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World shares rose Friday after U.S. stocks climbed to a record as Wall Street made its final moves ahead of an update on the American job market that could clear the way for cuts to interest rates that investors love.In early European trading, Germany’s DAX index added 0.2% to 23,815.68, while Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 9,246.59. In Paris, the CAC 40 edged up 0.1% to 7,707.13.The future for S&P 500 rose 0.3% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added over 1% to 43,018.75 after data released Friday showed Japan’s labor cash earnings rose 4.1% year-on-year in July, up from 3.1% in June. Another report showed household spending climbed 1.4% in July from the same month a year ago, marking growth for the third month in a row.President Donald Trump also signed an executive order Thursday implementing the U.S. trade deal with Japan negotiated in July, with lower tariffs on Japanese car imports.“Solid wage growth is likely to support recovery in spending and sustainable inflation,” ING Economics said in a commentary, adding Friday’s data reinforces its expectation that the Bank of Japan will hike rates in October.Chinese markets rebounded after three days of decline. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.5% to 25,434.93, while the Shanghai Composite index added 1.2% to 3,812.51.South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.1% to 3,205.12, and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 8,871.20.Taiwan’s Taiex jumped 1.3%, while India’s BSE Sensex bucked the trend, falling less than 0.1%.On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 added 0.8% to top the all-time high it set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 350 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1%.Stocks got some lift from easing pressure from the bond market, where Treasury yields fell following the latest reports on the U.S. job market to come in worse than economists expected. One report suggested employers, not including the government, nearly halved their hiring in August from the prior month. Another said that more workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication of rising layoffs.Neither number is flashing a recession, and a third report on activity for businesses in the information and other services industries showed stronger-than-expected growth.The upside for investors of a slowdown in the job market is that it could push the Federal Reserve to cut its main interest rate for the first time this year at its next meeting in a couple weeks. Such cuts can kickstart the economy and job market, though they can also accelerate inflation.So far this year, the Fed has kept its main interest rate on hold because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.A more comprehensive report on the job market’s health during August will arrive Friday from the U.S. Labor Department and it will likely carry much weight with the Fed. Ahead of it, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.22% late Wednesday.In other dealings Friday, benchmark U.S. crude lost 38 cents to $63.10 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, slid 32 cents to $66.67 per barrel.The U.S. dollar slipped to 148.14 Japanese yen from 148.40 yen. The euro rose to $1.1682 from $1.1654. AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report. Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Investors in athletic apparel maker Lululemon Athletica are seeing red this morning after the company reported its second-quarter fiscal 2025 results. While the athleisure brand surpassed Wall Street earnings estimates for the quarter, it provided guidance that alarmed its investors. Heres what you need to know about that guidance and why Lululemon’s stock (Nasdaq: LULU) is crashing. Lululemon Q2 results by the numbers After the closing bell yesterday, Lululemon reported its Q2 results for fiscal 2025, which ended on August 3, 2025. On the surface, the company had some modest wins for the quarter. The highlight was the companys international net revenue, which increased 22%. International comparable sales increased 15%, and gross profit increased 5% to $1.5 billion. The company also posted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.10. As noted by CNBC, these results handily beat LSEG analyst expectations of an EPS of $2.88. Yet its the companys Americas numbers, which include the United States, where cracks have begun to show. Despite strong international net revenue and comparable sales increases, net revenue in the Americas increased by just 1%. And Americas comparable sales decreased 4%. These Americas results offset a substantial number of the significant gains that Lululemon saw internationally for the quarter, and reduced its global net revenue increase to just 7% (to $2.5 billion). Global comparable sales increased just 1%. In total, Lululemon posted revenue for the quarter of $2.53 billion, slightly behind the $2.54 billion analysts expected. But those results arent primarily what have investors spooked. Rather, Lululemon’s guidance for its 2025 full fiscal-year earnings and revenue appears to have shaken investor confidence. Impact of de minimis exemption expiration and Trumps tariffs Along with its Q2 earnings, Lululemon updated its full-year earnings and revenue guidance for fiscal 2025. In terms of 2025 revenue, Lululemon said it expects to take in between $10.85 billion and $11 billion for its fiscal year. That range is below the $11.18 billion that Wall Street analysts were expecting. However, the revenue shortfall doesnt seem to be the main thing driving LULU shares lower this morning. That would be the companys revised full-year earnings outlook for 2025. Now Lululemon says it expects diluted earnings per share to be between $12.77 and $12.97. That is well below what Wall Street analysts were expecting, which CNBC says was an EPS of $14.45 per share. Why did Lululemons guidance fall so sharply? Blame two Trump-fueled policy shifts: tariffs and the end of the de minimis exemption. As Lululemon noted in its earnings release, The guidance for 2025 includes an estimated reduction in gross profit of approximately $240 million, net of currently anticipated mitigation efforts, including vendor savings, and pricing actions, reflecting our current assumptions about higher levels of tariffs on imports into the United States and the removal of the de minimis exemption. American businesses have relied on the de minimis exemption for years. It previously allowed goods valued at less than $800 to enter the country tariff-free. This means a U.S. customer could order up to $800 worth of product and a company like Lululemon could ship it to them directly without paying any import duty, thus keeping down costs. As of last month, this de minimis exemption is now a thing of the past, meaning companies will now pay more to get their goods to U.S. customers. And if companies pass those costs onto customers, customers could cut back on spending. Thats a big factor why Lululemons is forecasting a full fiscal year gross profit reduction of $240 million. LULU stock has had a bad 2025 As of the time of this writing, LULU shares are currently plummeting in premarket trading. The stock price is currently down 19% to $166.94 per share. It hasn’t been that low for over five years. But even before todays premarket crash, LULU shares have had a rough time as of late. Largely thanks to fears over how Trump’s tariffs will impact the companywhich relies on significant imports from Southeast Asian nationsLULU stock has dropped sharply in 2025. As of yesterdays closing price of $206.09, LULU shares have lost more than 46% of their value since the year began.
Category:
E-Commerce
When the Labor Department put out a disappointing jobs report a month ago, an enraged President Donald Trump responded by firing the economist in charge of compiling the numbers and nominating a loyalist to replace her.Nothing quite so dramatic is likely Friday when the department releases hiring and unemployment numbers for August. They are expected to show that companies, government agencies and nonprofits added a modest 80,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet.That would be a slight improvement on July’s 73,000 but still offer more evidence that the American job market has cooled significantly from last year.The unemployment rate is forecast to stay at a low 4.2% suggesting that employers are stuck in a no-hire, no-fire mode: They are reluctant to add many new workers but don’t want to give up the ones they have. But there are signs they may be starting to cut staff.The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly because of the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 and partly because President Donald Trump’s policies, including his trade wars, have created uncertainty that leaves managers reluctant to make hiring decisions.So far in 2025, the economy has generated 85,000 new jobs a month, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month during the hiring boom of 2021-2023 as the United States roared back from COVID-19 lockdowns.“The labor market is showing signs of cracking,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “It’s not a red siren alarm yet, but the signs keep growing that businesses are starting to cut workers.”The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits a proxy for layoffs rose last week to the highest level since June, though the number of claims remained within a healthy range.The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Wednesday that U.S.-based employers have announced more than 892,000 jobs cuts this year through August, more than the 761,000 reported for all 12 months of 2024.In a sign that U.S. hiring gains are limited and fragile, nearly 80% of new private sectors jobs this year have been created in just one industry: healthcare and social assistance, a Labor Department category that spans hospitals to daycare centers.After seeing the weak July jobs numbers, Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, baselessly claiming the hiring report had been rigged to hurt him politically.He has nominated a partisan idealogue, E.J. Antoni, to replace her. But for now, pending Antoni’s confirmation by the Senate, the jobs report is in the hands of the acting BLS commissioner, William Wiatrowski, a career Labor Department official.Economists and others familiar with how the jobs numbers are collected have expressed confidence that Labor Department procedures will keep the data are safe from political interference.What set Trump off a month ago wasn’t the July hiring or unemployment figures. It was BLS revisions, which shaved a stunning 258,000 jobs off May and June payrolls and slashed average monthly hiring from May through July to a mere 35,000.The revisions are standard practice, and necessary because many companies surveyed by the government submit their responses late or correct what they’ve already sent in.Government economists are also contending with a big drop in the share of companies that respond to the surveys. A decade ago, about 60% of companies surveyed responded. Now only about 40% do.And it’s an international problem for data collectors, especially since COVID-19. The United Kingdom even suspended publication of an official unemployment rate because of inadequate responses.“I remember being at an international conference where the chief statistician of the Russian Republic was complaining about how the Russians don’t want to complete their surveys,” William Beach, BLS commissioner from 2019 to 2023, said in an interview last month. “What could he do? If you can’t compel completion in Russia, you can’t compel it anywhere.” Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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