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In a miserable year for initial public offerings, Indonesia’s capital is turning heads. The Jakarta Stock Exchange enjoyed record IPO volumes in the first quarter. The $800m raised in these flotations outstripped the sums drummed up on Hong Kong’s or New York’s stock exchanges in the same period. The bulk of the money came from the listing of Pertamina Geothermal Energy, a green subsidiary of the state oil-and-gas giant. It may have been just the start of Indonesia’s clean-energy IPO boom. On April 12th Harita Nickel, a firm that processes the battery metal, pulled off the country’s biggest IPO in almost a year, raising nearly $700m at a valuation of around $5bn. Later this month Merdeka Battery Materials, another nickel firm, aims to raise more than $500m. Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. and its cable TV networks will go to trial on Monday.
Industry analysts and experts watching the case say the biggest consequence to the company will likely be financial, as viewership and advertising remain steady.
But the outcome of the case is far from clear, and neither side appears interested in settling.

Members of Rise and Resist participate in their weekly “Truth Tuesday” protest at News Corp headquarters on February 21, 2023 in New York City. 
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. and its cable TV networks will go to trial in the coming days, but it remains to be seen what, exactly, the lawsuit means for Fox and its business.
Dominion brought its lawsuit against Fox and its TV networks, Fox News and Fox Business, in March 2021, arguing their hosts pushed false claims that Dominion’s voting machines were rigged in the 2020 presidential election that saw Joe Biden triumph over Donald Trump. The trial begins on Monday.

IAC Chairman Barry Diller, who was chairman and CEO of parent-company Fox from 1984 to 1992, said at a media conference hosted by startup Semafor earlier this week that although he thought Fox should lose the case, handing Dominion “a very big reward,” that the company will just pay the damages and move on.
“What’s it going to do? Worsen [Fox Corp. Chair] Rupert Murdoch’s reputation?” Diller joked.

On its face, the biggest potential consequence for Fox would be a financial hit: The company will have to pay to defend itself against the claims and, if it loses, possible damages to Dominion, upwards of $1.6 billion. No matter the outcome, an appeal is likely.
Fox, which has denied the claims made by Dominion and said it is protected by the First Amendment, has opposed the amount of the damages that the voting machine maker is seeking. The Delaware judge overseeing the case — who ruled a trial was necessary — recently said it would be up to a jury to decide the matter. 

Business risk

Neither side has shown signs of a wanting to settle the case, and the two parties have met once at a court-ordered meeting. But even if they did come to a settlement, Fox would still be on the hook for a steep payment, experts say.  

“There could be a lot of implications depending on how it plays out,” said Imraan Farukhi, an assistant professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Besides the financial impact, Farukhi added, “The other question is what will they do with their talent if they lose? The majority of the stars at Fox are implicated. Any other news organization would have probably seen their hosts losing their jobs for improper reporting.”
Lou Dobbs, who is slated to be a witness, saw his weekday program on the Fox Business network canceled the day after he was named a defendant in the defamation lawsuit of a second voting machine company, Smartmatic. At the time, Fox said his show’s cancellation was in the works prior to the lawsuit.
Shows helmed by Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro have been listed as evidence by Dominion. Those hosts also are slated to testify in Dominion’s case.
On Wednesday, the Delaware judge overseeing the case sanctioned Fox for withholding evidence and reportedly said if depositions or anything else needed to be redone, it would come at a cost to the company.
But the most likely immediate effect on Fox and its bottom line could come in the form of libel training classes for talent and others in the newsroom, as well as an increase in production insurance policies that cover defamatory statements, Farukhi said. Those policies could also help cover the costs related to the lawsuit for Fox.
Still, a near-term financial impact is unlikely to spell disaster for the network.
As thousands of documents have been unveiled in recent months, revealing skepticism from Fox’s top TV hosts and executives about the election-fraud claims that were made on air, Fox News’ ratings have remained stable, according to Nielsen. Similarly, so has the parent company’s stock price. 

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Fox Corp.’s stock has remained stable in recent months as evidence implicating its TV hosts and executives have come to light in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit.

Fox News’ steady audience has also ensured that advertisers stick around, too. Oftentimes, companies will pull their ads when TV networks are embroiled in controversy. For Fox, that hasn’t been an issue in its lawsuit battle with Dominion. 
“I am hesitant to say how this could implicate their business when it comes to viewership and sponsors,” Farukhi said. “Their audience and sponsors seem to not really care what the network is being accused of in this case. They only stop viewing Fox when it provides information that is not congruent with their predetermined conclusions.”
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch sounded confident about the network’s future when asked during a March investor conference if he could share anything about the case.
“I think fundamentally what I’ll just say about it is that a news organization has an obligation and it is an obligation to report news fulsomely, and without fear or favor,” Murdoch said at the time. “That’s what Fox News has always done and that’s what Fox News will always do.” 
He added that “the noise that you hear about this case is actually not about the law and it’s not about journalism and it’s really about politics.”  
No other questions were asked during the conference. 

Amendment protections

Fox has continuously denied the claims made against its network and hosts, arguing the case is about First Amendment protections “of the media’s absolute right to cover the news.” Attorneys have argued that covering the allegations being made by Trump and his attorneys was newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment. 
For that reason, the case has been closely watched by First Amendment experts. While it’s difficult to prove a defamation case in the U.S., many believe there’s enough evidence this time that it could happen. 
“The fact that the lawsuit hasn’t settled yet, and Dominion likely doesn’t want to settle, shows they have a good likelihood of prevailing,” said Gautam Hans, an associate law professor and First Amendment expert at Cornell University. “There’s been a lot of embarrassing, contradictory statements that have come out from the discovery process that even if Dominion loses there will have been pain inflicted on Fox along the way.” 
The evidence gathered for the case — which includes text messages, emails and other internal communications between Fox’s executives, TV hosts, producers and others tied to the newsroom — shows those at the network and parent company were skeptical of what was being reported.
The elder Murdoch, the Fox Corp. chair, suggested the TV hosts “went too far,” and said during his deposition that some of the network’s commentators “endorsed” the claims. 
Paul Ryan, the former Republican speaker of the House and a Fox board member, told Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch “that Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy theories,” according to court papers. 
Fox News host Carlson said in a text message to his producer that pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell was lying, according to court papers. In other texts, Carlson said, “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.”  More

Delta posted a quarterly loss driven in part by a new pilot contract.
The airline forecast revenue growth and profit for the second quarter that were ahead of analysts’ estimates.
CEO Ed Bastian on Thursday brushed off the potential of a consumer pullback in spending.

Delta Air Lines airplanes at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021.
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Delta Air Lines posted a wider loss than it previously estimated for the first three months of the year, but forecast revenue growth and profit for the second quarter that were ahead of analysts’ estimates, signaling strong travel demand despite weakness in other sectors.
CEO Ed Bastian on Thursday brushed off the potential of a consumer pullback in spending.

Air travel “is something the consumer’s prioritizing,” Bastian said in an interview. “They may be pulling back in other areas … but I don’t see it in our credit card data, I don’t see it in our bookings.”
The Atlanta-based carrier said it expects sales in the current quarter to increase by 15% to 17% over last year, with adjusted operating margins of as much as 16% and adjusted earnings per share of between $2 to $2.25. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had anticipated second-quarter revenue growth of 14.7% and earnings per share of $1.66.
The airline projected “record advance bookings for the summer.”
Bastian said the carrier is dialing back its capacity growth plans for the summer, however, in an effort to improve reliability. Airlines have faced aircraft delivery delays, staffing and training backlogs, and constrained airspace.
Delta said it plans to grow capacity 17% in the second quarter from a year earlier, though that won’t get the carrier back to 2019 levels as it previously planned.

“We’re intentionally pulling back some of the capacity,” Bastian told CNBC. “We want to make sure we don’t outrun our capabilities.”
He said the airline should be able to get to 2019 capacity levels by the end of the year.
U.S. carriers generally make the bulk of their revenue during the busy spring and summer travel season and Delta’s outlook points to more strength in travel demand, and its strong pricing power. Delta is the first U.S. carrier to report earnings. United Airlines will report on Tuesday, and other carriers will report later in the month.
Here’s how Delta performed in the first quarter, ended March 31, compared with Wall Street expectations based on Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Adjusted earnings per share: 25 cents vs. 30 cents expected.
Adjusted revenue: $11.84 billion vs. $11.99 billion expected.

Delta posted a net loss of $363 million, or 57 cents per share, citing, in part, a new, four-year pilot contract that includes 34% raises. That’s still an improvement from the year-ago period, when travel demand was still recovering and the company reported a net loss of $940 million, or $1.48 per share.
Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported net income of $163 million, or 25 cents per share, up from a loss of $748 million, or $1.23 per share, during the first quarter of 2022.
Unit costs, excluding fuel were up 4.7% on the year, partly driven by winter storms that grounded flights.
Delta said its corporate bookings have been recovering, with domestic sales in March 85% back to 2019 levels. It also got a boost in its loyalty program, with its co-branded credit card partnership with American Express contributing $1.7 billion in the last quarter, up 38% from last year, Delta said.
The airline said sales from premium cabins like first class were outpacing revenue from standard coach.
Delta shares were up 2% in premarket trading. More

General Motors will continue to test the price ceiling of its highly profitable full-size pickup trucks as it spends billions to transition to all-electric vehicles.
The latest model revealed Thursday is the Chevrolet Silverado HD 2500 ZR2, a new off-road model for one of GM’s most expensive pickup trucks.
Automakers such as GM, Ford Motor and others have been growing off-road vehicle offerings as a way to boost profits.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD ZR2

DETROIT — General Motors will continue to test the price ceiling of its highly profitable full-size pickup trucks as it spends billions to transition to all-electric vehicles.
The latest model revealed Thursday is the Chevrolet Silverado HD 2500 ZR2, a new off-road model for one of GM’s most expensive pickup trucks. The company also unveiled a special-edition “ZR2 Bison” version in partnership with well-known off-road parts supplier American Expedition Vehicles.

Automakers such as GM, Ford Motor and others have been growing off-road vehicle offerings as a way to boost profits on their trucks and SUVs with far less investment than a new vehicle.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD ZR2 Bison

“ZR2 has been a huge success for us,” said Michael MacPhee, director of Chevy truck marketing. “The performance/off-road space is the fastest-growing in pickup right now. So, it’s a natural extension for us to build that to the HD space.”
MacPhee declined to disclose expected profit margins for the upcoming vehicles, which will begin production at a Michigan plant this summer.
The new ZR2 trucks are in addition to similar models of smaller pickups such as the Chevrolet Colorado and Chevrolet Silverado 1500, a smaller sibling of the 2500 model. MacPhee said current ZR2 models are the fastest-turning vehicles of the brand’s premium trims and bring in the highest number of new customers.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD ZR2

The company declined to disclose exact pricing for the new ZR2 pickups, saying they will be “aspirational but attainable.” The current Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2 starts at about $74,000 for a comparable model. GM also currently offers a Z71 off-road package of the large HD truck that can easily top $80,000.

The ZR2 vehicles feature a host of off-road components, systems and capabilities. Even if owners don’t use the trucks for their intended use cases, off-road vehicles have grown in popularity for their more aggressive looks and taller ride height.
The HD ZR2 trucks will be offered exclusively in the 2500 four-door crew cab configuration. The standard 6.6-liter V8 gasoline engine will produce 401 horsepower and 464 foot-pounds of torque. A 6.6-liter Duramax turbo-diesel with 445 horsepower and 910 foot-pounds will also be available. GM said diesel is expected to make up a majority of the sales, like it does for current HD models.
GM’s burly fossil fuel-powered pickup trucks are assisting the automaker in investing $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles between 2020 and 2025.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado HD ZR2 More

Rent the Runway beat on the top and bottom lines in its fiscal fourth quarter earnings.
The fashion-rental company reached a record subscriber count in April after permanently adding an extra item to its subscription model.
Despite the improvements, its fiscal 2023 and first-quarter outlook fell short of analysts’ estimates.

A worker moves clothing in the storage area at Rent the Runway’s “Dream Fulfillment Center” in Secaucus, New Jersey, U.S., September 11, 2019.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters

Rent the Runway’s losses narrowed in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings reported Wednesday as the digital retailer continues to streamline its costs and work toward profitability.
Despite the improvements, the company’s fiscal 2023 and first-quarter outlook fell short of analysts’ estimates. Its share price fell more than 6% in after-hours trading.

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Here’s how the fashion-rental company performed in the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Loss per share: 40 cents vs. 51 cents expected
Revenue: $75.4 million vs. $75.2 million expected

The company’s reported net loss for the three-month period that ended January 31 was $26.2 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with a loss of $39.3 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose to $75.4 million, up 18% from $64.1 million a year earlier.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2023, the company expects revenue in the range of $72 million to $74 million, lower than the $76.8 million analysts had projected, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 2% to 3%.
For the full year, the company expects revenue in the range of $320 million to $330 million. Analysts had been expecting full-year 2023 revenue of $346 million, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates.

It projects an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7% to 8% and a year-over-year reduction in cash spend of almost 50%.
Rent the Runway, which offers subscription services to rent clothing and accessories and also offers the service a la carte, has been charting a path to profitability after a roller coaster couple of years decimated its market cap and sent its share price plunging.
Amid the Covid pandemic, the company took a hit when consumers suddenly didn’t have a need to rent clothes and accessories for work and parties. Since then, its subscriber count has rebounded, hitting a record in April after it changed its subscription model.
In March, the company permanently added an extra item to every shipment to improve its value proposition to customers, and as of April 8, the company marked 141,205 active subscribers, the highest active subscriber count the company has seen since its inception in 2009. Active subscribers excludes those with paused memberships.
“That launch delivered 25% more value to our consumers with minimal impact to our gross margins. So we were able to deliver value while, you know, keeping these really financially healthy, gross margins,” Rent the Runway co-founder and CEO Jennifer Hyman told CNBC.
“And we’re seeing a few different benefits. We’re seeing first, improvements in loyalty across the customer base. We’re seeing improvements in rejoin rates, so people that had churned in the past are coming back to the business, and we’re seeing improvements in pause reactivations, so people who had formerly been in a state of pause are reactivating,” Hyman said.
At the end of the fiscal year, Rent the Runway had 126,712 active subscribers, a 10% increase compared to the year-ago period. In total, the company counted 171,998 subscribers, which includes people with paused subscriptions. That’s an 8% year-over-year increase from the end of the prior fiscal year.
The company expects its active subscriber count to grow by more than 25% in the next fiscal year.
Investors have been watching to see when Rent the Runway will achieve profitability, which Hyman said will come from growing its subscriber base and is just a “stone’s throw away.”
“When we are at 185,000 subscribers, we will have reached free cash flow profitability on a maintenance basis and that means that we can cover all of our fixed costs, variable costs and the cost of our inventory to serve those 185,000 subs,” Hyman said.
“The majority of our internal company resources are put against improving and innovating the customer experience,” she said. “We’ve already built the infrastructure that we need to scale, we built the technology, we built the operations, so now we can put all of our headcount against improving customer experience.”
Also on Wednesday, the company announced that Chief Financial Officer Scarlett O’Sullivan will transition out of her role on May 25 and Sid Thacker, a current senior vice president, will take over. O’Sullivan will temporarily stay on as an advisor after exiting the role.
Read the full earnings release here. More

Warner Bros. Discovery is combining HBO Max and Discovery+ content to form a new streaming service.
It will launch on May 23 and combine scripted dramas like HBO’s “Succession,” “White Lotus” and “House of the Dragon” with Discovery’s unscripted staples
Pricing will remain the same as current HBO Max plans.

Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” a prequel to “Game of Thrones.”
Warner Bros. Discovery

Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday unveiled its new blended streaming service of HBO Max and Discovery+, called “Max.”
The new streaming platform will combine scripted dramas like HBO’s “Succession,” “White Lotus” and “House of the Dragon” with Discovery’s unscripted staples like cooking, home improvement and survival shows.

The new service will launch on May 23.
“Max is the one to watch, because it’s home to shows that have a supersized effect on people and culture,” Discovery CEO David Zaslav said during a presentation in Burbank, California. “It’s streaming’s version of must-see TV.”
Warner Bros. Discovery executives have been planning to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ for more than a year as part of the rationale for merging Discovery Communications and WarnerMedia, which was divested from AT&T in April 2022.
Pricing will remain the same as current HBO Max plans: $9.99 per month with commercials and $15.99 per month without ads. A new, $19.99 tier labeled “Max Ultimate Ad Free,” will allow for four concurrent streams, up to 4K resolution and 100 offline downloads.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s stock was down more than 6% on Wednesday. The stock is up 48% year to date.

“We have a very significant business with HBO Max. To provide more value to those subs and have a seamless transition will be really helpful for us,” Zaslav said in an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on “Closing Bell” Wednesday. He added that the company believes putting more content on one streaming service will lower the number of people dropping subscriptions.
The service will add several new series, including a DC Comics series “The Penguin,” a show derived from tent-pole sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” as well as new series from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network.
The company also announced a new “Game of Thrones” spinoff prequel and a series based off of the “Harry Potter” franchise, with involvement from author J.K. Rowling.
Max should allow Warner Bros. Discovery to better compete with Netflix and Disney’s suite of streaming services (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+) globally as the streaming wars mature in the coming years. Zaslav has predicted his company’s direct-to-consumer products will break even in 2024 and produce $1 billion in profit in 2025.
“It gives us a huge opportunity as a company,” he said. “Together, these studios allow us to control our own destiny. They give us long-term business optionality. We are this industry’s biggest and most successful maker of content.”
Legacy media companies have pivoted away from traditional pay-TV and built their own subscription streaming products as millions of Americans cancel cable each year.
“It’s not an easy business, and we are in the middle of a transition,” Zaslav said Wednesday on CNBC.
Warner Bros. Discovery had more than 96 million global streaming subscribers, from either HBO Max, HBO or Discovery+, at the end of the fourth quarter. About 55 million of those customers came from the U.S. and Canada. Average monthly revenue per user was $7.58.
“Holding subs is as important as adding subs,” Zaslav said Wednesday.
The CEO added later on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that he would “rather have 100 million or 150 million subs and be really profitable than try to stretch for a big number and in the end lose money.”
Max will include new tech features including the launch of a default kids profile that comes with parental controls. The company also announced expanded personalization, a new content navigation menu at the top of the app and prominent promotions of featured brands and genres.
Company executives have said on prior investor calls that a focus for the new service would be revamping and improving its technology. On Wednesday, JB Perrette, CEO of streaming and games, noted that three-quarters of HBO Max’s viewership comes from the home screen only, compared with Discovery+, where the majority of usage comes from screens deeper within the app.
On the new service’s launch date, HBO Max will update as the Max app for the majority of users. Some users on certain platforms will be prompted to make the switch when they enter the app, Perrette said.
Discovery+ as an app will remain unaffected, with Perrette noting the company doesn’t “want to leave any of its profitable subscribers behind.”
Disclosure: Comcast, which owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal, is a co-owner of Hulu.
— CNBC’s Julia Boorstin contributed to this report. More

NPR will stop posting new content on its 52 official Twitter feeds, the company said.
Last week, Twitter temporarily designated NPR as “state-affiliated media,” a controversial description that was seen by some as an attempt to discount the news outlet.
In a statement, NPR said Twitter “is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.”
NPR is the first major U.S. news organization to leave Twitter since Elon Musk took over.

The headquarters of National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

NPR said Wednesday it will stop sharing content on Twitter after the social media company labeled NPR “state-affiliated media,” a term also used for Russia- and China-based propaganda outlets.
The news outlet’s organizational accounts will no longer post new content on its 52 official Twitter feeds, becoming the first major U.S. news organization to do so since Elon Musk took over Twitter late last year.

NPR was surprised by Twitter’s decision to label the company “state-affiliated media,” according to a report by the outlet. When pressed by an NPR reporter in an email exchange, Musk conceded that the label might not have been accurate. Twitter then changed the label on NPR’s account to “government-funded media.”
The news organization said this label is still “inaccurate and misleading” since NPR is an editorially independent nonprofit company, according to the report. NPR “receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” the outlet wrote.
NPR did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Twitter responded to a request for comment with a poop emoji.
NPR CEO John Lansing told his employees that NPR “will not immediately return to the platform” even if Twitter drops the designation.
“I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility,” Lansing said. “At this point, I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk tweeted what appeared to be a screenshot of an email from an NPR reporter asking for his reaction to the company’s decision. “Defund NPR,” he wrote in a reply.
Twitter also briefly added a “government-funded media” tag to the British news outlet BBC, but BBC said in a report Wednesday that Musk agreed to change the label to “publicly funded.” As of Wednesday morning, no label is visible on any BBC Twitter accounts.
The new label designations are the latest policy changes Musk has implemented since his tumultuous $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform. During a Twitter Spaces interview Tuesday, Musk said that the Twitter takeover process has been marked by an “extremely high” level of pain.
A vocal critic of the media, Musk called The New York Times’ coverage “propaganda” on April 2 and compared the company’s Twitter feed to “diarrhea” in a tweet.
He stripped the news organization’s verification checkmark shortly thereafter, citing the company’s refusal to pay for the platform’s revamped Twitter Blue subscription service.
Twitter relaunched its updated Twitter Blue subscription service in December after Musk pulled and delayed the launch in November. Subscribers who pay for the service will receive a blue verification badge on their accounts, and Musk said in a tweet Tuesday that legacy verified accounts — including news organizations and journalists — will lose their checkmarks on April 20. More

Restaurant prices outpaced grocery prices on a 12-month basis for the first time since inflation started accelerating in mid-2021.
The price of food away from home is up 8.8% over the last year, while the price of food at home is up 8.4% in the same period, according to the Department of Labor.
The consumer price index has risen 5% over the last 12 months as inflation continues to cool.

People sit outdoors at the Petite Crevette Restaurant on June 05, 2021 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Robert Nickelsberg | Getty Images

For the first time since inflation began accelerating in mid-2021, restaurant prices outpaced grocery prices on a 12-month basis, according to the Labor Department.
It’s a blow to the restaurant industry, which has already seen lagging traffic numbers as budget-conscious consumers cut back. For months, restaurant CEOs like Cheesecake Factory’s Matthew Clark and Wendy’s Todd Penegor have touted their meals as a relative bargain compared with eating at home, based on consumer price index data.

March food prices rose 8.5% over the last 12 months, fueled by the jump in the cost of eating away from home, which was up 8.8% over that period. For the third consecutive report, the price of food away from home rose 0.6% month over month.
The National Restaurant Association’s chief economist, Bruce Grindy, attributed the increase to the surge in food prices at schools as free lunch programs instituted during the Covid pandemic expired.
“As a result, this price index rose sharply in recent months, which is putting upward pressure on the overall food-away-from-home index,” he wrote in a blog post Wednesday, adding that it’s expected to keep distorting the overall food-away-from-home index until the fourth quarter.
The price of food at home is up 8.4% in the last 12 months and actually fell 0.3% from February. The price of eggs fell 10.9% in March from the prior month, while the fruits and vegetable index dropped 1.3%.
For months, grocers have been putting pressure on food and beverage manufacturers to keep prices down as shoppers deal with sticker shock, trading down to private-label brands and putting fewer items in their shopping carts. Some suppliers have listened as their volume shrinks: Conagra Brands and PepsiCo have said they won’t raise prices any more this year, while Old Bay seasoning owner McCormick said it’s trying to hike prices but is facing pushback from retailers.

The overall consumer price index has risen 5% over the last 12 months as inflation continues to cool. That was below expectations for a 5.1% increase. Likewise, many restaurant companies have also reported that inflation is moderating, although food, labor and construction costs remain elevated.
Olive Garden’s parent company, Darden Restaurants, for example, said in March that prices for chicken, dairy and grains remained high in its fiscal third quarter, although they improved sequentially. Darden is forecasting low single-digit inflation for its ingredients in fiscal 2024. The restaurant company has kept its menu price hikes below the inflation rate to attract diners and win market share.
But most restaurants have instead chosen to hike prices to avoid a squeeze on their profit margins. As a result, consumers have been cutting back on their restaurant visits or spending less money when they do dine out.
Restaurant industry tracker Black Box Intelligence reported that the industry saw traffic growth in only two months — January and February — over the last year. Those two months lapped last year’s omicron Covid outbreaks, which led to a sharp drop in restaurant sales and traffic in early 2022. More