Costco's gold business picking up/Important macro comments/Other

Costco first started selling gold bars in their stores last September but with now record high prices of gold, the attention is spreading. Here was an NBC story on it yesterday, https://www.today.com/video/costco-is-selling-up-to-200-million-worth-of-gold-bars-every-month-208771141620.

Andy Jassy, after releasing his annual shareholder letter yesterday, was interviewed on CNBC and said this about the consumer: "What we see are consumers that are spending but they are just being really careful about what they spend on and how much they spend. And so whereever they can they're trading down with average selling price. You see consumers, wherever they can find a deal, they take the deal...People are still buying but they are just being careful about what they shop for." 

With respect to AWS, he hinted that companies are focused less on cost optimization and that the pipeline is full. "People have moved from largely trying to save costs to figure out how to modernize their infrastructure...and how they can use generative AI to change their business."

More on the consumer from the Carmax earnings call yesterday:

"Fiscal 2024 was a challenging year across the used car industry, as vehicle affordability and widespread macro factors continued to pressure sales."

"While affordability of used cars remains a challenge for consumers, pricing improved during the quarter...Average selling price declined approximately $600 per unit, or 2% y/o/y."

On the monthly cadence of their business, "December, January negative comps. February was a positive comp resulting in a positive for the quarter. Since the quarter ended, it's been a little choppy. We've seen some weakness. And right now quarter-to-date, albeit early and again choppy, we're seeing about a mid single digit negative comp right now. But again, it's early on, and it's been choppy the last month and a half."