The automobile recession likely started last quarter. The evidence is from CarMax (KMX) posting second-quarter results that scared investors last week.
In Q2, its revenue of $6.59 billion did not meet expectations. GAAP EPS of $0.64 is below the over $1.00 EPS expected. Earlier this year, KMX stock rallied on the false expectation that sales volumes would rise. Executives said that an uptick in sales between March and April was due to tariff speculation. The increase in inventory to support that growth is problematic. Demand might fall, forcing the firm to sell units at lower prices.
Oracle (ORCL) is at a high risk of erasing its post-earnings rally. ORCL stock had jumped from below $250 to a peak of $345.72. On September 25, Rothschild & Co Redburn, a research firm, rated ORCL stock effectively a “sell.” It set a $175 price target. The firm cited Oracle’s lack of operating leverage for OpenAI deployment as a reason for the caution.
On September 25, the FTC fined Amazon (AMZN) $2.5 billion. Amazon made the settlement, where the FTC alleged that millions of customers signed up for Prime subscriptions without their permission.
Amazon made it hard for those customers to cancel the subscription. Amazon must pay $1 billion in civil penalties and refund $1.5 billion to customers who were deceived.
Amazon should not have been allowed to use a far smaller font size on the “No thanks” section for declining Prime services.
