Stocks fall ahead of eventful start to final week of first quarter

The frenetic rally on Wall Street leading up to the start of 2024 took a breather early in the final week of this year's first quarter.

S&P 500 futures (^GSPC) were down 0.4% before the opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was expected to fall by a more modest 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^ IXIC) futures prices plunged 0.6%.

The S&P and Nasdaq have started 2024 on a strong note, with both indexes up nearly 10% since the beginning of the year. But with financial markets closed for Good Friday, traders are largely waiting to see how the short final week of March begins.

The highlight of the week in economic data will be Friday's release of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, which includes the Federal Reserve's recommended “core” PCE inflation measure.

read more: What the Fed's interest rate decisions mean for your money

Last week, the Federal Reserve reaffirmed its expectations for three rate cuts this year and issued a more bullish economic outlook, accelerating the market's bull run.

In corporate news, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel (INTC) both fell on the market following a report in the Financial Times that China will phase out the use of chips and servers in government computers. It fell more than 3% in the previous session.

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Monday, March 25, 2024 5:15 AM PDT
An investment banker throws a dart at a footlocker

Foot Locker (Florida) has had a tough 12 months.

Poor sales. Margins are weak. Rough outlook. The reasons for all of this are from changing sneaker tastes (there seems to be an increase in demand for chunky dad shoes rather than sports sneakers), to management issues at Nike (NKE), to Foot Locker's own operational challenges. There are a variety of things.

Overall, the stock is down 36% over the past year. This makes sense (just watch the company's most recent earnings presentation for support).

Nevertheless, EvercoreISI's Michael Binetti is throwing darts at the stock price. He upgraded his rating to Outperform this morning, citing the following reasons:

The new loyalty program will be launched by the middle of this year.

A new digital app will be released in North America by the middle of this year.

Aggressive Store Renewal Plan — Two-thirds of Foot Locker stores will be updated by 2025.

Innovation and newness will accelerate significantly across all sports brands.

Nike will begin to grow in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Thanks for the analysis, but FL remains a show-me story.
Monday, March 25, 2024 5:00 AM PDT
Behind the scenes at Chipotle

I still remember meeting Brian Nichol in 2016.

At the time, he was the CEO of Yum! Brands (YUM) He owned Taco Bell. I met him in his early 30s, still looking for a reporter role, and also looking for ways to save money (partly because he wasn't making much money in that role!). That included eating dinner at Taco Bell.

I met Brian in a hotel conference room after he presented at an investor day. Even though Brian is a young man with great success on his resume, we found him to be humble and very knowledgeable about the fast food industry. I joined Brian thinking he would be a game changer as CEO of an independent business.

Eight years later, Brian is still the same guy I met, even though he has even more success on his resume as CEO of Chipotle (CMG). This is a new exclusive chat with Brian on Yahoo Finance. We touched on a lot in our 25-minute phone chat, but my main takeaway is that with someone like Brian at the helm, backed up by the equally impressive CFO Jack Hartung, Chipotle's This means that shareholders remain in a good position.

Some takeaways from the interview:

Chipotle is focused on pushing new restaurant openings to the limit over the next three years.

New technology will be rolled out to more Chipotle stores in an effort to improve profit margins.

Brian Nicol isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Monday, March 25, 2024, 4:30 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time)

Where investors recognize bubbles

Investors remain focused on bubbles as various asset classes enter a relatively hot final week of trading in March.

A new survey from Deutsche Bank released this morning suggests that investors may still be concerned about the speed at which Bitcoin and tech stocks are rising.

It's no wonder tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) have soared 19% this month on AI hype, while Bitcoin is up 9%.

New research from Deutsche Bank suggests that Bitcoin and tech stocks appear to be overly inflated. (Deutsche Bank)