Finances

Mission Produce, Inc. (AVO) announced its third quarter earnings on Monday, September 8. The company exceeded analysts’ revenue expectations, causing its shares to rise by almost 5% following the report’s release.

Mission posted quarterly revenue of $357.7 billion, up 10% from $324.0 billion reported in the same quarter last year. Third quarter revenue was above analysts’ estimates of $323.61 million.

"This quarter, our commercial team demonstrated its unique ability to effectively program our owned Peruvian production to strategically deliver fruit into multiple global regions, resulting in supply consistency for our consumers and another quarter of strong financial performance," said Mission CEO, Steve Barnard. “What is particularly encouraging is how our operations have adapted to market volatility — we have now demonstrated our ability to deliver solid results whether facing difficult supply conditions or favorable harvest environments, reflecting the consistency and operational excellence that helps us navigate various headwinds and capitalize on opportunities as they arise.”

Mission posted net income of $14.7 million or $0.21 per adjusted share. This was an improvement from net income of $12.4 million or $0.17 per adjusted share the previous year.

The Oxnard, California-based produce company is one of the largest suppliers of avocados worldwide. For the third quarter, Mission’s net sales in the Marketing and Distribution segment increased 7% over the prior year to reach $344.1 million. The company attributed the increase to higher avocado volumes which were partially offset by decreased sales prices. The company’s International Farming segment reported a 79% increase in sales to $49.0 million for the quarter, and its Blueberries segment returned an increase of 181% to $4.5 million. For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, Mission expects to export approximately 105 million to 110 million pounds of Peruvian avocados but anticipates that prices will decrease by 20% to 25% compared to the previous year.

Mission Produce, Inc. (AVO) shares ended the week at $12.74, down 2% for the week.

Oracle Releases Earnings Report

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) released its first quarter earnings on Tuesday, September 9. The multinational computer technology company’s stock rose 30% after the release of the report.

The company posted revenue of $14.93 billion for the quarter. This was up 12% from $13.31 billion reported in the same quarter last year but was below analysts’ expectations of $15.04 billion.

"It was an astonishing quarter—and demand for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure continues to build,” said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz. “The scale of our recent RPO growth enables us to make a large upward revision to the Cloud Infrastructure portion of Oracle's overall financial plan which we will be presenting in detail next month at the Financial Analyst Meeting. Oracle is off to a brilliant start to FY26.”

For the first quarter, Oracle reported net income of $2.93 billion or $1.01 per adjusted share. This was relatively unchanged from net income of $2.93 billion or $1.03 per adjusted share reported the previous year.

The company’s Cloud segment revenue was up 28% to $7.2 billion in the quarter. Oracle’s Software segment revenues were down 1% to $5.7 billion. The company’s Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO), a measure of expected future contract revenues, were up 359% to $455 billion. Oracle’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share of common stock. The cash dividend will be due to the stockholders of record on October 9, 2025, with an anticipated payment date of October 23, 2025.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) shares closed at $292.18, up 22% for the week.

Chewy Announces Earnings

Chewy, Inc. (CHWY) released its second quarter earnings report on Wednesday, September 10. Despite reporting increased quarterly revenue, the online pet supply company’s stock fell nearly 10% following release of the report.  

The company reported net sales of $3.10 billion for the quarter. This was up 8.6% from $2.86 billion in the same quarter last year and slightly above analysts’ expectations of $3.08 billion.

“Q2 net sales exceeded the high end of our guidance range, growing nearly 9% year over year to $3.1 billion, with Autoship customer net sales increasing by 15% and representing 83% of total net sales for the quarter,” said Chewy CEO, Sumit Singh. “Chewy’s differentiated value proposition was once again on display, with both active customers and share of wallet (NSPAC) growing 4.5% year over year to reach nearly 21 million customers and $591, respectively.”

The company reported net income of $62.0 million this quarter or $0.14 per adjusted share. This was a significant decrease in net income of $299.1 million or $0.68 per adjusted share during the same time last year.

Chewy reported nearly 21 million active customers in the quarter, up 4.5% compared to this time last year. The company’s net sales per active customer increased to $591, a 4.6% increase compared to a year ago. Chewy’s Autoship subscription program, which allows customers to automatically reorder products, increased sales by almost 15% to $2.58 billion for the second quarter. For the third quarter of fiscal 2025, Chewy expects 7% to 8% growth in net sales ranging between $3.07 billion and $3.10 billion.

Chewy, Inc. (CHWY) shares ended the week at $34.66, down 20% for the week.

The Dow started the week of 9/8 at 45,431 and closed at 45,834 on 9/12. The S&P 500 started the week at 6,498 and closed at 6,584. The NASDAQ opened the week at 21,806 and closed at 21,141.

U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors reacted to the latest U.S. inflation reports. Yields continued to decrease midweek as the latest employment figures indicated a weakening labor market, which suggested that the Federal Reserve is likely to lower interest rates next week.

On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the cost of dozens of everyday consumer goods, increased 0.4% in August. This was double the July growth and exceeded analysts’ expectations of a 0.3% gain. The CPI rose to 2.9% year-over-year, in line with analyst’s expectations.

“Today's CPI report has been trumped by the jobless claims report,” said chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, Seema Shah. "While the CPI report is a tad hotter than expected, it will not give the Fed a moment of hesitation when they announce a rate cut next week."

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield opened the week of September 8 at 4.08% and traded as low as 4.00% on Thursday. The 30-year Treasury bond opened the week at 4.76% and traded as low as 4.64% on Thursday.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that initial claims for unemployment increased by 27,000 to 263,000 for the week ended September 6, above analysts’ expectations of 235,000. Continuing unemployment claims totaled 1.94 million, unchanged from the prior week.

“Inflation remains hotter than hoped, but the Fed's focus is jobs,” said chief international economist at ING, James Knightley. “On the face of it, this hints at a pick-up in the pace of layoffs in an environment of already weak hiring and will reaffirm expectations of a 25-bp (basis point) Fed rate cut next week.”

The 10-year Treasury note yield finished the week of 9/8 at 4.07%, while the 30-year Treasury note yield finished the week at 4.68%.

Freddie Mac released its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey on Thursday, September 11. The survey showed the 30-year mortgage rate falling to the lowest level since October 2024.

This week, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.35%, down from last week’s average of 6.50%. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.20%.

The 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.50% this week, down from last week’s 5.60%. During the same week last year, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.27%.

“The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 15 basis points from last week, the largest weekly drop in the past year,” said Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist, Sam Khater. “Mortgage rates are headed in the right direction and homebuyers have noticed, as purchase applications reached the highest year-over-year growth rate in more than four years.”

Based on published national averages, the savings rate was 0.39% as of 8/18. The one-year CD averaged 1.76%.