Coinbase CEO: Washington Must Address Trump's Crypto Interests — Market Talk

1447 ET - The chief of Coinbase says it will be up to Congress and the White House to solve the large looming ethics question about the Trump family's financial interest in bolstering the crypto industry. The president has offered to put language in the Clarity Act, crypto-friendly legislation that Trump supports but has stalled in Congress, that would address some of the open ethical issues at hand, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tells CNBC. Among potential solves are the president moving his funds into a blind trust. But the ethical challenges shouldn't derail the Clarity Act, Armstrong says. "We should not leave the status quo and leave Americans unprotected in a morass of state legislation to operate in the U.S., that's just going to ensure this all goes offshore." ([email protected])1415 ET - Dollarama continues to benefit from value-seeking Canadians, but National Bank of Canada's Vishal Shreedhar expects that momentum to moderate slightly in 2Q. In a report, the analyst says he expects sequentially lower same-store sales growth in 2Q to 4.1% from 1Q's 5.6%, "largely reflects normalizing traffic patterns following a weather related recovery, partly offset by continued value-seeking behaviour." Still, he sees Canadians coming in more often and buying more, projecting "basket growth of 2.1% and transaction growth of 2.0% y/y." ([email protected])1401 ET - Transcontinental is entering an operational inflection point, according to TD Cowen's Sean Steuart, who expects a 3Q rebound to break a sluggish first half trend. The analyst projects sequential improvement in 2H, driven by "seasonal tailwinds for the Books & Education segment (H2-weighted) and improved in-store marketing contributions." Following a slow start to the year marked by tough comparisons and lower traditional print volumes, he expects year-over-year adjusted Ebitda growth to resume, rising 5% in 3Q to C$61.2 million and adjusted EPS of C$0.40. What's more, Steuart thinks that the market is underestimating Transcontinental's balance sheet deleveraging, supported by noncore asset sales and strong projected free cash flow yields of 18%. ([email protected])1353 ET - Jack in the Box named Taylor Montgomery, Taco Bell's chief brand officer, to the role of president with plans for Montgomery to ultimately become chief executive. At Taco Bell, Montgomery oversaw marketing, which TD Cowen analysts say they see as the brand's core competency. "We expect Mr. Montgomery to bring this creative mindset to Jack and restore the brand's marketing & menu innovation muscle," the analysts say. Still, they back their hold rating on Jack's stock given years of underperformance. "Meanwhile, the deficient state of quick service burger and the lower income consumer do not provide tailwinds," they say.([email protected])1301 ET - The U.S. intervention in bond markets could backfire, as the Treasury will need to issue more short-dated debt to finance long-term buybacks, First Eagle's Idanna Appio writes. The strategy entails "more interest-rate risk for the Treasury down the road when maturing obligations must be refinanced at higher prevailing rates," she says. "This rollover risk is particularly problematic in light of today's fiscal situation with a large primary deficit and high federal debt." Appio says the announced increasing buybacks still represent a small fraction of Treasury markets, making a sustainable relief less likely. ([email protected]; @ptrevisani)1259 ET - Micron Technology's new research initiative aims to help the U.S. get a competitive edge in semiconductor and memory innovation, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says. The semiconductor company's Micron Research Labs will be headquartered in Boise with satellite campuses around the globe, and bring together a number of stakeholders--including customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem--to pursue breakthroughs in memory and AI, he says. The initiative will be "driving America's leadership in semiconductor and memory technology," he says during an appearance on CNBC. The labs will be backed by a planned $10 billion investment over the next decade, the company says. ([email protected])1254 ET - Micron Technology is launching a research institution that will focus on areas like critical memory technologies, advanced memory and compute architectures — all of which are crucial to advancing AI, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says. "This is critically important, because memory is [the] strategic infrastructure of AI," he says during an appearance on CNBC. "Memory absolutely requires higher performance." For AI to get smarter, it needs a greater amount of memory, faster memory and lower-power memory, he says.([email protected])1250 ET - The housing market is still relying heavily on incentives to ink new-home contracts, but the incentives aren't as steep as they were earlier this year. "After increasing for several years, incentive levels have decreased from the first quarter to the second quarter to the third quarter," says Ara Hovnanian, CEO of Hovnanian Enterprises. "This happened even though mortgage rates increased during the quarter." Hovnanian says on a call with analysts that the trend is providing a boost to business, as the homebuilder's gross margins have improved over the past several quarters. ([email protected])1226 ET - Hovnanian's quarterly contracts declined about 4%, to 1,359 homes, during the latest quarter. The homebuilder attributes the decline to political and financial volatility during the period, which prompted consumers to be more cautious. "We continue to believe that there is meaningful underlying demand for housing," CEO Ara Hovnanian says on a call with analysts, noting that consumers are researching and touring new homes, just not converting that interest into contracts. "Even with that modest decline, we believe our sales pace remained resilient relative to the broader market backdrop," he adds. ([email protected])1222 ET - Hovnanian Enterprises continues to operate in a challenging macro environment. "World events, as well as high mortgage rates, high gas prices, inflation and other factors have caused potential homebuyers to hesitate," CEO Ara Hovnanian says on a call with analysts. "While website traffic has remained strong, indicating long-term homebuyer interest, buyers remain slow to make the final decision to move forward." This hesitancy weighed on operations, as the homebuilder swings to a F3Q loss and posts lower revenue. Shares tumble 11%. ([email protected])1221 ET - Fewer people are picking up DIY projects for their cars, and this is weighing on Advance Auto Parts' earnings. Same-store sales fell 0.5% in the quarter, where analysts expected a rise of 1.4%, and was mostly due to declining do-it-yourself and retail demand. Net sales edged down to $2 billion from $2.01 billion, missing expectations of growth to $2.04 billion. "In the DIY channel, sales declined more than we anticipated, particularly during the last four weeks, as tighter household budgets weighed on consumer spending," CEO Shane O'Kelly says in an earnings call. Shares are down 26% to $41.70. ([email protected])1147 ET - Advance Auto Parts' adjusted earnings upgrade was largely due to tariff refunds. Roth analyst Scott Stember notes that the company is lifting adjusted EPS guidance to "$2.60-$3.30 (from $2.40-$3.10) mainly on the tariff refund, only partially offset by higher assumed interest income." He notes that everything else remains unchanged, which assumes sales of $8.485 billion-$8.575billion, same-store sales growth of 1%-2% and adjusted operating margin of 3.8%-4.5%. Free cash flow is still expected at about $100 million. "Lastly, the company now expects 30-35 new stores (previously 40-45), although while still adding 10-15 new market hubs, this year," Stember says. ([email protected])