Check out the companies making headlines before the bell: CVS — Shares jumped more than 8% after the pharmacy operator reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. The company earned an adjusted $1.19 per share on revenue of $97.71 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of 93 cents per share on revenue of $97.19 billion. Full-year earnings guidance, meanwhile, was in line with analysts’ expectations. Super Micro Computer — The server builder surged more than 10% despite cutting its fiscal 2025 full-year revenue forecast . Super Micro now expects revenue for the period to come in between $23.5 billion and $25 billion, while analysts were calling for $24.92 billion, per LSEG. The company’s CEO, Charles Liang, also said he is “confident” the company will be able to file its delayed annual report by the Feb. 25 deadline. Upstart Holdings — Shares of the consumer lending platform gained more than 26% after its first-quarter guidance was stronger than expected. Upstart expects revenue of $200 million for the current quarter, more than the $193.8 million that analysts had penciled in, according to LSEG. Upstart’s fourth-quarter earnings and revenue also beat analysts’ expectations. DoorDash — Shares of the food delivery company advanced about 6% after its fourth-quarter revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations. DoorDash posted revenue of $2.87 billion for the period. Analysts surveyed by LSEG were looking for $2.84 billion. Restaurant Brands International — The Burger King and Popeyes owner gained more than 3% following its latest quarterly results . For the fourth quarter, Restaurant Brands International posted adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share on $2.3 billion in revenue. That may not be comparable to the 79 cents per share and $2.27 billion in revenue that analysts surveyed by LSEG were expecting. Lyft — The ride-share stock sank nearly 14% after fourth-quarter gross bookings and first-quarter bookings guidance missed expectations. Lyft said it generated $4.28 billion in bookings in the previous quarter and expects between $4.05 billion and $4.20 billion in the current period. Analysts expected $4.32 billion and $4.24 billion, respectively, according to FactSet. Vertiv Holdings — Shares fell more than 9% after the company’s guidance for the current quarter came in softer than expected. Vertiv expects adjusted earnings for the first quarter to come in between 57 cents and 63 cents per share, while analysts polled by FactSet had called for 63 cents per share. For the full year, the company expects adjusted earnings of $3.50 per share to $3.60 per share, with its midpoint below the $3.57 per share analysts had called for, per FactSet. Its fourth-quarter results beat on both the top and bottom lines, however. Zillow — Shares shed 5.6% after the real estate marketplace reported a revenue beat for its fourth quarter but provided weak guidance for its first quarter. Zillow said it expects quarterly revenue between $575 million and $590 million, falling short of the $599.8 million anticipated from analysts polled by FactSet. Compass Minerals — The industrial salt stock rallied 4.8% on the back of JPMorgan’s upgrade to overweight from neutral . JPMorgan said Compass can benefit from this winter’s colder temperatures. Meta Platforms — The social media stock was slightly higher in the premarket, extending its gains after the Facebook parent posted a 17-day win streak. That is the longest consecutive streak of gains for any Nasdaq-100 constituent going back to 1985. Gilead Sciences — The biopharma stock added 4% after posting fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that exceeded analysts’ expectations, per FactSet. Gilead also guided for full-year adjusted earnings of between $7.70 and $8.10, higher than the consensus of $7.61. The company likewise expects revenue to come in between $28.2 billion and $28.6 billion, versus the forecast $28.47 billion. Alibaba — U.S.-listed shares of the Chinese e-commerce company climbed more than 3% after The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported that Apple recently submitted Apple Intelligence features that were developed in partnership with Alibaba for approval by China’s cyberspace regulator. Apple shares, meanwhile, were marginally higher on the heels of the report. — CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Alex Harring, Jesse Pound, Sarah Min, Lisa Kailai Han and Michelle Fox 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.