Starbucks Drops, Super Micro Plunges, Amazon Lower on Grindr AI Use

On this episode of Stock Movers:
- Starbucks (SBUX) shares fall after the company said same-store sales declined 1% in the quarter ended March 30, missing Wall Street estimates, and earnings per share also missed expectations. CEO Brian Niccol said "behind the scenes, we really are showing a lot of signs of progress” -- Niccol took the helm in September and kicked off an overhaul of its cafes to make them more welcoming
- Super Micro (SMCI) shares plunge after the company's preliminary results for the fiscal third quarter fell short of analysts' estimates. The company attributed the miss to customers delaying purchases, which will be pushed into the current quarter, and also cited higher inventory reserves and expedited costs for new products.
- Amazon (AMZN) shares fall after Grindr said it’s using artificial intelligence tools from Amazon.com and Anthropic to develop features for its “Wingman” product, rather than relying on chatbots. President Donald Trump called Jeff Bezos to complain following the report, and Trump said Bezos "solved the problem very quickly, and he did the right thing.”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, The.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Stock Movers podcast, your roundup of companies making moves in
the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Let's take a look at some of the stocks on
the move today. We're joined by Bloomberg'schristina Kino. She heads
up our m live coverage for US. Great analysis on
what's happening in the market on a minute to minute basis.
All right, let's take a look at some of the
stocks here. Starbucks is one of them that was a
rough quarter.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
That was a rough quarter. Alex first quarter, sam Source
sales declining one percent in the quarter. EPs also short
of estimates, although we heard from CEO Brian Nichols saying
that apparently behind the scenes, they're showing a lot of
signs of progress. Apparently they're testing an algorithm to prioritize
which orders to prepare first so they can speed up
service in their cafes. They're also adding more store workers,

(00:55):
and they're trying to overhaul their cafes to make them
more welcoming. But clearly it's not quite working just yet.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh Mike Strawbucks on Route thirty five in Wall Township
does a great job.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
I mean it's awesome. Kids are great in they're working
and they get it to you right away. I don't know.
I mean it's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
But I think it's also that they paired back. There
will be pairing back law their menu to make it faster.
Sometimes we've been in those ones where you've waited like
forever for an order.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
And the person who comes in with an order for
like twenty seven different things, it's like, come.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
On, really, they like to you know, you're feeding your
whole family. It's Starbucks.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Sometimes we are. Okay, are you also looking at super Micro?
I mean, talk about a really rough preliminary quarter and
that sets up the tech guys in a very odd spot.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, absolutely, Alex. I mean it says a lot about
where we are in the AI cycle at the moment.
Right So super Micro at the moment down just more
than sixteen percent right now. Sales were four and a
half billion to four point six billion in the fiscal
third quarter. That missed analyst estimates and the company's own forecast.
That's a four car from February. Remember, they gave an

(01:58):
aggressive long term revenue out look. They said sales will
be forty billion dollars in the fiscal year ending June
twenty twenty six. Quite a different picture now because AI
is not quite the headline griber as it was previously.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well also, it just shows sort of how what the
demand cycle is going to look like, and I think
we're gonna learn a lot about that. Are we just
delaying some kind of orders? Are we rejiggering our inventory,
are we changing our cap backs? Are we just moving
into different places? And all of that I think nobody
actually knows, which makes these earnings quite interesting. All let's
go to Amazon, Amazon down.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Let's let's have a look. It was down more than
three percent earlier, down more than four percent. Now we
have news today Grinder apparently saying that it's using artificial
intelligence tools from Amazon dot Com and Anthropic to develop
features for its Wingman product rather than relying on chatbots.
But clearly that's not enough to lift the stock. Of course,
Amazon was in the news yesterday as well after a

(02:55):
report that it was apparently going to display the cost
of tariffs on products that caught the White Houses attention.
In President Donald Trump called Jeff Bezos to complain after
we got the report, and later on Trump said that
Bezos quote solved the problem very quickly, and he did
the right thing of.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Early The Stock Movers podcast from Bloomberg Radio. Check back
with us throughout the day for the latest roundup of
companies making news on Wall Street and for the latest
market moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us
on YouTube, Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android
Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.