Consumer companies were more or less flat as deal activity offset earnings doubts.
Shares of JDE Peet rallied after rival beverage maker Keurig Dr Pepper agreed to buy the Peet's Coffee owner for $18 billion, a prelude to spinning off Keurig's coffee brands into a separate public company.
Cracker Barrel replaced its longtime logo, featuring a man in overalls leaning against a barrel, with a streamlined version featuring just the chain's name, inadvertently opening a new front in the online culture wars.
Earnings from retailers such as Best Buy, Kohl's and Abercrombie & Fitch will provide another glimpse of how tariffs are affecting prices, demand and profit margins, said one strategist.
"By the end of the week, we will have more insight into the health of the consumer during what could be dubbed very uncertain time for consumers," said J.D. Joyce, president of Houston financial advisory Joyce Wealth Management. "Imagine running a consumer business, with the potential change in demand -- and, more likely -- changes in supply just because of all outside influences with tariffs, etc."
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-25-25 1814ET
