Amazon Falls, Wendy's Drop, Duolingo Rises as AI Drives Subscriptions

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Amazon (AMZN) shares fall after the company said it’s bracing for a tougher business climate in the coming months, echoing concerns from a range of companies that tariffs and related economic turmoil could crimp consumer spending.
- Wendy's (WEN) shares drop after the company lowered its sales outlook for this year, the latest restaurant chain to take a hit from consumer unease about shaky economic conditions in the US. Global systemwide sales are set to decline as much as 2%, while the company had forecast in March an increase as large as 3%.
- Duolingo (DUOL) shares rise after the company raised its full-year sales and profit outlook as artificial intelligence offerings drive users to its higher-priced subscriptions. ales will be $987 million to $996 million this year, the company said in a letter to shareholders, up from its previous view of at most $978.5 million and ahead of analysts’ projections for $973.2 million.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, The Stock Movers podcast,
your roundup of companies making moves in the stock market.
Harnessing the power of Bloomberg data. Let's take a look
at some of the stocks on the move today. Were
joined by Bloomberg's Veldana Hirich Don what are you looking at?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm also taking a look at Amazon because it did
say it's bracing for a tougher business climate in the
coming months, which really is echoing those concerns that we've
heard from a range of companies about tariffs related economic
turmoil and how potentially it might crimp consumer spending. And
when it reported results earlier this week, it actually posted
a decent first quarter, but it said its operating profit

(00:45):
in the current period would be weaker than what Wall
Street analysts had been anticipating. In issuing its forecasts. It
said its results may be materially affected by many factors,
including tariffs and trade policies.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
So tarif was only mentioned once in their beliefs too,
so you have to wonder, like how much hedging there
was around that. Also, take look at Wendy's that's not
up by eight tens of one percent, but didn't they
cut their forecast.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, and I love talking about a company that maybe
you know, we use, or you can just stop by
on your way home from work, get get a frosty.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
It shares our.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
It shares our up one percent as of right now,
maybe amid this broader rally that we're seeing. But it
did lower it sales outlook for the year. And it's
just the latest restaurant chain to take a hit from
potential consumer on ease about the shaky economic conditions. As
we just mentioned, the US is facing a challenging consumer environment.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
It's CEO said, just again, as a reporting from Marko
watch US same restaurants sales they fell for the first
time since the height of the pandemic. That's interesting. I
didn't know it's been on such a strong winning streak.
So something has changed maybe so in terms.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
Of the consumer.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, important to keep track of, you know what these
companies are saying about the state of the consumer, especially
something like I said, we can stop buy on our
way home from work and pick up a Frosty, but
maybe people are doing that less and less these days.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well, I mean that's a some way discretionary, right, all right,
let's go to do lingo. I'm wrapping it up here.
I mean talk about discretionary. You would think that learning
a language or using other tools that would be discretionary.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
But that's not CEP sixteen percent right exactly.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's soaring today and it's actually one of those stocks
that is up for the year. It's up more than
fifty percent for the year given including today's gains, but
it raised its full year sales and profit outlook. It's
cited artificial intelligence offerings it's as helping to drive some
of that demand towards its higher priced subscriptions. Shares are
up up for the year, and subscriptions for its highest

(02:36):
year products, which is called Douolingo Max, continued to grow
in part because of these new AI features. I'm a
dual lingo user. If I can brag, I have a
one eight hundred and twenty seven day streak.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. But language in French? Wow? So
are you fluent now? No? WI I wish I were,
But I do try to take dealt lessons.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I do not pay for the subscriptions though, so, but
it does seem to be working with some consumers.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Some people are attracted to these offerings or you the
are you learning? Yes, I'm definitely learning. Yeah, it's just taking.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
A long time.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
I see.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
It was just on Open Interest and said that to
learn Chinese you got to do like five or two
thousand hours.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
But it works.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
You just have to do it and you just basically
a lot of people do it, but they don't finish it,
and then that's where they don't get the real fluency.
It's ever Spanish, it was five hundred hours.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
Really. Yeah, Well, I'm at this streak where I can't stop.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
I can't go back to zero, you know, so I
have to do a daily lesson for the rest of
my life.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
The Stock Movers podcast from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
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making news on Wall Street and for the latest market
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