Macy's shares soared Tuesday morning after the company far exceeded profit estimates. The retailer also said it reached an agreement to sell some of its real estate assets to Brookfield Asset Management. Joining The Long and The Short to discuss is Melissa Gonzalez, CEO, and Founder of The Lionesque Group and Melissa Armo, Founder of The Stock Swoosh.
Armo says she's pleasantly surprised by Macy's gaining such a big lead at the beginning of the year. She believes tax reform will also help a lot of the retailers, including Macy's, throughout 2018. However, she thinks Macy's still needs to figure out a way to bring more foot traffic to the stores. Gonzalez is excited about Macy's improving e-commerce business and the decision to scale back the discounts and flash sales.
Plus, is real estate retail's next big asset? Gonzalez says it's a smart move to partner with Brookfield Asset Management and sell off some office space, similar to what Lord & Taylor did with WeWork. However, Macy's ultimately needs to bring more customer experiences to the store to compete with the elephant in the room, Amazon.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
