Yahoo Finance Live breaks down the news surrounding several of the day's trending stocks.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: All right, everyone. Let's get into our triple play. I am tracking here this afternoon AMC. Brad Smith here with Dave Briggs. And joining us for the segment, we've got Emily McCormick as well. All right, so let me tell folks why AMC is what I'm watching. The shares are off of their meme stock highs. And they are moving lower on the day. You see that on your screen down by about 1 and 1/2%, 1.6%. But the company looks to be putting more of the capital that they attained through those at the market offerings over the past year to work now.

In a deal with Cinionic, laser projection will be rolled out to 3,500 auditoriums. For context, AMC has about 10,500 screens around the world. So this would represent roughly, rough math, one third of their total product. Now Cinionic laser lights is said to cut costs by 70% and extend projector lifetime as well. Depending how well the rollout goes, which may have required a minimum initial payment from AMC, case may be that the movie theater operator scales the investment to enhance the moviegoer experience in the future where we're continuously watching how they invest into that in theater experience.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Absolutely, Brad. I think this is an interesting move here by AMC. The investor response today has been mixed. We can see the stock is now trading lower. It had briefly traded higher by as much as 4 and 1/2% earlier today. So I'm wondering if maybe there's a bit of concern that this is too much of a rollout and too much of an investment too soon when in-person movie going is just now in the early innings of ramping back up. I'm also wondering how much of a difference these new projectors are going to make in terms of the actual movie going experience.

So that does remain to be seen. And whether on the margin this either convinces someone to go in person whereas they might have rather watched a movie at home instead, or whether they might actually go to one of these AMC theaters that has these new projectors as opposed to one that doesn't. So all important questions here for investors to consider.

But moving on the stock that I'm tracking today is a Gap. That ticker symbol is GPS. Now Gap released a slew of not so positive news that included an executive departure at its most lucrative brand, Old Navy. And it also slashed its sales guidance for the unit. So going through these one by one, first Old Navy's president and CEO Nancy Green is departing this week. She joined Old Navy back in 2019 after running Athleta, which is also one of Gap's brands.

Now Gap is currently running an external search for a replacement. And in light of what they're calling these execution challenges and macroeconomic dynamics, Gap also said it expects the Old Navy brand to now produce a sales decline by the low to mid-teens this fiscal year. Now previously, it saw a mid to high single digit year over year decline. So definitely a larger than previously expected decrease here for Old Navy, which we should also note comprises more than half of Gap's overall sales. So perhaps no surprise when we see the stock coming under pressure following this move, guys.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, and down 35% year to date. That replacement as CEO going to be crucial for them. And Brad and I talked about this off camera, but just how they compete with the H&Ms of the world who can do what they're doing, do it cheaper, do it with more flair, that's going to be a tall task. How much they lean on Athleta looks like their best bet. Their sales up 29% in the prior quarter. So Athleta clearly the shining star there for Gap.

My play is BUD. That's the stock symbol, BUD AB InBev, because they have announced that they are going to sell all of their 11 breweries in Russia. And what that means is a $1.1 billion impairment charge. We won't hear their earnings until May 5. But it's been a rough run for BUD as you might expect down 12% in the last 12 months. Beer overall, the market has struggled a little bit. It barely grew in 2021, 1% the overall market. Any growth in beer is simply on the craft microbrews, which AB InBev has bought a few in the past couple of years.

But overall, a very slow moving beer market. And I think the question is here from me, Brad, as we move forward, they're one of these companies who has cut back or pulled out of Russia, which there are 750 if you listen to Yale. They have a compiling list on that. 750 in the West.

Now my bet is Vladimir Putin has always guaranteed or bet on those companies coming back into the fold a year from now, a year and a half from now, two years from now, once the stain of this has washed off, if it ever does. My hope is those companies stay out forever. What do you think?

BRAD SMITH: Well, for AB InBev, what we also have to remember is in this, what you brought up, the reopening as well where they're going to continue to lean into some of those business to business partnerships that they had seen. When you're counting on so much of the taps to be continued to be ordered from some of those bars from those different experiences that have leaned in in the food and beverage space to your product, what does that mean if you don't see as many of those orders coming back in the beer category because consumer appetites have changed?

DAVE BRIGGS: A lot. It evolved very fast.

BRAD SMITH: Exactly. And so with that in mind, you always have to be on the pulse of the consumer if you are in an already tight margin environment in some of those food and beverage services, and looking to see where those tastes are gravitating towards as of right now. And so this, as you started off with, it certainly does come after we've seen so many businesses either cut ties or pull out entirely in Russia going forward from here. We'll see if that vacuum is a long standing effect or if there are some companies that decide to go back in. But I imagine--

DAVE BRIGGS: How long does that public pressure last is the question.

BRAD SMITH: Exactly. I imagine some consumers, that's going to be a taste that's going to have a long aftertaste given that we've seen so many move out so swiftly, and for good reason as well.