The Rundown - Target Sees Growth Ahead, Oil & Gas Prices Jump

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Market update for Tuesday March 3, 2026Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode:Oil and gas jumps from Strait of Hormuz disruptionTarget forecasts sales growth for the first time in three yearsBest Buy beats on profits despite soft holiday salesApple kicks off a major product wave this weekPinterest pops after a $1B investment from activist Elliott ManagementOn Holding tumbles on slower 2026 growth outlookFun Fact: 40% of Americans didn’t read a single book last year

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zaid Admani, and today is Tuesday, March 3rd. In today's episode, we'll tell you why energy prices keep soaring. We'll also recap earnings from Target and Best Buy and tell you about all the products that Apple launched this week. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out a shocking stat about reading and bookstores. We got a great show for you today. Let's go.

Stocks pulled off a crazy reversal on Monday. After the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran over the weekend, markets opened down more than 1%. It was geared up to be a rough day, but then the buyers stepped in, and by the close, the S&P 500 actually finished in the green up 0.04%. The NASDAG did even better, adding 0.4%, led by big tech names like Nvidia, in Microsoft. You know, this was the S&P's biggest intradate comeback since November. So the stock market

kind of shrugged off the geopolitical conflicts on Monday. Today, though, more fear seems to be setting in. I'm looking at the markets before the open and it looks pretty ugly. I think there is concerned that the Iran conflict could drag on for weeks. Oil prices continue to surge. Prices were up 7% on Monday and they're up another 6% again today. You know, the conflict with Iran has pretty much halted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which has about 20% of global oil supply, through it. Natural gas prices are also spiking up 30% after Guthr, the world's second largest LNG exporter, suspended production at a key plant following a drone strike. So there's a ton of chaos happening in the Middle East, and energy prices are seeing the biggest impact as of right now.

And if energy prices stay higher for longer, that could push up inflation again, which could prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates. So yeah, a lot to watch here. I mean, markets were already pretty volatile before this week, and now things could escalate even further. So we're keeping and I and all this stuff, make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast and tuning in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines, starting with earnings from retailers. Two of the biggest retailers reported this morning, Target and Best Buy, and both their stocks are up, but for different reasons. Let's start with Target. The company continues to be in a rough stretch. Comparable sales dropped another 2.5% last quarter, making that the fourth straight quarter of sales

decline, and customer traffic also fell for the fourth straight quarter. Profits also took a hit, net income slipped to about a billion dollars, which is down five percent from a year ago. So overall, it wasn't a great report from Target. You know, they seem to be getting crushed from competitors like Walmart, Costco, and T.J. Max. But despite that, Target stock is actually up around 3% this morning. New CEO, Michael Fidelke, who took over as CEO on February 1st, says the bleeding at Target has stopped and sales actually turned positive in February. In fact, For the full year, Target expects sales to grow by 2%. That would be the first annual sales increase in three years.

The challenge that Target faces is that nearly 30% of their revenue comes from discretionary items, things like apparel, home goods, seasonal decor, and people just buy less of those items during times of economic uncertainty. But it seems like Target thinks a turnaround is around the corner. Now, let's talk about Best Buy. They had a mixed quarter as well. Revenues last quarter came in at $13.8 billion missing expectations. Comparable sales fell by 0.8% in demand for the big ticket items like appliances,

TVs, and home theater systems stayed soft. But despite that, the stock is up around 5% this morning, and it's because Best Buy's profits came in strong. Best Buy has been leading into higher margin businesses like advertising and their new third-party marketplace. And that is starting to pay off. Their ad partners nearly doubled year over year. But overall, the takeaway for me here is that U.S. consumers are still spending,

but just being more selective. And it also seems like people are just doing. all their shopping at one place. That's why these mega retailers like Walmart and Costco are dominating right now. People go in to buy groceries and they might end up buying a TV or something. And that's why its Target and Best Buy are seeing their sales flatline. Let's shift gears and talk about Apple. They've been launching a ton of products this week.

Yesterday they showed off the iPhone 17E, which is their budget iPhone starting at $600. This iPhone's got the same A-19 chip as the regular iPhone 17 and Apple's new in-house. house wireless modem. To me, the best part is they doubled the storage on the base model of this iPhone to 256 gigabytes, and they also included Mac Safe charging, which last year's iPhone 16E didn't have. So it's not a bad budget phone. I might get one for my dad. Oh, and yesterday, Apple also refreshed the iPad Air with the M4 chip, making it about 30% faster. You know, I have an M1 iPad and I see no reasons to upgrade anytime soon. It's good enough. Now, today, Apple just showed off their latest MacBook refreshes. The

MacBook Air now has an M5 chip and doubled the base storage to 512 gigabytes, which is nice to see. Now, the price starts at $1,100, which is $100 more expensive in the previous MacBook Air. I imagine the increase in ramp prices is playing a role in that. And the MacBook Pro also got upgraded to the M5 Pro chip and the M5 Max chip with 1 terabytes of base storage. But again, prices went up across the board for the MacBook Pro. What I'm really looking forward to is what Apple shows off tomorrow, because the rumor is that Apple will show off a low-cost MacBook that runs on an iPhone chip.

If they price this low-cost MacBook at like $600, it could be a big hit. I might actually get one for my wife. So yeah, a big week for Apple. Unfortunately, there's no news on an updated AI-powered Siri, but at this point, I've given up all hope for that. By the way, Apple stock, it's been the second best-performing Magnificent Stock this year after meta, and they're less than 10% away from all-time high. keep an eye on Apple stock. They might hit all-time highs pretty soon. Let's talk about some stocks

making moves today. Pinterest shares are popping this morning after the activist investor Elliott management revealed a $1 billion stake in the company. Now, usually when Elliott shows up, it's not exactly a warm hug. They're known for pushing aggressive changes like cost cuts, Ford shakeups and strategic pivots. I mean, just asked Southwest Airlines. But this time, it's a little different. Pinterest actually welcomed the investment with CEO Bill Reddy calling it a vote of confidence. Plus, Elliot does have a track record of turning businesses around. Again, as Southwest Airlines, their stock is up big since Elliott got involved. Pinterest has been struggling recently. The stock has lost nearly a third of

its value this year, and they've been dealing with slowing growth and tariffs hitting their advertisers, and they just cut about 15% of their workforce last month. So we'll see what effect Elliot's involvement has on the company. Investors seem to be excited, though. Pinterest shares are up around 7% this morning at the time of this recording. Now, on the flip side, On Holdings is getting crushed today after the Swiss sneaker maker issued weaker than expected guidance for 2026. Now, Q4 earnings were solid. Revenue was up 22% and margins came in better than expected. But it was the 2026 forecast that spooked investors.

The company expects sales to grow around 23% this year, which is below expectations and a pretty significant slowdown from the 35% growth in 2025. Now, to be fair, On is still crushing the competition. Nike sales, for example, declined last fiscal. year, and Hoka's parent company, Decker's expects only mid-teens growth this year. So On is doing much better than its competition. But the thing is, on stock price was already priced at a high valuation, and any signs of a significant slowdown has the market's concerned. As a result, shares of On holdings are down around 10% this morning at the time of this recording.

Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. According to a new UGov survey, 40% of American adults did not read a single book. in 2025. Reading for pleasure dropped more than 40% over the last 20 years, which isn't that surprising with all the distractions these days, you know, especially on your phone. I'll be honest, like even me, I don't read as many books as I used to, but there are a select few people that are reading a lot. The top 4% of readers account for 50% of all books read last year. Another stat that caught my eye from the survey was that people are choosing physical books over digital and audio books at a two to one rate. That was kind of surprising to me. I thought people were reading

a lot on their Kindles, but no, people still prefer physical books. And finally, bookstores seem to be making a comeback. Independent bookstores have grown by 70% in the U.S. over the last five years. Bookstores are the best. You know, I used to go to Barnes & Noble a lot when I was in high school to study. There's actually a Barnes & Noble being built like five minutes from my house now, and I'm so pumped. Going to go there to read through earnings reports and stuff. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. If you did and you have like five extra seconds, consider giving us a five star rating on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast.

If you are listening on Spotify, don't forget to vote in today's Spotify poll. Leave us a comment on Spotify. All that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and Connor for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play.

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