Nike sprints past low bar, shares jump
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Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. We've made it to the final Friday in June. It's Friday, June 27th. I'm Julie Morgan. Nike delivers a win, Unilever adds a premium brand, and there's rare earth progress with China.

Nike's fiscal fourth quarter results were better than Wall Street feared and in line with the company's own modest expectations.

Nike anticipated a lackluster quarter as its transition plan under its new CEO continues to gain traction. But despite the cautious tone, the results included a top and bottom line beat as well as as expected North American, China, and EMEA sales. For the reported quarter, Nike earned an adjusted profit of 14 cents per share, down 86% from last year but two cents better than expected.

Total sales were down 12% to $11.1 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $10.72 billion. Gross margin narrowed by 440 basis points to a slightly better-than-expected 40.3%.

Management identified new tariffs as a new and meaningful cost headwind, estimating a $1 billion impact and outlining mitigation strategies including supply chain optimization, phase price increases, and cost reductions. Pre-market Nike is up 10% after gaining more than 2% on Thursday.

The White House has announced a framework agreement with Beijing agreeing to supply rare earths in exchange for the lifting of U.S. countermeasures. China signaled on Friday that it would approve the deal in a statement from the country's Ministry of Commerce.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also told Bloomberg on Thursday that President Trump was also prepared to finalize a slate of trade deals in the coming two weeks in connection with the president's July 9th deadline to reinstate higher tariffs he paused in April.

Unilever has agreed to acquire the men's grooming brand Dr. Squatch for $1.5 billion from private equity firm Summit Partners, according to a Financial Times report. The deal was announced earlier this week on Monday, but the transaction amount was not disclosed at that time. Dr. Squatch is known for its natural premium personal care products, especially among millennial and Gen Z men.

The brand has annual revenues reportedly on track to surpass $400 million. Now for a look at a few other articles that are trending on Seeking Alpha. We're asking our analysts, what are the best crypto stocks right now? Lee Auto lowers its Q2 delivery outlook to 108,000 vehicles due to system upgrade. And Enphase Energy surges to the top of the S&P 500 on solar tax credit optimism.

Now for a quick look at Wall Street ahead of the opening bell. Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is up 1% at $65 a barrel. Bitcoin is flat at $106,000. Gold is down 1.2% at $3,289.

Toyota Motor is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market. TM is up 3% after the automaker reported its fifth straight monthly increase in global sales for May, marking a third consecutive monthly record.

On today's economic calendar, at 8.30 a.m., personal income and outlays. The core PCE price index is expected to rise 0.1% month-over-month in May, according to a consensus of economists. Meanwhile, PCE prices are also expected to stay at a 0.1% month-over-month increase.

On a year-over-year basis, that comes to a 2.6% increase in core PCE versus 2.5% in the previous month and a 2.3% rise in headline PCE versus 2.1% in April. At 9.15 a.m., the Fed's Beth Hammack will participate in a Fed Listens moderated discussion on labor market conditions, inflation, and interest rates before a policy summit hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

And at 10 a.m., Consumer Sentiment. That's it for today's Wall Street Breakfast. Thanks for listening. To take full advantage of Seeking Alpha, join the highest quality community of real investors discussing stocks and ETFs at seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day.