The golf business continues to ride its pandemic wave: Morning Brief – Yahoo Finance

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Today’s newsletter is by Myles Udland, senior markets editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland and on LinkedIn. Read this and more market news on the go with Yahoo Finance App.
The golf business has maintained most of the momentum it picked up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the continued strength of this industry — a winner resulting from behavioral changes which took hold during the pandemic — will be one of the more interesting economic subplots to track in 2023.
A new report from analysts at Bank of America Global Research out Tuesday showed an acceleration across rounds played, club sales, and spending at golf courses in October, a surge the firm attributes to Hurricane Ian weighing on September results.
Spending on golf in 2022, however, has moderated overall as the explosion in popularity seen in 2020 and 2021 has cooled. Spending on clubs dropped 7.2% from the prior year in October, while rounds played were down 1.1%, according to Bank of America.
But when compared to 2019, BofA finds spending on all three major categories for golf — clubs, rounds, spending at courses — remains well above pre-pandemic levels.
When looking at the biggest public companies in the golf business, the results are a bit more mixed, though mostly positive.
Since the start of 2020, shares of Acushnet (GOLF), which owns the Titleist and FootJoy brands, are up 35% against a 10% gain for the Russell 2000.
Topgolf Callaway (MODG), in contrast, is down about 2% over that period as the company has focused on building its Topgolf business and moved away from the pure-play “clubs and balls” Callaway business.
And as for the retailer most exposed to golf, the story has been a clear winner.
Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), the retail name most exposed to golf in BofA’s coverage, has been a bonafide success story since the onset of the pandemic, gaining more than 140% against a 21% gain for the Russell 1000 since the start of 2020.
The story for Dick’s, of course, goes beyond the course. Dick’s has benefitted from trends like working out at home and spending more time outdoors by selling gym equipment, bikes, fishing gear, and Yeti (YETI) coolers to consumers who spend their leisure time differently in 2022 than they did back in 2018.
Taken together, we think the recent stock price performance of companies exposed to golf suggests investors have a bit of a mixed outlook for the sport heading into 2023.
The success of Dick’s shows continued investor belief in getting outside; the lagging performance of Topgolf Callaway presents some questions about golf’s endurance as a lifestyle play.
And all of this leaves out the endless upheaval seen in the professional golf world over the last several months, which looms as a potential fringe impact on the sport’s ability to pull consumers.
The surge in retail stock trading, a frenzy for homebuying, and a shift towards spending on goods over experiences are all pandemic-era behaviors that seemed paradigmatic at the time but have turned out to be booms of varying sizes now cooling as our habits normalize.
And so as investors enter 2023 with a growing number of questions about the health of the economy, and as we continue to witness the cooling of some pandemic-enhanced trends, whether golf can continue its newfound consumer energy will be a fascinating subplot for markets in the year ahead.
Economy
7:00 a.m. ET: MBA Mortgage Applications, week ended Nov. 25 (2.2% during prior week)
8:15 a.m. ET: ADP Employment Change, November (200,000 expected, 239,000 during prior month)
8:30 a.m. ET: GDP Annualized, quarter-over-quarter, Q3 second estimate (2.8% expected, 2.6% prior estimate)
8:30 a.m. ET: Personal Consumption, quarter-over-quarter, Q3 second estimate (1.6% expected, 1.4% prior estimate)
8:30 a.m. ET: GDP Price Index, quarter-over-quarter, Q3 second estimate (4.1% expected, 4.1% prior estimate)
8:30 a.m. ET: Core PCE, quarter-over-quarter, Q3 second estimate (4.5% prior estimate)
8:30 a.m. ET: Advance Goods Trade Balance, September (-$90.6 billion expected, -$92.2 billion during prior month)
8:30 a.m. ET: Wholesale Inventories, month-over-month, October preliminary (0.5% expected, 0.6% during prior month)
8:30 a.m. ET: Retail Inventories, month-over-month, October (0.5% during prior month)
9:45 a.m. ET: MNI Chicago PMI, November (47.0 expected, 45.2 during prior month)
10:00 a.m. ET: Pending Home Sales, month-over-month, October (-5.7% expected, -10.2% during prior month)
10:00 a.m. ET: JOLTS Job Openings, October (10.250 million expected, 10.717 million during prior month)
2:00 p.m. ET: U.S. Federal Reserve Releases Beige Book
Earnings
Donaldson (DCI), Five Below (FIVE), Frontline (FRO), Hormel Foods (HRL), La-Z-Boy (LZB), Nutanix (NTNX), Okta (OKTA), Petco Health and Wellness (WOOF), Pure Storage (PSTG), PVH (PVH), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Salesforce (CRM), Snowflake (SNOW), Splunk (SPLK), Synopsys (SNPS), Titan Machinery (TITN), Victoria’s Secret (VSCO)
Click here for the latest stock market news and in-depth analysis, including events that move stocks
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube
Related Quotes
(Reuters) -DoorDash Inc said on Wednesday it was cutting about 1,250 jobs, or 6% of its total workforce, as the food-delivery company looks to keep a lid on costs to cope with a slowdown in demand.DoorDash, went on a hiring spree to cater to a flood of orders from people stuck at home during the height of the pandemic, but a sudden drop in demand from inflation-wary customers has left the company grappling with ballooning costs. "Given how quickly we hired, our operating expenses – if left unabated – would continue to outgrow our revenue." DoorDash, which has delivery partnerships with Walgreens Boots Alliance and Shake Shack, has about 20,000 employees.
Microsoft's stock drop of about 29% so far in 2022 amid growth concerns now looks overdone, Morgan Stanley says.
Private employment increased by 127,000 jobs in November, the ADP National Employment report showed. The ADP report, jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, was published ahead of the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics' more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for November on Friday. With no job gains expected in the government sector, overall nonfarm payrolls are also forecast to have advanced by 200,000 jobs.
Los Angeles Chargers RB Austin Ekeler is back with Matt Harmon for another great episode of Ekeler’s Edge! This week, the guys are joined by Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen.
It was the Bears' worst lost since 2007.
Brace for a tough year for global economic growth, Citi warns.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Wednesday ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech. CrowdStrike stock plunged 20% on earnings.
Luxury buyers' tastes have changed since the onset of the pandemic. Prior to the arrival of Covid-19, open floor plans were all the rage. Luxury buyers aren't interested in messing around with renovations.
It should be obvious that billionaires don’t accumulate wealth by accident. Their success is predicated on observation and savvy investment, and a privileged background helps. Billionaires like Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates likely saw an opportunity for land investment to return tenfold, by way of food shortages, well ahead of time. So it should be no surprise that the real estate investing platform Arrived Homes, backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos is taking off. He had the for
Which stocks are either a fan favorite or a must-avoid? Penny stocks. These tickers going for less than $5 apiece are particularly divisive on Wall Street, with those in favor as well as the naysayers laying out strong arguments. These names are too appealing for the risk-tolerant investor to ignore. Given the low prices, you get more for your money. On top of this, even minor share price appreciation can translate to massive percentage gains, and thus, major returns for investors. However, ther
Few professionals have felt the whiplash more than recruiters as big tech’s long-running hiring boom fades out.
U.S. stocks edged higher at Wednesday's session open before giving up gains, continuing a sluggish start to the week as investors digested new economic data and awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
Years before Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire collapsed, a group of employees quit in a power struggle—after becoming concerned about what they say was his cavalier approach to risk, compliance and accounting. The employees worked at his trading firm, Alameda Research, and were some of his earliest colleagues, including Alameda’s co-founder, Tara Mac Aulay. Both FTX and Alameda are now bankrupt.
Standing here at the tail end of 2022, we can see the next year through the mist of uncertainty – and for now, that view is dominated by high inflation, rising interest rates and potential recession. Looking at the market situation, Goldman Sachs strategist Christian Mueller-Glissmann writes: "We remain defensive for the 3-month horizon with further headwinds from rising real yields and lingering growth uncertainty… The growth/inflation mix remains unfavorable – inflation is likely to normaliz
The estimate cuts continue to rain down on Apple amid China manufacturing unrest.
Amazon's stock could see some further selling. Here's how much, estimates one tech analyst.
Investors may be reacting to positive short-term news, but a longer-term development also provided them with a boost of confidence.
Investors need to pay close attention to Novavax (NVAX) stock based on the movements in the options market lately.
Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss third-quarter earnings for CrowdStrike.
Shares of Israeli container shipping company ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (NYSE: ZIM) tumbled 3.4% through 11:05 a.m. EST Monday — and it's no huge secret why. Across the shipping world, stocks including ZIM, Costamere, and Danaos Corporation are all sliding today. As multiple media outlets have reported, protests against a government "zero-Covid" policy are spreading across China, threatening both the ruling regime's stability, the country's economy, and its ability to produce products that would need container shipping services to reach foreign markets.

source