The stock market was relatively flat on Wednesday as investors braced for the first-quarter GDP numbers and awaited more quarterly updates.
GDP data and Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index will be released on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Overall, S&P 500 was flat at 5,072, while NASDAQ slightly rose 0.1% to 15,713.
Tweet of the Day
MORGAN STANLEY: We have been highlighting “4.35-4.40% on the 10-year UST Treasury yield as a key level for stock valuations, and last week it was breached decisively to the upside. .. multiples may now face headwinds if rates rise further.” [Wilson] $SPX pic.twitter.com/K5iUgTlMW4
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) April 15, 2024
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of Dollar General (DG) as of April 2, 2024, when the stock was at $155.
Dollar General’s year-over-year profit dropped 38% last quarter as the company tries to deal with shoplifting or shrinkage. Gross profit margin came in at 29.5% last quarter, down from 30.9% a year ago.
In the earnings call, management stated that shrink is gonna take a littler longer to fix. Dollar General took steps to right the ship with its back-to-basics strategy to improve operational performance. Management is removing high shrink items from stores with high instances of shoplifting. The company rehired the man who used to run the shrink program for the company in the previous years. It also hired Everseen for an AI solution to monitor self-checkout transactions.
DG was in the Conservative Growth Portfolio, but was sold due to the shoplifting situation.
