markets

Nia Warfield8/27/25

Krispy Kreme gets crushed as JPMorgan downgrades the embattled donut maker

Krispy Kreme shares are down more than 6% this morning after JPMorgan downgraded the stock to “underweight” (sell) from “neutral,” raising doubts about the company’s turnaround strategy. The bank hasn’t had a price target on the stock since May. Shares have lost over 80% of their value since Krispy Kreme’s 2021 IPO.

JPMorgan pointed to a host of headwinds, including the lingering fallout from Krispy Kreme’s scrapped McDonald’s expansion deal. The company originally planned to stock its donuts in all of the fast-food giant’s US locations by 2026, but the rollout ultimately backfired.

“This disruption led to the company being in survivor mode, including the sale of various store assets around the world and an attempted shift to 3P delivery to reduce costs and operational complexity,” analyst Rahul Krotthapalli wrote.

Another issue, he noted, is that Krispy Kreme’s appeal depends on freshness, which means donuts lose their magic minutes after glazing, making it tough to scale an off-site delivery model. Meanwhile, execution risks loom as the company tries to offload overseas stores, while US sales keep sliding from pricing pressure and competition.

Krispy Kreme shares are now down 63% year to date.

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Matt Phillips31m

Intel jumps to new 52-week high on upgrade

Intel jumped early Tuesday, hitting a 52-week high soon after the open, as Keybanc analysts upgraded the stock to “overweight” and put an above-consensus $60 price target on the shares, suggesting an upside of 25%.

They also upgraded Advanced Micro Devices to “overweight” and put a $270 target on the shares, a ~23% premium from where they’re trading.

Intel Stock Gains. Why the Chip Company and AMD Got Upgrades.

Intel Stock Gains. Why the Chip Company and AMD Got Upgrades.

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Claire Yubin Oh1h

Companies are still facing ransom demands from Oracle’s business software data breach, the WSJ reports

A hack that stole sensitive data in Oracle’s business software — which may have started as early as last July, but wasn’t disclosed by the company until October — is still generating ransom demands, per reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The number of affected organizations seems to be rising, with executives at Harvard University, Canon USA, Mazda, American Airlines unit Envoy Air, and Logitech all receiving emails demanding millions in exchange for the release of data in recent months.

An online extortion group known as Cl0p had been identified as the source of the breach on Oracle’s E-Business Suite, with the hackers reportedly leveraging a security flaw that did not need any fake or stolen sign-in credentials, and leaving responsible teams “zero-days” to fix the vulnerability. By the time Oracle issued software patches in October to prevent further attacks, more than 100 companies were estimated to be affected by the data breach, per the WSJ.

Oracle Hack Still Generating Ransom Demands

The number of affected organizations seems to be rising, with executives at Harvard University, Canon USA, Mazda, American Airlines unit Envoy Air, and Logitech all receiving emails demanding millions in exchange for the release of data in recent months.

An online extortion group known as Cl0p had been identified as the source of the breach on Oracle’s E-Business Suite, with the hackers reportedly leveraging a security flaw that did not need any fake or stolen sign-in credentials, and leaving responsible teams “zero-days” to fix the vulnerability. By the time Oracle issued software patches in October to prevent further attacks, more than 100 companies were estimated to be affected by the data breach, per the WSJ.

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Matt Phillips1h

Report: Micron thinks memory chip shortage could last until ’28

Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes reports that Micron is warning customers that the supply shortage for memory chips could last until 2028, as its Boise, Idaho, fabrication facility slowly comes online.

In addition to Micron, this is a big deal for memory and storage stocks like Sandisk, Seagate Technology Holdings, and Western Digital, which soared last year after a price spike for DRAM and NAND — types of memory chips — pushed their profit margins sharply higher.

With demand from AI data centers seemingly insatiable, the key question for investors is how long the supply crunch — and for the chipmakers, the profit-palooza — will last.

Micron warns AI memory crunch to last until 2028 as Idaho fab crawls online

Micron warns AI memory crunch to last until 2028 as Idaho fab crawls online

With demand from AI data centers seemingly insatiable, the key question for investors is how long the supply crunch — and for the chipmakers, the profit-palooza — will last.

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Microsoft unveils “community-first AI infrastructure plan” after Trump calls out data centers for high electricity bills

Microsoft is committing to paying up for its data center electricity needs so American households won’t have to face higher costs.

This announcement comes after President Donald Trump posted on Monday evening that his administration was working with leading tech companies to ensure that US households don’t “pick up the tab” for their data center-driven energy demands, which have helped propel electricity bills higher.

Microsoft, he said, would be the first to unveil steps in this direction.

Here’s its plan, from a post attributed to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith:

Microsoft community first AI infrastructure plan — Source: Microsoft

From a markets and economics standpoint, the first part is the most interesting. Smith said that Microsoft will ask utilities and public commissions to charge Microsoft enough to cover both data center installation and usage, as well as support two-tier pricing systems (like what’s being proposed in Wisconsin) that will see “Very Large Customers” like data centers face higher costs.

The hyperscalers are walking a fine line of trying to aggressively pursue a build-out of a technology that they believe will be transformative and offer profits for years to come while avoiding public and political backlash due to how resource-intensive these capital outlays and operations are.

“Especially when tech companies are so profitable, we believe that it’s both unfair and politically unrealistic for our industry to ask the public to shoulder added electricity costs for AI,” Smith said. “Instead, we believe the long-term success of AI infrastructure requires that tech companies pay their own way for the electricity costs they create.”

Microsoft’s 12-month forward expected profit margin is above 38%, per analysts polled by Bloomberg, its highest projection on record.

President Trump calls for tech giants to “pay their own way” on energy, says Microsoft will make “major changes”

President Trump calls for tech giants to “pay their own way” on energy, says Microsoft will make “major changes”

Microsoft, he said, would be the first to unveil steps in this direction.

Here’s its plan, from a post attributed to Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith:

Microsoft community first AI infrastructure plan — Source: Microsoft

From a markets and economics standpoint, the first part is the most interesting. Smith said that Microsoft will ask utilities and public commissions to charge Microsoft enough to cover both data center installation and usage, as well as support two-tier pricing systems (like what’s being proposed in Wisconsin) that will see “Very Large Customers” like data centers face higher costs.

The hyperscalers are walking a fine line of trying to aggressively pursue a build-out of a technology that they believe will be transformative and offer profits for years to come while avoiding public and political backlash due to how resource-intensive these capital outlays and operations are.

“Especially when tech companies are so profitable, we believe that it’s both unfair and politically unrealistic for our industry to ask the public to shoulder added electricity costs for AI,” Smith said. “Instead, we believe the long-term success of AI infrastructure requires that tech companies pay their own way for the electricity costs they create.”

Microsoft’s 12-month forward expected profit margin is above 38%, per analysts polled by Bloomberg, its highest projection on record.

markets

Stocks rise after core inflation rises by less than feared in December

SPDR S&P 500 ETF erased premarket losses to jump higher after core CPI inflation rose 0.2% month on month in December, slightly less than analysts had forecast.

Economists anticipated that headline and core CPI inflation (the latter of which strips out food and energy prices) would be up 0.3% month on month. Headline CPI did indeed rise 0.3% for the month.

The pricing of event contracts for December CPI implied that traders expected headline inflation to be up 0.3% month on month, with higher odds of a reading coming in above than below.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The November CPI report showed that core inflation had cooled by much more than expected, with the annual rate decelerating to a 4.5-year low. However, that reading was flattered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ decision to assume housing-centric components were flat in October.

Annual core CPI inflation held steady at 2.6% in December, having been projected to tick up to 2.7%.

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