Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Bath & Body Works — The Ohio-based personal care company climbed more than 16%, on pace for its best day since November 2022. The beauty retailer raised its forecast for full-year adjusted profit and said it expects a smaller drop in annual sales, boosted by solid demand for personal care products and new store offerings. Robinhood — The financial services provider surged 5% after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to overweight, citing upside from President-elect Donald Trump’s looming second term in office. Macy’s — The New York-based retailer lost 3% after delaying the release of its full third-quarter results following a discovery that an employee had intentionally made incorrect accounting entries to hide delivery expenses. The errors took place over several years and amounted to as much as $154 million. Macy’s said the accounting issues do not appear to have had an effect on the company’s cash position. Meanwhile, sales in the third-quarter dropped 2.4% to $4.74 billion. Target — The retail chain rose 4.6% after Oppenheimer named it a top pick, citing an improved risk-to-reward skew for the beaten-down stock. Target’s shares have lost about 12% year to date and the stock’s 3.6% dividend yield is very “attractive,” the firm said. AGCO — The farm equipment maker rallied 5% after Tractor & Farm Equipment Ltd., its largest shareholder with a 16.3% stake and a member of the board, filed to separate the chairman and CEO’s roles . “[T]he combined Chair and CEO position has failed to serve the best interests of shareholders and has led to suboptimal strategic and capital allocation decisions,” the investor said. “Winning a fight like this, even if you own 16% of the stock, is a long shot,” Gordon Haskett Research Advisors said on Monday. Intel — Shares rose more than 3%. CNBC reported that the chipmaker is in talks with the Commerce Department to finalize an $8-billion grant through the CHIPS Act, citing a source familiar with the matter. US Bancorp — The Minneapolis-based regional bank gained 2% after an upgrade to buy from neutral at Citigroup, which said US Bancorp’s spending is “turning the corner.” Abercrombie & Fitch — The retailer gained 4% ahead of its third-quarter earnings release , expected Tuesday morning. Analysts estimate quarterly earnings of $2.39 a share on revenue of $1.19 billion, according to FactSet data. Investors have grown enthusiastic about retailers after Gap raised its full-year guidance last week and said the holiday shopping season is off to a strong start. Arm Holdings — Shares of the British chip designer added 4%. UBS initiated coverage with a buy rating, saying that shares should benefit from AI-driven growth across end markets and data center businesses. Santander — ADRs of the Spanish bank gained 2%. Morgan Stanley upgraded Santander to overweight from equal weight, citing a “resilient regional footprint” and an “improved capital generation outlook.” Super Micro Computer — The volatile AI server stock jumped 11% to build on a 78% gain last week after announcing BDO as its new auditor and providing plans for how it intends to maintain its Nasdaq listing. Scholar Rock Holding — The biotech soared 34% after rival Biohaven said its T-alfa drug failed to reach statistically significant results in treating spinal muscular atrophy. Piper Sandler, Truist Securities and Wedbush all raised their Scholar Rock price targets in response. — CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Michelle Fox, Pia Singh and Scott Schnipper contributed reporting
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, leaves the U.S. Capitol after a meeting with Republican members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the issue of de-banking on Feb. 13, 2025.
Dimon, the veteran CEO and chairman of the biggest U.S. bank by assets, explained his worldview during his bank’s annual investor day meeting in New York. He said he believes the risks of higher inflation and even stagflation aren’t properly represented by stock market values, which have staged a comeback from lows in April.
“We have huge deficits; we have what I consider almost complacent central banks,” Dimon said. “You all think they can manage all this. I don’t think” they can, he said.
“My own view is people feel pretty good because you haven’t seen effective tariffs” yet, Dimon said. “The market came down 10%, [it’s] back up 10%; that’s an extraordinary amount of complacency.”
Dimon’s comments follow Moody’s rating agency downgrading the U.S. credit rating on Friday over concerns about the government’s growing debt burden. Markets have been whipsawed the past few months over worries that President Donald Trump‘s trade policies will raise inflation and slow the world’s largest economy.
Dimon said Monday that he believed Wall Street earnings estimates for S&P 500 companies, which have already declined in the first weeks of Trump’s trade policies, will fall further as companies pull or lower guidance amid the uncertainty.
In six months, those projections will fall to 0% earnings growth after starting the year at around 12%, Dimon said. If that were to happen, stocks prices will likely fall.
“I think earnings estimates will come down, which means PE will come down,” Dimon said, referring to the “price to earnings” ratio tracked closely by stock market analysts.
The odds of stagflation, “which is basically a recession with inflation,” are roughly double what the market thinks, Dimon added.
Separately, one of Dimon’s top deputies said that corporate clients are still in “wait-and-see” mode when it comes to acquisitions and other deals.
Investment banking revenue is headed for a “mid-teens” percentage decline in the second quarter compared with the year-earlier period, while trading revenue was trending higher by a “mid-to-high” single digit percentage, said Troy Rohrbaugh, a co-head of the firm’s commercial and investment bank.
On the ever-present question of Dimon’s timeline to hand over the CEO reins to one of his deputies, Dimon said that nothing changed from his guidance last year, when he said he would likely remain for less than five more years.
“If I’m here for four more years, and maybe two more” as executive chairman, Dimon said, “that’s a long time.”
Of all the executive presentations given Monday, consumer banking chief Marianne Lake had the longest speaking time at a full hour. She is considered a top successor candidate, especially after Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said she would not be seeking the top job.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. UnitedHealth — The health insurer’s stock popped roughly 7% as investors scooped up shares of the beaten-down name, which lost 23% last week. UnitedHealth had suspended its 2025 guidance, announced that its CEO is stepping down and is reportedly the subject of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation . Reddit — Shares of the social media stock dropped more than 4% following a downgrade to equal weight from overweight at Wells Fargo. The firm said search traffic disruptions at Reddit are likely to become lasting as Google’s search integrates full artificial intelligence capabilities. Tesla , Palantir — Shares of retail investor favorites Tesla and Palantir each slid more than 3% as key tech stocks led Monday’s stock market losses. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals — Shares of the drugmaker dropped about 1% after the company announced it had agreed to pay $256 million to buy most of the assets of genetic data company 23andMe out of bankruptcy. Regeneron’s deal does not include Lemonaid Health, 23andMe’s telehealth subsidiary. Bath & Body Works — Shares ticked 1% lower after the personal care retailer said CEO Gina Boswell would step down immediately. The company said former Nike executive Daniel Heaf would replace her. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant traded 1% lower after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has raised concerns about Apple’ s plan to use Alibaba’s A.I. on iPhones in China. TXNM Energy — Shares of the energy company popped 7% after TXNM agreed to be acquired by Blackstone’s infrastructure unit. TXNM Energy shareholders will receive $61.25 in cash for each share as part of the deal. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Jesse Pound and Michelle Fox contributed reporting.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, speaking at a fintech event in London on Monday, April 4, 2022.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Klarna saw its losses jump in the first quarter as the popular buy now, pay later firm applies the brakes on a hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering.
The Swedish payments startup said its net loss for the first three months of 2025 totaled $99 million — significantly worse than the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. Klarna said this was due to several one-off costs related to depreciation, share-based payments and restructuring.
Revenues at the firm increased 13% year-over-year to $701 million. Klarna said it now has 100 million active users and 724,00 merchant partners globally.
It comes as Klarna remains in pause mode regarding a highly anticipated U.S. IPO that was at one stage set to value the SoftBank-backed company at over $15 billion.
Klarna put its IPO plans on hold last month due to market turbulence caused by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans. Online ticketing platform StubHub also put its IPO plans on ice.
Prior to the IPO delay, Klarna had been on a marketing blitz touting itself as an artificial intelligence-powered fintech. The company partnered up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI in 2023. A year later, Klarna used OpenAI technology to create an AI customer service assistant.
Last week, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company was able to shrink its headcount by about 40%, in part due to investments in AI.