Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Super Micro Computer — Shares shed 26% after the artificial intelligence server company said it would postpone filing its annual 10-K form for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Super Micro Computer said its management requires more time to “complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting.” Hindenburg Research revealed a short position in the stock Tuesday. Neurocrine Biosciences — The biopharmaceutical stock plummeted 19%. The company reported positive top-line Phase 2 data for its drug targeting schizophrenia in adults, but investors were concerned over whether the results can be replicated in other trials. Stifel stated in a Wednesday note that “these data are clearly messier than hoped.” Abercrombie & Fitch — The retailer fell 17% after CEO Fran Horowitz warned of an “increasingly uncertain environment,” suggesting the company is bracing for a tumultuous second half of 2024. Separately, the company’s fiscal second-quarter results surpassed estimates, and Abercrombie raised its full-year sales outlook. Chewy — Shares rose around 16% after the pet retailer reported better-than-expected second-quarter results. Chewy posted adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $144.8 million. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $111.7 million in EBITDA. AeroVironment — The stock surged 11%. The manufacturer of unmanned aerial vehicles secured a nearly $1 billion contract from the U.S. Army to “provide an organic, stand-off capability to dismounted infantry formations capable of destroying tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade and personnel targets.” Baird also upgraded AeroVironment to outperform from neutral following the news. nCino — The stock dropped 12% after the cloud-based banking platform reported third-quarter guidance that came in below Wall Street expectations. The company expects adjusted third-quarter earnings of 15 cents to 16 cents per share, slightly below to in line with the 16 cents per share that analysts polled by FactSet had expected. The company also expects revenue of $136 million to $138 million, which is below the consensus estimate of $138.6 million. Ambarella — The semiconductor developer’s stock jumped more than 10% after the company posted a third-quarter revenue forecast of between $77 million and $81 million. That is above the $69 million that analysts polled by LSEG were expecting. Ambarella also posted better-than-expected second-quarter results. Foot Locker — Shares plunged around 12% after the retailer missed the Street’s expectations for the second quarter. Foot Locker posted an adjusted loss of 5 cents per share on $1.90 billion in revenue. Analysts had expected a loss of 7 cents per share on $1.89 billion in revenue, per LSEG. Nordstrom — The retailer advanced more than 4% after its second-quarter adjusted earnings beat expectations. Nordstrom also increased the low end of its full-year outlook. The company now expects fiscal 2024 adjusted earnings of $1.75 to $2.05 per share compared to the prior expected range of $1.65 to $2.05 per share. J.M. Smucker — The stock moved around 5% lower after the consumer foods company lowered its full-year guidance. J.M. Smucker now sees earnings of $9.60 to $10 a share for the fiscal year ending April 2025, lower than its previous outlook for $9.80 to $10.20 per share. Bath & Body Works — Shares lost more than 6% after the fragrance seller posted weaker-than-expected revenue for the second quarter. Bath & Body Works posted second-quarter adjusted earnings of 37 cents per share on revenue of $1.53 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $1.54 billion, according to FactSet. Box — The cloud storage company rallied 8% after posting better-than-expected second-quarter results. Box reported adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share on $270 million in revenue. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had estimated earnings of 40 cents per share on $269 million in revenue. PVH — The company, which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, fell 7% after it gave a disappointing outlook for the third quarter . PVH said it expects third-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.50 per share, which is substantially lower than the $3.12 per share expected from analysts polled by LSEG. The retailer also forecast that its revenue will decline 6% to 7% from the year-ago period, while analysts called for a 4.6% decline. Kohl’s — The retailer’s shares added 2% after its fiscal second-quarter earnings beat expectations. Kohl’s earned 59 cents per share for the period, above the 45 cents per share that analysts polled by LSEG were expecting. However, the company missed on revenue, posting $3.53 billion compared to the analyst estimate of $3.58 billion. Berkshire Hathaway — Warren Buffett’s conglomerate rose nearly 1%, topping the $1 trillion mark for the first time . It is the first nontechnology company in the U.S. to score the coveted milestone. The $1 trillion threshold was crossed just two days before the “Oracle of Omaha” turns 94 years old. Shares of the conglomerate have rallied 28% this year, significantly outperforming the S & P 500 . — CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Hakyung Kim, Yun Li and Pia Singh contributed reporting.
Leading analyst Craig Moffett suggests any plans to move U.S. iPhone assembly to India is unrealistic.
Moffett, ranked as a top analyst multiple times by Institutional Investor, sent a memo to clients on Friday after the Financial Times reported Apple was aiming to shift production toward India from China by the end of next year.
He’s questioning how a move could bring down costs tied to tariffs because the iPhone components would still be made in China.
“You have a tremendous menu of problems created by tariffs, and moving to India doesn’t solve all the problems. Now granted, it helps to some degree,” the MoffettNathanson partner and senior managing director told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Friday. “I would question how that’s going to work.”
Moffett contends it’s not so easy to diversify to India — telling clients Apple’s supply chain would still be anchored in China and would likely face resistance.
“The bottom line is a global trade war is a two-front battle, impacting costs and sales. Moving assembly to India might (and we emphasize might) help with the former. The latter may ultimately be the bigger issue,” he wrote to clients.
Moffett cut his Apple price target on Monday to $141 from $184 a share. It implies a 33% drop from Friday’s close. The price target is also the Street low, according to FactSet.
“I don’t think of myself as the biggest Apple bear,” he said. “I think quite highly of Apple. My concern about Apple has been the valuation more than the company.”
Moffett has had a “sell” rating on Apple since Jan. 7. Since then, the company’s shares are down about 14%.
“None of this is because Apple is a bad company. They still have a great balance sheet [and] a great consumer franchise,” he said. “It’s just the reality of there are no good answers when you are a product company, and your products are going to be significantly tariffed, and you’re heading into a market that is likely to have at least some deceleration in consumer demand because of the macro economy.”
Moffett notes Apple also isn’t getting help from its carriers to cushion the blow of tariffs.
“You also have the demand destruction that’s created by potentially higher prices. Remember, you had AT&T, Verizon and T. Mobile all this week come out and say we’re not going to underwrite the additional cost of tariff [on] handsets,” he added. “The consumer is going to have to pay for that. So, you’re going to have some demand destruction that’s going to show up in even longer holding periods and slower upgrade rates — all of which probably trims estimates next year’s consensus.”
According to Moffett, the backlash against Apple in China over U.S. tariffs will also hurt iPhone sales.
“It’s a very real problem,” Moffett said. “Volumes are really going to the Huaweis and the Vivos and the local competitors in China rather than to Apple.”
Apple stock is coming off a winning week — up more than 6%. It comes ahead of the iPhone maker’s quarterly earnings report due next Thursday after the market close.
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In a year that hasn’t been kind to many big-name stocks, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is standing near the top. Berkshire shares have posted a 17% return year-to-date, while the S&P 500 index is down 6%.
That performance places Berkshire among the top 10% of the U.S. market’s large-cap leaders, and the run has been getting Buffett more attention ahead of next weekend’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s also good timing for the recently launched VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF(OMAH), which holds the top 20 most heavily weighted stocks in Berkshire Hathaway, as well as shares of Berkshire Hathaway.
“It’s a really well-balanced portfolio chosen by the most successful investor the world has ever seen,” Adam Patti, CEO of VistaShares, said in an appearance this week on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
Berkshire’s outperformance of the S&P 500 isn’t limited to 2025. Buffett’s stock has tripled the performance of the market over the past year, and its 185% return over the past five years is more than double the performance of the S&P 500.
Berkshire Hathaway is one of 2025’s top performing stocks.
In addition to this long-term track record of success in the market, Berkshire Hathaway is getting a lot of attention right now for the record amount of cash Buffett is holding as he trimmed stakes in big stocks including Apple, which has proven to be a great strategy. The S&P 500 has experienced extreme short-term volatility since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Even after a recent recovery, the S&P is still down 8% since the start of Trump’s second term.
“The market has been momentum driven for many years, the switch has flipped and we’re looking at quality in terms of exposure, and Berkshire Hathaway has performed incredibly well this year, handily outperforming the S&P 500,” said Patti.
Berkshire Hathaway famously doesn’t pay a dividend, with Buffett holding firm over many decades in the belief that he can re-invest cash to create more value for shareholders. In a letter to shareholders in February, Buffett wrote that Berkshire shareholders “can rest assured that we will forever deploy a substantial majority of their money in equities — mostly American equities.”
The lack of a dividend payment has been an issue over the years for some shareholders at Berkshire who do want income from the market, according to Patti, who added that his firm conducted research among investors in designing the ETF. “Who doesn’t want to invest like Buffett, but with income?” he said.
So, in addition to being tied to the performance of Berkshire and the stock picks of Buffett, the VistaShares Target 15 Berkshire Select Income ETF is designed to produce income of 15% annually through a strategy of selling call options and distributing monthly payments of 1.25% to shareholders. This income strategy has become more popular in the ETF space, with more asset managers launching funds to capture income opportunities and more investors adopting the approach amid market volatility.
People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images
A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.
The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.
In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.
Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.
Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.
“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”
“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.
He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.
“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”
The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once.
“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.”
Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.
Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers.
Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.