markets

J. Edward Moreno

3/10/25

Mac & cheese, PB&J, weapons of war: What’s holding up during this market meltdown?

Processed foods and weapons of war are two sectors that appear to be doing just fine as major stock indexes fall and recession fears mount.

Slim Jim seller Conagra, Uncrustables maker J.M. Smucker, instant mac and cheese giant Kraft Heinz, and canned soup company Campbell’s are all up today and have generally been rising for the past few days amid a market downturn. Defense contractors Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are also up.

As much as we hate saying we told you so, my colleagues Hyunsoo Rim and David Crowther totally saw this coming. Last week, they charted which stocks are least sensitive to an overall market crash, which included many of the stocks that are up today.

Everything is deep red today — which stocks are most, and least, sensitive to a market crash?

Everything is deep red today — which stocks are most, and least, sensitive to a market crash?

As much as we hate saying we told you so, my colleagues Hyunsoo Rim and David Crowther totally saw this coming. Last week, they charted which stocks are least sensitive to an overall market crash, which included many of the stocks that are up today.

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markets

4m

Super Micro rises as the company begins shipments of Nvidia Blackwell chips

Super Micro Computer jumped over 6% in pre-market trading on Friday after the company announced it has started shipping “Plug-and-Play (PnP)-ready” racks powered by Nvidia’s new Blackwell Ultra chips, giving data center customers a ready-made option to scale up their AI infrastructure.

The rollout enables what SMCI calls “turn-key day-one” operations, with the entire racks pre-assembled and tested to work out of the box.

“Data center customers face many AI infrastructure challenges: complex network topology and cabling, power delivery, and thermal management,” CEO Charles Liang said. "Through Supermicro Data Center Building Block Solutions with our expertise in on-site deployment, we enable turn-key delivery of the highest-performance AI platform — critical for customers seeking to invest in cutting-edge technology."

The company says the new system's performance jumps up to 7.5x over Nvidia's previous generation chips. It's also designed to run more efficiently, using less power and water while taking up less floor space, cutting the overall operating costs by 20%, according to the statement.

The launch comes after a rocky August, when SMCI’s shares plunged on weaker-than-expected quarterly results and management trimmed its annual revenue target.

Investors in Super Micro have endured much volatility this year, as the company has failed to deliver on multiple occasions. Even so, the shares are up nearly 50% year-to-date.

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Nia Warfield, Luke Kawa

S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 post record closing highs as nearly everything rallies

The benchmark US stock index ended up 0.9%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.6%, and the Russell 2000 outperformed with a 1.8% gain.

Bull charging across sand creating dust cloud

markets

18h

Warner Bros. Discovery jumps after Wells Fargo ups price target on dealmaking buzz

Warner Bros. Discovery shares popped 7% Tuesday after Wells Fargo raised its price target on the media giant to $14 from $13 while keeping an equal-weight rating.

The bank’s optimism stemmed largely from the media giant’s potential for dealmaking. In June, WBD announced that it would split its operations into two companies, with the Streaming & Studios division (home to Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios, HBO, and Max) standing alone from the networks side (CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery).

That separation could make the Streaming & Studios unit more attractive to buyers, the analysts said. They valued the segment at about $65 billion, which could translate to a takeover price north of $21 a share. Potential suitors range from Amazon and Apple to Sony and Comcast, though analysts flagged Netflix as the “most compelling” option despite its limited acquisition track record:

“While NFLX has historically not been acquisitive, [streaming and studios’] $12bn in annual content spend + library + 100+ acre studio lot offers a lot. It kickstarts a theatrical IP strategy, quickly scales video games and most importantly provides premium content to members.”

At Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology Conference this week, CEO David Zaslav also highlighted growing traction at HBO Max and hinted at future crackdowns on password sharing.

WBD shares are up 26% year to date, and up more than 93% over the past 12 months.

markets

19h

Duolingo up on bullish note, hopes for a user rebound

Duolingo rose by the most in nearly a month after an analyst note painted a more bullish picture of the gamified language-learning company despite a dearth of news otherwise.

A quick check-in with analysts covering the stock on Wall Street found most of them otherwise flummoxed on the reason behind the uptick Thursday.

Some, however, suggested the rise may reflect optimism that the company has been able to reverse a monthslong downturn in daily active user metrics — a slump that set in after a social media backlash to a somewhat artless LinkedIn post from the company about its AI first strategy.

The bullish analyst note, published Thursday by Citizens JMP, suggested Duolingo could be a big beneficiary from a change to Apple’s rules governing its App Store driven by a ruling on a federal antitrust case against the company. The analysts wrote:

Given “Apple’s recent changes to U.S. App Store rules that allow developers to steer payments to the web where fees are similar to typical credit card fees rather than Apple’s 30% fee for in-app purchases and 30% fee on subscriptions for the first year and 15% thereafter, we expect mobile app companies including Duolingo, Life360, and Grindr Inc. to unlock meaningful cost benefits.”

At any rate, the next big event on the company’s calendar is its Duocon 2025 conference on Tuesday, where analysts are hoping to hear more hard information on all of the above topics.

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