Fast Money Blog- 5/23/25
The biggest story this week on Wall Street came from the tech sector when OpenAI announced it struck a deal to acquire io, the product-development startup founded by Jony Ive, in a deal valued at $6.5 billion.
This is extremely noteworthy because Ive spent nearly 3 decades at Apple (1992 - 2019) and was their senior vice president of industrial design and chief design officer. He played a vital role in the designs of multiple Apple products, including the iPhone, iPad, MacBook and user interface of Apple's mobile operating system iOS.
This venture will mark OpenAI’s effort to develop a new family of products that take advantage of new generative AI technologies, including an AI hardware device said to be less socially disruptive than the iPhone and more user friendly.
We will see if by the end of 2026, this new company can get its hardware in the hands of consumers around the world.
On Tuesday, May 20th, The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) reported their Q1 2025 earnings, with top-line revenue of $39.9 billion, up 9.4% year-over-year.
Other Highlights to Note
In the fiscal first quarter, comparable sales dropped 0.3% across the company. In the U.S., comparable sales increased 0.2% year over year.
Customer transactions across Home Depot’s website and stores rose 2.1% year over year.
More importantly, the company’s CFO reported that more than 50% of what HD sells comes from the U.S. The company has spent the past few years diversifying the source of imports, including by decreasing the share of purchases that come from China.
Home Depot plans to keep most of its prices stable, despite President Trump’s tariffs driving costs up. However, tariffs may cause Home Depot to increase prices on select items and eliminate some product lines entirely.
For now I still recommend HD for a long-term hold.
Lowe’s Companies (LOW) also released their Q1 2025 earnings on Tuesday, with quarterly top-line revenue of $20.9 billion, down 2.3% year-over-year.
Comparable sales for the quarter decreased 1.7%.
However, on a good note, comparable average ticket price was up 2.1% and online sales grew 6%. In addition, sales to home professionals grew by mid single-digits in the quarter, proving that the efforts they have put into increasing this type of clientele are working.
Like Home Depot, Lowe’s has worked on diversifying their suppliers, and currently stated that about 60% of their purchases come from the U.S. The company hopes they will not have to raise prices due to tariffs, as they don’t want to give up their market share to competitors.
If you have existing shares of LOW, I suggest you hold them until the next earnings release.
For now, we are all still waiting for July earnings releases, which will give the stock market, as a whole, an indication of the effects of the Trump tariffs.
Tyrone Jackson, The Wealthy Investor