Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis. Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, November 26th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far. Consumers have already spent nearly $80 billion online this holiday season. Adobe says early spending is running about 7.5% ahead of last year's pace.
Adobe highlighted that early deals are driving a lot of the momentum. Over the first 23 days of the season, discounts for electronics peaked at 12%, but are expected to jump to 29% on Cyber Monday. For other categories, Cyber Monday is set to have the biggest discounts of apparel at 25%, and for computers at 23%.
Meanwhile, Black Friday is forecast to have the steepest markdowns for televisions at 23%. Toys and appliances are also set for big discounts. The data from Adobe indicated that shoppers are also trading up to higher ticket items, taking advantage of deals to get greater value. Generative AI is also becoming a major holiday shopping factor.
In the first 23 days, AI traffic jumped 830% year-over-year. The tools are most used for toys, video games, appliances, personal care, and electronics.
Chapter 2: How much are consumers spending online this holiday season?
Adobe also observed that shoppers landing on a U.S. retail site from an AI service were 30 times more likely to buy something. And 32% of respondents said they've used AI to aid their online shopping journey. Nearly half have used or plan to use it specifically for holiday shopping.
Among active stocks, Urban Outfitters reached record Q3 sales and record net income, beating expectations and sending shares sharply higher. Autodesk is up after a quarterly beat and new 2026 revenue targets of $7.15 to $7.165 billion, driven by platform and AI momentum.
And Workday is slumping after analysts cited investor concerns over current remaining performance obligations growth being driven by M&A. In other news of note, Paramount Skydance is reviving the Rush Hour movie series nearly two decades after the last installment, with a push from the White House.
President Donald Trump personally pressed the studio to bring back the buddy cop franchise, Semaphore reported. Paramount will receive a flat distribution fee for releasing Rush Hour 4. Warner Bros., whose new line labeled back the earlier films, will take first dollar gross. OpenAI is projecting that at least 220 million weekly users will pay for ChatGPT subscriptions by 2030.
As of July, about 35 million, roughly 5% of weekly actives, subscribed to $20-plus or $200-pro tiers.
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Chapter 3: What discounts can we expect on Cyber Monday?
And Campbell's is defending the ingredients in its soups, and placed one of its executives on leave after a lawsuit highlighted his alleged derogatory comments in an audio recording. The employment discrimination lawsuit was filed by former cybersecurity analyst Robert Garza. According to the suit, Garza had a meeting with Martin Bally, Campbell's vice president of IT, which he recorded.
Bally allegedly described Campbell's as highly processed food for quote-unquote poor people and made several racist comments about the company's Indian workers. Bally said he doesn't buy Campbell's products anymore now that he knows what's in it. He also allegedly referenced bioengineered meat, saying, I don't want to eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.
On that note, maybe stick to turkey tomorrow. Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
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 join the highest level discussion of any stock or ETF with our community of serious investors like you. Find us at SeekingAlpha.com slash subscriptions.