Chipotle Mexican Grill
is prepping for so-called “burrito season,” which runs from March to May, when warmer weather attracts more customers, particularly at colleges. The company hopes to hire 19,000 new full- and part-time employees while expanding to 7,000 restaurants in North America, up from 3,300 in September. Its target: Gen Zers.
Gen Zers account for 73% of Chipotle employees. While the youngest Gen Zers are in middle school, the oldest turn 27 this year. Glassdoor Economic Research says that Gen Z employees will overtake baby boomers in the workplace this year. The World Economic Forum estimates Gen Z will account for a third of the global workforce by 2025.
To attract Gen Zers, Chipotle is rolling out a plan that helps workers pay off student loans while saving for retirement, a debit card to help them build credit, and broader access to mental-health resources and financial education. Chipotle noted that Gen-Zers “are experiencing notable financial challenges,” from credit-card debt to “not feel[ing] confident managing their money.”
Gen Zers are likelier to job-hop than older cohorts. Chipotle hasn’t shrunk from the challenge, investing in sustainable start-ups, staying open later in college towns during Halloween, and adding TikTok-inspired menu items. The payoff? Chipotle ranks within the top five restaurant brands favored by Gen Z, according to a Piper Sandler’s survey titled Taking Stock With Teens.
Write to Sabrina Escobar at [email protected]
Last Week
Markets
China’s CSI 3000 index hit its lowest level in five years, as the government reduced bank reserve requirements and mulls other measures. Bitcoin prices fell 15%, then bounced. Tech stocks powered more index highs. Fourth-quarter growth came in above expectations at 3.3%. December inflation was moderate at 0.2%. On the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.65% to a new high. The S&P 500 gained 1.06%, and the Nasdaq Composite, 0.94%.
Companies
Exxon Mobil
sued two investment firms planning to introduce a shareholder proposal to reduce emissions. The FAA froze an increase in Boeing’s 737 MAX production. It was a big earnings week:
Johnson & Johnson
barely beat on earnings; price hikes lifted
Procter & Gamble
;
Netflix
added 13 million new subscribers;
Tesla
and Intel warned of slowing sales.
JPMorgan Chase’s
Jamie Dimon again reshuffled his senior team. Succession, anyone?
Microsoft
topped $3 trillion in market cap for the first time.
Deals
Macy’s
rejected a $5.8 billion takeover offer from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, a 19% premium…France’s national lottery, FDJ, agreed to buy Sweden’s Kindred for $2.7 billion, creating a Euro betting giant…
Sanofi
agreed to pay $2.2 billion to buy California-based
Inhibrx.
The French pharma plans to keep Inhibrx’s lung-cancer therapy and spin off the rest of the company…
Sony
called off its $10 billion deal for India’s
Zee Entertainment,
two years after the announcement, on a dispute over the CEO job.
Write to Robert Teitelman at [email protected]
Next Week
Tuesday 1/30
In a week in which more than 100 S&P 500 companies are expected to report earnings, all eyes will be on five of 2023’s Magnificent Seven.
Alphabet
and Microsoft announce quarterly results on Tuesday.
Amazon.com,
Apple,
and
Meta Platforms
follow on Thursday. Shares of the five companies, which have a combined 24% weighting in the S&P 500 index, gained an average of 88% last year, and are up 6.5% on average so far this year.
Wednesday 1/31
The Federal Open Market Committee announces its monetary-policy decision. The FOMC is widely expected to keep the federal-funds rate unchanged at 5.25%-5.50%. Wall Street will be listening intently to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s postmeeting conference for signals about when the central bank might begin cutting interest rates. Despite strong GDP growth in 2023 and a tight labor market, traders are pricing in a 50% chance of a quarter-of-a-percentage-point rate cut at the March FOMC meeting.
Friday 2/2
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the jobs report for January. Consensus estimate is for an increase of 175,000 in nonfarm payrolls, after a 216,000 gain in December. The unemployment rate is expected to tick up to 3.8% from 3.7%.
Email: [email protected]
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