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Luke Kawa

Walgreens did something right for once

Walgreens Boots Alliance, the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2024, is the top-performing member of the benchmark US index as of 9:00 a.m. ET.

The company reported its quarterly results on Friday, with revenues and adjusted earnings per share exceeding not just the consensus estimate, but every Wall Street analyst’s projection for the three-month period ending November 30.

“While our turnaround will take time, our early progress reinforces our belief in a sustainable, retail pharmacy-led operating model,” CEO Tim Wentworth said.

Shares of the pharmacy chain fell 64% in 2024, putting it at the bottom of the S&P 500’s annual leaderboard.

The results pushed Walgreens stock up by double digits in the premarket, putting it just above where it was trading when reports surfaced in December that the company was in talks to be taken private by Sycamore Partners, with a deal possible early this year.

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Trump’s “impossible trinity” on AI and energy

Everyone loves a good trilemma.

In economics, the most famous of the genre was developed by Fleming and Mundell, which posits that you can only successfully achieve two of the following three objectives: the free flow of capital, a fixed exchange rate, and independent sovereign monetary policy.

George Pollack, senior US policy analyst at Signum Global Advisors, proposed a trilemma of his own to describe the Trump administration’s competing policy aims as a red-hot AI boom devours power and leaves households miffed by rising electricity bills.

He wrote:

“This note flags what we believe to be a simple reality whose salience will continue growing in US politics in coming months: the Trump administration, in its remaining three years will face a trilemma as the nation waits for its energy bet to play out — proving able to achieve two, but not all three, of the following objectives:

-Fulfill AI’s energy-appetite.
-Keep repressing renewable sources of energy.
-Appease American electricity consumers.”

Trump AI trilemma

As for evidence that the Trump administration is taking a fossil fuels-first approach while stunting renewables, Pollack pointed to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which shrinks access to tax credits for green energy, as well as the end to the federal pause on liquefied natural gas export permits. However, it would be “inaccurate and unfair” to blame President Trump’s policies for surging electricity prices in recent months, he added.

While the government has pursued the expansion of nuclear power as a way to solve this trilemma, the long lead times involved are incongruent with a short-term fix.

Palantir reports Q3 earnings results

Palantir climbs toward a fresh record high ahead of earnings report

Traders and Wall Street are waiting to see whether Palantir’s latest numbers after market close today will continue to beat expectations.

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