The U.S. department store chain Macy's plans to open five more out-of-mall locations this fiscal year to attract new customers with smaller, trend-focused stores in bustling shopping centers and suburban areas rather than traditional department stores in dying malls. The Market by Macy's and Bloomie's mini-locations are around one-fifth the size of the company's standard Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores. More: - Off-mall store sales at the stores open over a year grew 8% and 12% in the holiday quarter, respectively, while comparable sales at conventional Macy's declined by 3.3% and Bloomingdale's rose by 0.6%.
- With a more affluent customer base and eight straight quarters of beating Macy's, Bloomingdale's has an advantage over the department store, making it less vulnerable during a downturn in the economy.
- The strip-mall trial comes as Macy's shares have fallen 26% year to date, dramatically lagging the S&P 500 and XRT, which have increased 7% and remained flat, respectively.
- Macy's off-mall shops will be opened near a high-demand mall store, replace a significant location at a struggling mall, or help the company enter a new market.
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With an EPS of $0.60 per share and revenue of $5.35B, AMD posted better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter of 2023. But compared to a net income of $786M during the same period last year, the company reported a net loss of $139M. More: - The most significant drop was in AMD's clientele, including PC processor sales; it reported a 65% drop in revenue from $2.1B the previous year to $739M.
- Sales of AMD's embedded networking chips, which are less powerful, increased to $1.56B from $595M in 2022.
- Sales for AMD's gaming division, which includes chips for the Sony PlayStation 5 and graphics processors for PCs and other consoles, are $1.76B, down slightly from $1.88B in 2022.
- CEO Lisa Su stated, "AMD expects increased demand in the PC and server markets to boost their performance in the second half of the year."
Zoom Out: - According to market intelligence firm IDC, in Q1 2023, traditional PC shipments experienced a decline of 29% compared to the same quarter in 2022, totaling 56.9M.
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Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) announced core profits for Q1 2023 of $4.76B, up 13.6% YoY and exceeding consensus expectations by 5.6%. From $1.2B in Q1 2022 to $1.3B in Q1 2023, the underlying profit attributable to shareholders grew. More: - AB InBev's revenues rose 13.2% YoY to $14.2B, surpassing expectations, leading to a 0.6% increase in their share price.
- Sales volumes increased by 0.9% due to "pricing actions" and customer encouragement to purchase premium goods.
- Own beer volumes increased by 0.4%, non-beer volumes jumped by 3.6%, and revenues from non-alcoholic beer sales rose by 30%.
- Outside the U.S., AB InBev's core beer portfolio experienced significant sales growth, driven by the recovery of Chinese consumer demand and expansion in India.
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For the third quarter of its fiscal year, Peloton reported a net loss of $275.9M, or $0.79 per share, higher than the consensus estimate of $0.46 per share. The company's revenue for the quarter came in at $749M, 22% less than the $964.3M reported a year ago, due to a slowdown in sales of its bikes and treadmills following a spike related to the pandemic. More: - Peloton reported 5% YoY growth in connected fitness subscriptions, with 3.1 million subscriptions and lower free cash flow losses, indicating progress with its turnaround plan.
- Peloton aims to grow connected fitness subscriptions in Q4 but expects a 6% decline in YoY revenue by offering rental and pre-owned bike programs and rowing machines.
- The fitness equipment company is introducing a new app with a tiered membership structure later this month to revamp the brand.
- As in previous years, CEO Barry McCarthy warned of a seasonal fall in subscriber growth for the fourth quarter.
- Shares were down about 14% in today's market trading.
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Due to a loss of almost $5B in deposits in Q1 of 2023 and a 40% decline in share prices, PacWest, a mid-sized California lender, is considering strategic options, including a sale. Along with significant sums of uninsured deposits and paper losses on its securities portfolio, PacWest has garnered criticism for its parallels to the defunct Silicon Valley Bank, including ties to the tech world. More: - In Q1 2023, PacWest reported a $1.21B net loss, primarily due to $860M in unrealized losses from its securities portfolio, with most of its lending focused on property.
- PacWest is receiving advice from boutique investment firm Piper Sandler as it investigates strategic options, such as a sale or raising additional funding.
- Since the beginning of March, PacWest's stock has fallen 77%, and short interest has increased from 1% at the end of January to 25% this week.
- Western Alliance and Metropolitan Bank, two other regional lenders, experienced steep declines of 11% and 6%, respectively, in early Wall Street trade on Thursday.
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To concentrate on its main e-commerce platform business, Shopify is slashing employment for the second time in 10 months and selling most of its logistics company to Flexport. Over 2,000 employees will be cut from the company due to the changes, which will cost around $150M in severance fees. More: - By selling its fulfillment assets to logistics firm Flexport, including Deliverr Inc., which Shopify recently acquired for $2.1B, the e-commerce business is reversing its goal of competing with Amazon.
- Shopify's Q1 2023 revenue of $1.51B and total goods sold of $49.6B exceeded analysts' and Wall Street's projections, respectively.
- CEO Tobi Lütke stated, "The company will now focus on outcomes and impact due to the realization that their numbers were not as healthy as many other tech companies."
- On Thursday morning in the TSE, Shopify rose roughly 27% to CA$79.76, the highest intraday increase since 2015.
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 |  | Shriram is pursuing Master’s in Business with Marketing at Warwick Business School. He worked as a Senior Consultant in Tech and Political Consultancies before his Masters. He is passionate about Tech, Marketing, Strategy, Anthropology and Politics. He is also the Postgraduate Ambassador for Warwick Business School. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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