US stocks are mixed premarket after a solid jobs report and a stronger earnings season. Investors are weighing resilient growth against fewer Fed rate cuts. Value is outperforming growth early in the year as traders reassess positioning. Software names like Salesforce (CRM), Workday (WDAY), and ServiceNow (NOW) are sliding, even as some argue the sell-off looks overdone. Meanwhile, Nvidia (NVDA) remains central to the AI trade, with expectations building into earnings. Consumer staples are rotating higher, but McDonald&#x27;s (MCD) is leaning on value menus to drive traffic while watching GLP-1 risk. In crypto, Robinhood (HOOD) and bitcoin face a catalyst vacuum amid investor debate over regulation and tokenization. Trending Tickers: AB InBev (BUD) on steady profit growth; McDonald&#x27;s (MCD) on value momentum; Nvidia (NVDA) into earnings. Takeaways: Retail is buying beaten-down software, institutions stay selective Value and cyclicals are leading as growth lags AI leaders remain core despite volatility McDonald&#x27;s sees value as a defense against consumer pressure Bitcoin lacks a clear near-term catalyst Yahoo Finance&#x27;s flagship show, Morning Brief, is your go-to source for smarter investing and market moves. Thoughts? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at yfpodcasts@yahooinc.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retail buys software dip, value leads early, bitcoin hunts catalyst, McDonald's leans on value

Morning Brief 

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Morning Brief

## Transcript

Good morning, I'm Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sazi coming to you straight from our newsroom in New York City. It's a darn busy morning for markets and for me, I'm declaring today Hot Take Thursday. Here's what's up in the investing world. One, so much chatter on X about whether to begin buying crashed out software stocks like Salesforce, Workday, and ServiceNow. Retail investors appear game to catch falling knives. Look at this rabid buying retail investors are doing of software stocks per a new chart making the rounds from Evander Research.

I say, get real. Why are you trying to be a hero on a software trade that absolutely sucks right now? Let the dust settle before throwing on that cape. One trade that has been hot, consumer staples. So I've been spending the week looking for this trade to be justified by big food. Coke's earnings were pretty solid this week. Kraft Heinz were absolutely terrible. McDonald's US sales blew me away last night like an undercooked Big Mac. And Budweiser CEO told me this morning by video call his Super Bowl ad did the trick with consumers.

Bottom line, I'm still not sold in the consumer staples trade. And I think the space is underselling GLP-1 risk. Here's McDonald's CEO Chris Kemsiski set on GLP-1s last night on his earnings call. We don't yet see evidence of it really having a material impact on our business. We know that consumers' behavior changes. We know that in general they eat fewer calories in a day, but also what they eat, the mix of that changes.

In a case you're wondering, 590 calories, that's what comes with the Big Mac. Lastly, normally I wouldn't care less about an earnings report from computer player Lenovo. Like really, it's Lenovo. But the company's CEO said today the memory chip shortage hammering hardware companies like his will persist into year end. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins echoed the sentiment on his earnings call last night. And all this is great news for one of the hottest stocks in the entire world, memory chip player SanDisk.

The stock is ripping again pre-market in part because of commentary like I just laid out to you from Cisco and a Lenovo. Let's keep these hot takes coming, friends. My man Kenny Palkari is here. He's Chief Market Strategist at Slatestone Wealth. Kenny, always good to see you. Before I ask you like nine questions on software stocks, tell me about this photo.

Let's get up on the screen here of you in our kitchen drinking wine and beer. That's the new Trader Talk. It's very like moody, set against a backdrop of darkness. I mean, what are you doing? Listen, I think they did a great job with it because it doesn't even look like I'm sitting in the cafe there, right? It looks like we're out to dinner at a great restaurant, which was perfect. That was a great conversation. It was an initial one with some of these senior guys talking about first lessons of trading in the industry.

When they first came...

Retail buys software dip, value leads early, bitcoin hunts catalyst, McDonald's leans on value

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Retail buys software dip, value leads early, bitcoin hunts catalyst, McDonald's leans on value

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.