NEWS
Stocks Slow As Quarter-End Jitters Grow

Stocks held up well for most of the day but cracked late in the session and closed in the red. With markets up big so far this year, some may be repositioning their portfolios as we close out Q1. Let’s see what you missed. 👀

Today's issue covers McDonald’s betting on breakfast, GameStop giving back its gains, and Visa and Mastercard's $30 billion antitrust settlement. 📰

Here's today's heat map:

4 of 11 sectors closed green. Healthcare (+0.36%) led, & utilities (-1.14%) lagged. 💚

The S&P Case-Shiller index showed prices rose 0.1% MoM and 6.6% YoY to new all-time highs. Meanwhile, the conference board consumer confidence number missed expectations, with younger consumers and those making $50-$100k pulling the composite score lower. 😬

UPS shares popped and dropped after it set 2026 revenue targets that were mixed relative to Wall Street expectations. At its investor conference, executives outlined its plan to drive further efficiency and focus on the “premium” market as the small package industry rebounds. 📦

The Trump Media & Technology Group soared during its Nasdaq debut, triggering a brief volatility-driven trading halt. The stock jumped as much as 60% intraday before fading and closing up 17%. 📈

Shockwave Medical shares popped another 10% on news that Johnson & Johnson could buy the cardiovascular medical device maker for nearly $12 billion. And Viking Therapeutics jumped 17% on news that its experimental weight loss drug showed promising results in a small trial. ⚕️

Advertising platform provider Direct Digital plummeted 50% after the bell following a wider-than-expected loss despite revenues rising 33% YoY. 📉

Other active symbols: $ARM (-7.48%), $FSR (-70.42%), $RUM (+15.42%), $LUNR (+15.94%), $RDDT (+8.88%), $KULR (+30.36%), & $STOK (+58.31%). 🔥

Here are the closing prices: 

COMPANY NEWS
The American Eater Can’t Be Stopped

Some of the best-performing stocks in history have come from the food and beverage sector, with McDonald’s being one of the most prominent. 😋

Well, the burger giant was back in the news today for a slightly different reason. It’s raising the stakes in the fast-food breakfast wars by becoming Krispy Kreme’s exclusive fast-food partner and serving its donuts at restaurants nationwide by the end of 2026. 🍩

The slow ramp-up will begin in the second half of the year, allowing Krispy Kreme to double its distribution to ensure it can satisfy demand.

This is big news for Krispy Kreme, which currently uses a “hub and spoke” model to make its treats at production hubs and then deliver freshly made doughnuts every day to its retail partners, which range from grocery stores to gas stations.

While it delivered to roughly 6,800 third-party stores as of the end of last year, McDonald’s alone has roughly 13,500 U.S. restaurants and is planning to open 900 more new locations over the next 3 years. 😮

The deal means that Krispy Kreme will have the backing it needs to invest heavily in its distribution network and drive profitable growth. As for McDonald’s, the addition of doughnuts will bolster its bakery and breakfast offerings as the fast-food space competes heavily for diners.

$DNUT shares surged 40% on the news, becoming the third-most added stock to users’ watchlists on Stocktwits today. Sentiment and message volume surged, showing retail’s excitement about the partnership and its long-term impact on the business. 🐂

As for McDonald’s, the impact was a little less clear for investors. Shares were flat on the day, with Sttocktwits users currently bearish on the stock. 🐻

EARNINGS
GameStop Gives Back Gains

After a year of cost-cutting driving earnings beats, investors in GameStop were hoping a bang-up holiday quarter would put the company back on the path to growing sales and becoming profitable. 🛒

Unfortunately, the company has mastered the art of disappointing investors who have stuck with them through the post-pandemic drawdown. 😓

Analysts had expected earnings of $0.30 per share and revenues of $2.05 billion. Instead, they got earnings of $0.22 per share and revenues of $1.79 billion.

Hardware and accessories sales fell more than 12% YoY to $1.09 billion, with software sales plunging 31% YoY to $465 million. 🔻

With Ryan Cohen at the helm, armed with an investment policy that lets the company invest in equity securities, many are still waiting for a “hail mary” moment to save the company. 🙏

But as we’ve seen with meme stocks ranging from Bed Bath and Beyond to Fisker Automotive and AMC Entertainment, eventually, the underlying business needs to generate profits and cash flow for the stock price to sustainably rise.

For now, GameStop management lacks a clear vision for how they’ll drive sales growth, so shares are stuck in limbo as they keep costs low to keep their balance sheet “healthy.” 📝

Despite shares of $GME falling 15% after the bell, Stocktwits sentiment is still sitting in “extremely bullish” territory, signaling that some investors still believe in the broader turnaround potential. What the catalyst to get the business going remains to be seen, though. 🤷

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COMPANY NEWS
Visa and Mastercard Cap Processing Fees

Payment processing giants Visa and Mastercard reached an estimated $30 billion settlement to limit credit and debit card fees for merchants, with some savings likely to be passed onto consumers. 💳

The antitrust deal is one of the largest in U.S. history, and if approved by the courts, will resolve claims that began nearly 20 years ago.

Merchants and consumers have complained that Visa and Mastercard have charged inflated “interchange fees” when shoppers use credit or debit cards and barring them through “anti-steering” rules from directing customers to cheaper payment options. 😡

Under the settlement terms, the companies will reduce interchange fees by 4 basis points in the U.S. for three years and cap rates for five. They’re also removing anti-steering provisions, but denied any wrongdoing. ✂️

Roughly 90% of the settling merchants are small businesses, representing a major windfall for them. However, the settlement did not fully resolve what kinds of fees Visa and Mastercard could charge and did not cover all retailers.

Visa and Mastercard shares barely moved on the day. With their absolute dominance in the space, shares trading at all-time highs signal that investors are confident they can continue to find ways to “print” money going forward. 🤑

Bullets From The Day

✂️ Luxury retail’s struggle continues as Canada Goose cuts staff. The luxury performance apparel company will cut 17% of its corporate workforce after nearly doubling it between April 2021 and 2023. The cuts follow peers and other retailers ranging from Nike to Etsy, who have also made cuts as they struggle to drive sales in the current environment. CNBC has more.

⚙️ Adobe unveils over 20 new generative and creative APIs. The software giant’s Firefly Services makes some of its AI-powered features from its Creative Cloud tools like Photoshop available to enterprise developers to speed up content creation in their workflows or create entirely new solutions. Brands are urgently looking to Adobe to shift their generative AI investments from playgrounds to production. More from TechCrunch.

🤝 Canva acquires Affinity to compete with Adobe. The web-based design platform has bought the Affinity creative software suite to position itself as a challenger to Adobe after its Figma acquisition fell through. It says the acquisition will allow it to unlock the full spectrum of designers at every level and stage of the design journey. The Verge has more.

Links That Don’t Suck

🐰 Hershey, Mondelez bet big on Easter as cocoa price crisis looms

🗞️ What to know about the ripple effects of the Baltimore bridge collapse

🔋 BYD’s profit soared 80% in the year the Chinese EV giant overtook Tesla

🍌 Trader Joe's raises banana price for the first time in more than two decades

🚨 BlackRock's Larry Fink takes on retirement crisis in annual investor letter

💸 Reddit shares surge a day after options launch, set to nearly double IPO price

🏢 Adam Neumann’s bid to buy back WeWork faces uphill battle due to financing challenges

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