Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said Wednesday the fast-casual chain is seeing improvement in customers’ perceptions of affordability.

Speaking on Chipotle’s second-quarter earnings call, Boatwright said the company’s brand tracking showed improved perceptions of value across “all income groups and age cohorts.”

“As it relates to value, I’m happy to report our brand tracker showed really solid progress across all income groups and age cohorts on value perception,” Boatwright said. “Our affordability scores were better in Q2 than they’ve been in probably the past couple of years.”

He noted that customers do not judge value solely by prices or discounts.

CHIPOTLE OPENS FIRST RESTAURANT IN MEXICO AS GLOBAL EXPANSION ACCELERATES

A person works in a Chipotle outlet in Manhattan, New York City. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

“And so I think we’re making meaningful progress as it relates to value at Chipotle. What we also learned, I think, as an important note, is [that] value isn’t just about discounting and price point. It’s about convenience. It’s about execution,” Boatwright added. 

“It’s about menu innovation. There’s a host of things that the consumer is looking at to determine value.”

Chipotle has recently introduced lower-priced menu options.

CHIPOTLE CEO ALLEGEDLY SUGGESTS COMPANY WOULD KEEP RAISING PRICES AND ‘LEAN INTO’ CUSTOMERS MAKING OVER $100K

CEO Scott Boatwright said that customers do not judge value solely by prices or discounts. (Chipotle)

In December, the company launched a high-protein menu featuring a Single Chicken Taco, starting at $3.50 at select U.S. restaurants, and a High Protein Cup of Adobo Chicken, with a national weighted average price of $3.82, the company said at the time.

Chipotle on Wednesday also reported second-quarter revenue of $3.3 billion, up 9.3% from the same period in 2025.

Boatwright has previously pushed back against perceptions that Chipotle has become too expensive or reduced its portions to boost profits.

CHIPOTLE RIVAL GUZMAN Y GOMEZ MEXICAN KITCHEN CLOSES ALL US RESTAURANTS

Chipotle on Wednesday also reported second-quarter revenue of $3.3 billion, up 9.3% from the same period in 2025. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We have an affordable price point for all walks of life, and we’re for everyone. We want everyone to have access to wholesome, nutritious food,” Boatwright said during a May appearance on Yahoo Finance’s “Power Players” podcast.

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Microsoft jumped by a double-digit percentage after the technology company forecast quarterly sales and cloud growth above expectations. It also reported capital expenditures below estimates and said it expects to keep generating cash through its fiscal 2027 that has just begun.

This year, investors ‌have been spooked ⁠by heavy ⁠spending on AI at big technology firms. Negative cash-flow reports from Alphabet and Tesla last week sparked a bout of selling in AI-linked stocks, with chip stocks also under pressure as investors questioned high valuations.

Meta Platforms tumbled after the social media heavyweight reported a 91% drop in second-quarter free cash flow, indicating the financial strain of its costly AI buildout.

“These are true battleground stocks. Investors can’t make up their minds whether the ROI on the massive capex spending is going to be worthwhile or not,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management.

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“Microsoft delivered yesterday, and maybe Microsoft is going to be able to move itself from the ‘battleground’ camp to be a ‘trusted AI winner’ ⁠stock,” Ellerbroek said.
The ‌PHLX chip index surged,with Micron Technology Sandisk and Advanced Micro Devices making big gains. Amazon rose and Apple dipped, with both companies set to report their results after the market closes.

Amazon’s stock has underperformed the broader market this year due to ⁠concerns about heavy spending on AI. Apple, which has not spent heavily on AI, recently overtook Nvidia to become the world’s most valuable company, with a market value of about $4.9 trillion.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks closed sharply lower after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, with mixed messages from new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh leaving traders confused about the path of borrowing costs.

Bond markets remained on edge, with the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond surging to its highest level in 19 years.

Traders are now ‌only pricing in a 59% chance for a rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting, according to CME FedWatch, down from 82% a week ago.

U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter as the trade deficit widened. The economy grew at a 1.5% rate, slower than estimates of ⁠2.1% growth, data showed. A separate reading also showed U.S. inflation slowed in June.

Qualcomm fell after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter profit below estimates and said revenue from Apple products would decline faster than expected.

Fair Isaac slumped. Even though the credit-scoring giant lifted its annual profit and revenue forecasts, they remained below analysts’ estimates.

Starbucks rose after the world’s largest coffee chain raised its annual sales and profit forecasts.

Analysts on average expect S&P 500 aggregate second-quarter earnings to jump 40% from a year ago, with AI-related stocks accounting for much of that growth, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.

Strong earnings forecasts and a recent decline in share prices have left the S&P 500 trading at about 20 times expected earnings, just above its 10-year average of 19, according to LSEG data.

The Penarth headquartered firm has released a trading statement to the City

Penarth headquartered global point of care diagnostics firm EKF Diagnostics said it is on track for a stronger end to the year after posting first half numbers in line with management expectations, while confirming that cash levels held in Russia have risen.

In a trading statement the Alternative Investment Market listed firm that in the first half of this year revenues remained broadly flat at £25.m (H1 2025: £25.2m), reflecting the higher weighting of sales expected in the second half of the year. Gross margin improved to 53% (H1 2025: 50%) and adjusted Ebitda showed continued growth.

The group’s cash balance as at 30 June 2026 was £16 (31 December 2025: £15.8m), which included £2.4m held in Russia (31 December 2025: £2.1m).

It operates in Russia via its German-based subsidiary, in which it has a 60% stake, selling non sanctioned medical devices. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the Putin administration has put tight limits on the amount of cash from trading that foreign firms are able to move out of the country.

It is a counter measure to western sanctions. For the last two years EKF’s subsidiary has been able to release around £500,000 per annum in dividend payments. The rise in cash from £2.1m to £2.5m has in part been driven by improved exchange rates.

EKF has no bank borrowings, and the closing cash balance reflects the allocation of £1.4m for the ongoing share buyback programme, of which £900,000 has been deployed during the period, together with the continued investment for growth that is part of the five-year strategic development plan for the business.

It said: “The progress of the five-year strategy continues in line with management expectations. Diabetes and hematology delivered steady performances in the first half, with the majority of high-volume tenders already won and scheduled to be delivered in the historically stronger second half year.”

It added that its remains on track to deliver growth at the revenue and adjusted Ebitda levels for full year 2026 in line with current market expectations.

Following the trading statement brokers Singer, Stifel and Panmure Liberum all maintained their buy share positions. Panmure Liberum has a share price target of 34p with the other two slightly higher at 35p.

In its note Panmure Liberum said: “The shares are still cheap, and remain range bound with he buy-back providing a floor to the price.

“There is little in the statement to change this prior to the interims. However, the longer-term outlook remains more encouraging and we expect the growth rate to improve, margins to continue to expand and strong cash conversion. We retain our buy (share recommendation).

Shares in EKF fell slightly after the trading statement to around 25p.

An alternative approach is to ensure that everyone who is eligible, based on their needs, should get state-funded personal care that is free at the point of use.

This would be provided free regardless of an individual’s means and whether it was received by an elderly person in their own house or a residential care home.

Scotland has implemented such a system.

However, it’s important to note that personal care takes in things like helping frail elderly people wash and dress and go to the toilet.

But it does not include accommodation, food and everyday living costs which are subject to means testing.

The Health Foundation think tank estimates that implementing a Scottish-style system in England would cost £7.5bn a year by 2036.

Like Scotland, Japan and Germany have systems which base entitlement to personal social care mainly on people’s care needs rather than their ability to pay.

Japan and Germany though have a mandatory long-term care insurance system which is funded through contributions from workers and employers.

Both countries also do not usually cover the full cost of personal care so individuals are responsible for some of the expenses.

Ofgem has proposed new measures which could see developers of data centres made to pay hundreds of millions of pounds up front.

The British energy regulator said a refundable fee should be charged for projects that want to connect to the network, amid mounting demand for connections to the electricity grid.

It is proposing developers pay a deposit between £237,500 to £712,500 per megawatt – meaning data centres seeking 1 gigawatt (GW) of power would have to pay hundreds of millions up front, paid back if the project was completed.

The proposal follows growing opposition in parts of the country to plans for new data centres, which are needed to power the artificial intelligence boom.

Data centres are large buildings which house computer servers used to store and process data and run the digital services which power the internet.

Ofgem has started a consultation on its proposals, which will run until 16 September.

It said the amount of electricity capacity being requested by projects seeking to connect to the grid had risen from 41 GW to 125 GW in the past year, reflecting a sharp increase in demand.

This is significantly more than double 2025’s peak electricity demand in Britain of around 46 GW.

The regulator said the projects would have to hit key milestones to keep their place in the grid connection queue, which has seen a surge in demand.

An increasing number of centres have been built around the world in recent years to provide the computing power needed to train and run AI systems.

But they are controversial, especially for people who live near them.

Residents have raised concerns about noise, electricity demand and the large amounts of water sometimes used to cool the high-performance chips that generate vast amounts of heat.

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Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Users of the online brokerage platform E-Trade reported widespread login and account access problems Thursday morning, with outage-tracking service Downdetector logging a sharp spike in complaints beginning around 10:33 a.m. Eastern time, in the middle of an active and volatile trading session on Wall Street.

Downdetector’s official social media account posted an alert flagging the rise in user-submitted reports shortly after the issues began, using the hashtag “#ETradeDown” to solicit further reports from affected users about how the outage was impacting them.

Frustrated customers took to social media in real time to describe their experiences trying to access the platform. One user wrote directly to E-Trade’s official account, “Hey E*Trade, your systems are down right now at 7/30/2026 at 10:34am. When is it coming back up?” Another user, describing themselves as a customer of nearly two decades, expressed frustration with the outage in a post that read, in part, “E-Trade is down… get your act together or I will leave the platform.” A separate user reported being unable to log in despite what they described as one of their best trading days, writing that the platform displayed a message indicating the website was too busy to process their request.

As of Thursday morning, E-Trade had not issued a public statement confirming a company-wide outage or explaining the specific cause of the access problems some users were experiencing. Outage-tracking services showed mixed readings on the scope of the disruption. One monitoring service reported E-Trade as operational with no significant outage detected, showing only a small number of user reports over the prior 24-hour period, while a separate outage-tracking site reported that E-Trade had been experiencing issues since approximately 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, based on a spike in user complaints that exceeded the platform’s typical baseline volume for that time of day.

The reported issues Thursday came during an active session for U.S. financial markets more broadly, with major indexes moving significantly following a wave of high-profile corporate earnings reports, including results from Microsoft and Meta Platforms released the previous afternoon. Periods of heightened market volatility and elevated trading volume have historically coincided with increased strain on online brokerage platforms’ technical infrastructure, as a larger-than-usual number of users attempt to log in, check account balances or execute trades simultaneously.

Online brokerage outages during periods of market volatility are not without recent precedent. In August 2024, several major online brokerage firms, including Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard, experienced widespread access problems for thousands of users during one of the largest stock market selloffs of that year, with user complaints on Downdetector peaking around and shortly before 10 a.m. Eastern time on that occasion as well. Charles Schwab acknowledged the issue at the time in a statement posted to social media, saying that a technical issue was preventing some clients from logging into its platforms.

E-Trade, founded as one of the earliest online discount brokerage firms in the United States, has grown over the decades into one of the most widely used platforms for individual investors and traders to buy and sell stocks, exchange-traded funds, options, mutual funds and other financial securities. The company was acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2020, integrating its retail brokerage operations into the larger financial services firm’s broader wealth management business.

Downdetector, the platform used to track and aggregate the Thursday morning complaints, monitors user-submitted reports across thousands of websites and applications rather than directly accessing the internal systems of the companies it tracks. Because the service relies on self-reported complaints rather than direct server monitoring, spikes in reported issues can sometimes reflect a genuine platform-wide outage, while other spikes may result from more localized problems affecting a subset of users, specific devices, internet service providers or regional network issues rather than a broader systemic failure affecting the entire platform.

For users experiencing difficulty accessing E-Trade during the reported disruption, common troubleshooting steps recommended for online brokerage access issues include refreshing the browser or app, clearing cached data, verifying that the device’s internet connection is functioning properly through other online services, and checking the company’s official social media channels or status pages for updates. If the underlying cause proves to be a service-side technical issue rather than a problem specific to an individual user’s device or connection, however, these troubleshooting steps are unlikely to resolve the access problems until E-Trade restores normal functionality on its end.

As of the most recent available information Thursday, E-Trade had not provided a public timeline for resolving the reported access issues, nor had the company responded publicly to the elevated volume of complaints registered through Downdetector and other outage-tracking platforms throughout the morning. Given the platform’s role in facilitating real-time trading, any extended access disruption during an active market session carries particular significance for affected users attempting to manage positions or execute trades in response to fast-moving market conditions.

Users continuing to experience problems accessing their E-Trade accounts were encouraged to monitor the company’s official channels directly for updates, rather than relying solely on third-party outage trackers, which can offer a useful gauge of the scale of user-reported complaints in near real time but cannot independently confirm the underlying cause or expected resolution timeline for a suspected service disruption.