street happy? One that’s run by a CEO he would likely have never been able to meet, let alone be able to influence?

Startups have always had an upper hand in this way, for sure, but the low barrier to entry for those with bright AI ideas means it has never been easier to attract attention. But then what? Founders are finding themselves staring at unfathomably large data center costs to scale their businesses. When a hyperscaler like Meta comes knocking, it can look like the only sensible way forward.

So the startup ecosystem may now behave like the minor leagues. Feeder clubs that are a breeding ground for talent wait in the wings of the bigger teams with the deepest pockets. The talent leaves, but the club remains. In what form isn’t quite clear, though at least investors get their money back. 

The approach may seem expensive, but it is certainly fast. Why would tech giants, seeking tighter headcounts these days, try to incubate these talents when they could just sit back and wait for special geniuses to make themselves known? Of course, there’s a risk of losing talent to a competitor — hence the jacking up of compensation to levels that only the biggest companies could afford, consolidating AI expertise in just a few of the usual places. (At the same time, some smaller companies may not want to be a feeder club and might feel unfairly treated as homegrown talent disappears after receiving an email from Zuckerberg offering $10 million to sign on — which is maybe just the beginning.)

We’ll see just how long this approach remains possible. As Axios’ Dan Primack has pointed out, antitrust authorities do have the power to go after these kinds of deals if they want. The Federal Trade Commission last year announced it was looking into them — just because they are not acquisitions doesn’t mean they can’t and won’t be scrutinized. But for Meta and its peers, that’s tomorrow’s concern. Today means assembling a squad as quickly as possible.

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On this episode of Stock Movers:
-Whitbread reported comparable sales for the first quarter of -1%.

- Hays slumps as much as 20%, the most in nine years, sending the staffing firm’s shares to their lowest since October 2008. The company released an unscheduled update, saying that current tough market conditions would persist into FY26, with permanent recruitment activity levels especially weak.

- European luxury stocks drop, led by Richemont and Swatch, after a report showed Swiss watch exports fell 9.5% in May, driven by US downturn following a strong month of April.

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On this episode of Stock Movers:

- Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) shares rose as much as 9.8% on Wednesday after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for crypto currencies pegged to the dollar. The stablecoin vote is the industry’s most tangible return yet on the hundreds of millions of dollars it poured into electing a crypto-friendly Congress. As of the last close, the stock has risen more than 380% from its IPO price of $31. Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) both fell as much as 5% amid continued worries about the impact of stablecoins on the credit-card issuers.

- Marvell Technology (MRVL) also rallied today. Analysts are now positive on the chip maker after first quarter earnings that came in line with expectations. Following an event focused on AI, Marvell raised its overall data center total addressable market to $94 billion by 2028, up from $75 billion.

- Netflix (NFLX) is up 38% year-to-date today after an announcement that the streamer will add live television channels and shows from French broadcaster TF1, expanding Netflix's live offerings for customers in the country. French customers will be be able to watch live feeds, including sports, from TF1’s channels, and stream the broadcaster’s shows on demand from next summer, Netflix said in a statement on Wednesday. Netflix will dedicate a portion of the app to TF1 content as part of the distribution agreement.
Netflix is expanding the content it offers customers and has invested in live events such as National Football League games and wrestling matches. The French partnership goes a step further, offering traditional live broadcast content such as dramas and reality television.

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On this episode of Stock Movers:

Listen for comprehensive cross-platform coverage of the US market close as heard on Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, and YouTube with Romaine Bostick, Scarlet Fu, Alix Steel, Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.

- Coinbase (COIN) inked a deal to have the world’s second-biggest stablecoin, USDC, used as collateral in US futures trading. The cryptocurrency exchange is also expanding its payment offerings, including integrating USDC on ecommerce merchant sites. Coinbase Derivatives is partnering with clearing house Nodal Clear to work with regulators on what it expects to be the first regulated use of USDC as collateral, according to an announcement on Coinbase’s website Wednesday. Circle Internet Group Inc., of which Coinbase owns a minority stake, is the issuer behind USDC. The stablecoin — essentially a digital asset designed to hold a steady value — has a $61.5 billion market capitalization, per tracker CoinMarketCap.com. Shares rallied on the news.

- Uber (UBER) shares fell as shares of Lyft after Alphabet's Waymo applied for a permit to test its robotaxis in New York City, underscoring its intent to operate in one of the largest ride-hailing markets in the US despite an absence of local regulations supporting commercially operated autonomous vehicles.The company has applied for a permit with the city’s Department of Transportation to operate its vehicles autonomously in Manhattan with a trained human specialist supervising behind the wheel, spokesperson Ethan Teicher said in a statement Wednesday.

- Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) shares both fell amid fears of increased competition from stablecoins and what it could mean for the credit card industry. after White House crypto czar David Sacks told Bloomberg Television that stablecoin legislation would cause the asset class to grow and create demand for the US dollar

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Norwegian Cruise (NCLH) falls as Argus cuts on demand vulnerability
-Netflix (NFLX) shares rise since they announced that they will add live television channels and shows from French broadcaster TF1, expanding the streaming platform’s live offer for customers in the country.
- Circle (CRCL) shares rise after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Marvell Technology (MRVL) shares surge with analysts positive on the chipmaker following an event focused on AI. At the event, Marvell raised its overall data center total addressable market to $94 billion by 2028, up from $75 billion.
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) shares rise after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar.
- Constellation Brands (STZ) shares are little changed after Citi analyst Filippo Falorni cut the target on Constellation Brands Inc. Class A to $170 from $190.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Circle Internet Group (CRCL) shares gained this morning after the US Senate passed stablecoin legislation setting up regulatory rules for cryptocurrencies pegged to the dollar. The stablecoin vote is the industry’s most tangible return yet on the hundreds of millions of dollars it poured into electing a crypto-friendly Congress. Circle is a stablecoin issuer.
- Airbus (EADSY) is on the move this morning as it is targeting higher dividend payments to shareholders, raising its dividend ratio range from 30-40% to 30-50%. The company reiterated its 2025 guidance, expecting to generate over €1 billion in earnings before interest and taxes in each of its divisions by 2028. Arbus aims to deliver 820 aircraft this year, an increase from 2024 but below its pre-Covid peak of 863 planes in 2019.
- Peloton (PTON) shares are rebounding after yesterday's tumble. Fitness stocks fell yesterday after a Senate bill omitted the House’s proposed provisions allowing for the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for certain fitness allowances. Yesterday, Peloton shares slump 11%, Planet Fitness drops 2.2%, and Xponential is down 5.4%. The House’s version of the bill “allows for gym memberships and other physical fitness activities to be paid for with HSAs, up to a limit of $500 per year for individuals and $1,000 per year for families,” KeyBanc analyst Scott Schoenhaus writes in a note.
- Amazon (AMZN) is moving slightly on news that CEO Andy Jassy expects the company's workforce to decline in the next few years as it uses artificial intelligence to handle more tasks. Jassy says the company will need fewer people doing some jobs and more people doing other types of jobs, with AI expected to bring efficiency gains and reduce the total corporate workforce.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.