Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.
Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, June 25th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far. Wall Street gets ready to say, Clatu Borado Nikto. Fans of Blade Runner, iRobot, and Westworld will get the chance to invest in that future, as Roundhill Investments prepares to launch the Roundhill Humanoid Robotics ETF. That droid ETF will trade under the ticker symbol HUMN. Human will be an actively managed fund with an annual operating expense ratio of 0.75%.
The ETS seeks to provide exposure to companies involved in the development, production, or supply of technologies essential to humanoid robots, machines designed to mimic human form and function using artificial intelligence, sensors, and mechanical actuators.
In its filing, Roundhill says eligible holdings will include humanoid robotic companies defined as businesses that either manufacture humanoid robots or produce critical enabling technologies such as AI locomotion stacks, tactile sensors, or power systems. To qualify for inclusion, companies must either be in commercial production of humanoid robots or related tech or have developed a fully functional prototype and be progressing towards commercialization.
While no direct holdings were yet listed, some stocks that may find themselves in human are Tesla, Nvidia, Intuitive Surgical, ABB, and Teradyne. On the economic front, more cracks are showing in the housing market. May new home sales tumbled 13.7% month-on-month to 623,000 in May from an annual rate of 722,000 in April, lower than the 694,000 consensus.
The median sales price of new homes sold last month rose 3.7% to $426,600. Odetta Cushy, the deputy chief economist at First American, says while one month doesn't establish a trend, especially in such a volatile series, the decline in sales indicates buyer hesitancy.
Nevertheless, builders can utilize tools like mortgage rate buy-downs, design upgrades, and flexible pricing to attract buyers. They may need to rely more heavily on these incentives to entice those jittery buyers off the sidelines. Among active stocks, Bumble is rallying sharply as the online dating and social networking platform announced it is laying off about 30% of its workforce, or 240 positions. It also revised Q2 revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance higher.
Pony AI is up after the autonomous driving company was added to the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index. NVIDIA caught a street-high price target as loop capital markets raised their view. Analyst Ananda Baru boosted his price target to $250 from $175, citing the belief that hyperscale and AI factor spending could reach $2 trillion by 2028.
Baru says NVIDIA could hit a $6 trillion market cap on the view that the company essentially has a monopoly in critical tech and has strong pricing power. General Mills is under pressure on concerns about the company's organic sales and disappointing profit outlook. The company warned that it expects category growth to be below its long-term projections, reflecting less benefit from price mix amid a continued challenging consumer backdrop.
And FedEx is struggling post-earnings. The company highlighted its resilience in the face of global trade challenges, with two consecutive years of earnings growth despite industry softness, fewer operating days, the expiration of a major U.S. Postal Service contract, and weather disruptions. But the shipping giant did not provide a full-year sales or profit outlook, which disappointed investors.
Evercore analyst Jonathan Chappell, who has an outperform on the stock, said, "...although the first quarter of 2026 outlook is inarguably well below expectations, the path forward should look different than that of historical seasonal trends as specific challenges to this quarter abate, barring, of course, a full-blown trade war."
And in other news of note, Walmart is reportedly testing dark stores, warehouse-like facilities close to the public, as part of its push to speed up deliveries and compete more effectively with Amazon. Bloomberg says the company has opened one of these smaller warehouses in Dallas and plans another in Bentonville, Arkansas, with more locations under consideration. The new dark stores will stock popular items and are designed to expand delivery range and improve speed.
While Walmart operated similar facilities during the mid-2010s through the pandemic, it later shuttered them. A Walmart spokesperson said the company routinely tests new capabilities to enhance the customer experience. That's all for today's Wall Street Lunch. Look for links for stories in the show notes section. Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at SeekingAlpha.com slash WSB. And make sure you're getting the most out of your portfolio with quant, news, and analysis by heading to SeekingAlpha.com slash subscriptions.