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Earnings

Natasha Piñon

cfobrew.com

There’s nothing better than a good matchup. George Foreman versus Muhammad Ali, milk versus cookies, Star Wars versus the other one that can’t be named.

And that’s exactly what appeared to be happening in the latest batch of earnings reports, which looked like battle royale for big box retailers, with key players facing their competitors. These closely watched reports each offered a look at how cash-strapped consumers are (and aren’t) spending in a darkening economic landscape.

In one corner, Home Depot. In the other, Lowe's. Both are watched for their proximity to the housing market and homebuilding, neither of which have been doing especially well lately. In August, homebuilder sentiment in the US 

 to its lowest level in over two-and-a-half years.

Home Depot seemed unfazed by the low morale in housing, sticking to its full-year outlook. In its latest earnings report, the company said it still expects full-year total sales to climb by 2.8%.

But is that confidence fully founded? This marks the second straight quarter of earnings misses for the home improvement retailer, and its Q2 2025 report was the first since May 2014 to miss on both earnings and revenue expectations, 

But you can see where the optimism is coming from, as the company waits for the tides of home improvement spending to tick up. On the company’s earnings call, CEO Ted Decker noted that “some relief on mortgage rates, in particular, could help.”

The biggest culprit holding consumers back from spending is the elephant in 

“The No. 1 reason for deferring the large [home improvement] project is general economic uncertainty,” he said. “That, you know, is larger than prices of projects, of labor availability, all the various things we’ve talked about in the past by a wide margin.”

And those deferred projects have caused Home Depot to change its course on tariff-induced price hikes, with McPhail telling the 

 now “there will be some modest price movement for some categories.”

Meanwhile, competitor Lowe’s was largely playing catchup. The company announced a $8.8 billion cash deal to purchase building materials maker Foundation Building Materials; this follows a Home Depot subsidiary’s purchase of a specialty building products distributor for $4.3 billion under 

Lowe’s reported $2.4 billion in net income, a 0.6% climb from the same time last year. Michael Baker, an analyst at financial services company D.A. Davidson, 

 that Lowe’s showcased plenty of positives in its latest report, especially when it comes to comparable sales growth. Lowe’s bested Home Depot in that category, which he said was the first time that has happened since Q3 2024.

 There was a more obvious winner in the showdown between Target and Walmart.

. Its longtime CEO Brian Cornell is stepping down, a widely anticipated move that analysts thought could usher in a fresh, outside voice to the struggling company. Instead, Cornell 

 in February 2026 by the company’s COO Michael Fiddelke, who’s been with the company for 20 years.

In its latest earnings report, Target posted sales that marked a 

. This year, Target’s stock has ranked among the worst performing companies on the S&P 500, 

With that backdrop, everything that competitor Walmart had to offer looked positively rosy. So, even as the big box retailer missed on quarterly earnings for the first time since May 2022, 

The company raised its full-year earnings and sales outlooks. On an earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon noted that while lower- and middle-income consumers have turned to cheaper alternatives, the company hasn’t encountered an across-the-board pullback on consumer spending because of tariffs, which have pushed up Walmart’s costs every week.

Even in the best matchups, it’s not always a fair fight.

Big box retailers duked it out in earnings reports last week  

These closely watched reports offered a look at how cash-strapped consumers are (and aren’t) spending in a darkening economic landscape. 

Courtney Vien

Spirit Airlines may soon find itself grounded.

’ about its ability to continue as a going concern over the next year,” according to the Associated Press. In securities filings, it stated that it’s having difficulty meeting its credit card processors’ 

Spirit, which flies to destinations in the US, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, mentioned “adverse market conditions” as one reason for its struggles. Demand for domestic flights is down, it said, and it expects that trend to continue through the end of this year. Consumers appear to be 

 on travel spending this summer due to concerns about tariffs and the economy, and lower- and middle-income travelers may opt to drive rather than fly.

, at least in some income brackets. Delta had a record second quarter, driven by a 5% rise in sales for premium seats, though sales of main cabin seats fell by 5%. It revised its third-quarter EPS guidance downward.

Spirit has had years of financial struggles. It failed to capitalize on the post-pandemic travel boom and lost more than $2.5 billion between 2020 and 2024, per the AP. In 2024, it cut its domestic flights by 20%, and started charging for snacks, drinks, and wi-fi. Despite those measures, it 

The airline emerged from bankruptcy protection in March 2025, having restructured its debt and secured new funding. To free up cash, it said, it plans to furlough around 270 pilots and demote around 140 others, and it will sell or monetize some aircraft and real estate.

If Spirit does go under, look for other airlines to pounce on it. Its fleet is newer, making it an “attractive takeover target,” the AP reported. Frontier and JetBlue have tried unsuccessfully to acquire Spirit in the past.

Spirit Airlines doubts it can continue as a going concern

Decreased travel demand and increased competition are sinking the budget carrier.

Jesse Klein

You probably won’t see Elon posting about this news much.

Tesla’s total revenue fell for the second straight quarter, coming in at $22.5 billion, slightly less than the $22.6 billion–$22.7 billion analysts forecast. This represents a 12% YoY revenue drop, down from $25.5 billion a year ago.

. At the beginning of the year, the company seemed 

 the benefits of President Trump’s favor as Musk palled around with the president as head of the “Department of Government Efficiency.”

But the happy days didn’t last long—Trump and Musk fell out 

 soured on Musk’s involvement with Trump. Now the blowback is showing up in Tesla’s balance sheet; deliveries fell 13% YoY. And there are more sales challenges on the horizon: Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” cuts the 

 for electric vehicles at the end of September, making the company’s vehicles more expensive to buy.

On the earnings call, Musk pointed to the 

 as a factor that could hurt future Tesla sales, warning that the company “probably could have a few rough quarters.”

Even with the incentive to buy an EV before September 30, Tesla’s vehicle deliveries dropped in the second quarter as 

looked to other, more affordable (or less controversial) brands.

CFO Vaibhav Taneja signaled Tesla would increase production of its more affordable model for the post-EV credit era. Tesla has been flirting with a 

 for years, and started production in June. The company is also looking into other delayed projects like the Tesla Semi and its Cybercab robotaxi, which has started a 

As for Musk’s frenemy, Trump posted on Truth Social that he isn’t 

 and that he wants “Elon, and all businesses within our Country, to thrive, in fact, THRIVE like never before!”

We’ll see if that warrants a tweet from Elon.

Tesla revenue drops 12% year over year 

With an expiring EV credit and more competition from other automakers, Tesla is feeling the heat.

If the Oscars tell us the best movies of the year, there’s always the Razzies to honor the worst. And if earnings reports can tell us who’s winning amidst a 

Enter a new loser in the tariff saga: General Motors, which reported a $1.1 billion hit from tariffs in the latest quarter. Yes, 

. That sent GM’s profit plummeting in Q2 by 

In May, GM lowered its full-year profit guidance, saying it expected to face from $4 billion to $5 billion in tariff-related costs over the course of the year. In its latest earnings report, the company affirmed its guidance, but said it anticipates a larger tariff hit in Q3 than in the latest quarter “due to timing of indirect tariff costs.”

For Q2, profit came in at $1.9 billion, declining from $2.9 billion in Q2 2024.

Despite the apparent doom and gloom, General Motors stressed that it was “making solid progress” toward its goal of mitigating “at least 30%” of the tariff impact “through manufacturing adjustments, targeted cost initiatives, and consistent pricing.”

And if the company is sweating, it’s not letting it show. “We’ve got a longer-term plan to be able to mitigate a substantial part of this,” CFO Paul Jacobson said in reference to tariffs during the company’s earnings call. “We’re obviously looking for things to normalize around these trade deals that will get done, and we expect that will happen.”

GM is far from the only automaker struggling with tariff costs. Earlier this week, Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram cars and trucks, reported a 

, which it attributed in part to tariffs and other Republican policies.

GM reports $1.1 billion tariff hit 

Oof, that’s gotta hurt. 

 about the impact that tariffs will have on companies’ bottom lines. For Stellantis, the tariff bill has come in at 

—and that’s for just the first half of the year.

The automaker, which owns Dodge, Ram, Fiat, Chrysler, and Peugeot in addition to Jeep, atypically 

 unaudited financial information for the first half of the year because it was “shaping up to be worse than analyst forecasts,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Analysts had predicted a $2.2 billion profit, but Stellantis reported only $585 million. Shipments dropped 6% YoY in Q2, and the company saw a $2.7 billion loss for the first six months of the year, its worst since 2021.

Stellantis cited several factors driving the losses, including higher industrial costs, adverse foreign exchange rate changes, shuttered production capacity, and the monster wallop of US tariffs.

Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann said the full year impact of tariffs could climb to $1.8 billion.

Revenue dropped 12.6% to $87 billion, down from $99.4 billion in the first half of 2024. The company expects North American shipments to continue to decline by 25% YoY in H2.

Stellantis will publish audited financial results as planned on July 29.

Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Stellantis dealership

Stellantis reports $350 million in tariff costs

The maker of Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and others netted a $2.68 billion loss in the first half of 2025. 

 as investors, spooked by volatility, rushed to make changes to their portfolios. In Q2, the banks still made, well, 

, though trading was less frenzied. Consumers are hanging in there, bank leaders said during earnings calls, and deals may be returning.

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley all beat analysts’ expectations for both revenue and earnings per share in the most recent quarter. Bank of America was the only major US bank to miss expectations for revenue in Q2; even so, it notched its second-highest top-line revenue ever.

, but within a few weeks’ time, businesses and consumers seemed to adapt, executives said. Ted Pick, CEO of Morgan Stanley, observed, per Reuters, that “the second quarter unfolded with 

. The first half began with uncertainty and market volatility associated with the US trade policy, and the second half ended with increasing engagement and a steady rebound in capital markets.”

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon likewise noted in a press release that “[a]t this time, the economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment.” And Citi CFO Mark Mason said that market participants have had “more 

 with how to deal with uncertainty and volatility and the impact of tariffs,” Reuters reported. (

Trading remained robust in Q2. Morgan Stanley’s stock traders, for instance, came close to 

 for second-quarter trading fees. Its equity trading revenue was up 23% year over year.

Citi’s traders had their “best second quarter in five years,” 

. “Volatility is going to, I suspect, be 

, of the new world order, and we will benefit from that,” Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser said, per CNBC.

 due to uncertainty, but they may be regaining their appetite for M&As. JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Citi all saw I-bank fees rise, due in part to growth in deals.

“Most of these companies are just ready to get on with it,” Sharon Yeshaya, CFO of Morgan Stanley, told Bloomberg. “You saw very high receptivity to IPOs.”

Bank leaders also said they’re not seeing signs of a consumer slowdown.

“Consumers remained resilient, with healthy spending and asset quality, and commercial borrower utilization rates rose,” BoA CEO Brian Moynihan said in an earnings report. JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum said on an earnings call that “the consumer basically 

,” and that “in a world with 4.1% unemployment rate, it’s just going to be hard, especially in our portfolio, to see a lot of weakness.”

Big banks notch robust Q2 earnings

The market is adapting to volatility, execs said. 

Levi Strauss upped its full-year guidance in its Q2 earnings report, an optimistic signal for investors worried that 

 in particular are being harmed by President Trump’s volatile trade policies.

The denim maker reported net revenues of $1.4 billion, up 6% from the same time last year. Net income for the quarter came in at $67 million, a significant jump from $18 million the same quarter last year.

On the back of a solid report, Levi’s raised its full-year revenue guidance, expecting sales to climb between 1% and 2%, an improvement from its former guidance of a 1% to 2% decline. It’s also significantly better than the downward 5.2% forecast by analysts, per LSEG.

But this is 2025, and before Levi’s CFO Harmit Singh shared the company’s guidance on an 

, he went out of his way to address tariffs, noting that Levi’s guidance “assumes an additional 30% tariff on goods arriving in the US from China and an additional 10% tariff on US imports from the rest of the world.”

While the retailer doesn’t share its primary manufacturing hubs, Singh 

 the majority of its supply comes from Southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, and Trump has recently threatened Bangladesh and Indonesia with higher tariffs.

With its current mitigation strategies in place, including supply chain diversification and vendor negotiations, the company expects tariffs to impact the business for the remainder of the year by 2 or 3 cents per share, or $25 to $30 million.

“We are doing our part. We are absorbing some of the costs. What helps is that our business is so strong,” Levi’s CEO Michelle Gass told CNBC. “We have been pulling back on promotions anyway, that’s leading to more full-price selling, and some of our new innovation, our new fits, we’re pricing at a premium, and they’re buying. So all of those things help us navigate this time of having the tariff headwind.”