iRobot Corp. (DOG)
IRBT - Nasdaq
The Roomba vacuum cleaners from iRobot can pick up dirt from your floor. But they’re making a big mess of investors’ portfolios. Hurt by competition from lower-priced Chinese brands and weighed down by debt, iRobot reported a 44-per-cent drop in fourth-quarter sales and warned of “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” Even after cutting its headcount by half and slashing sales and marketing expenses, the company posted an operating loss of US$61-million for the quarter, prompting the board to launch a strategic review to explore a potential sale or a refinancing of the company’s debt. With the shares down more than 90 per cent in the past two years, owning this stock really sucks.
S&P 500 index (DOG)
INX
Is MAGA tired of all the “winning” yet? Rattled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on Canada, Mexico and Europe, stock markets tanked again this week, causing the S&P 500 index to officially enter a 10-per-cent “correction” from its February high. Mr. Trump has always been eager to take credit when markets rise, and as recently as February, he predicted that “the stock market is going to be great.” But with markets getting steamrolled as businesses and consumers reel from government spending cuts, inflation and Mr. Trump’s chaotic economic policies, his tune has suddenly changed. “You can’t really watch the stock market,” he said last Sunday – a day before stocks suffered their worst loss of 2025. So much winning!
Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. (DOG)
PLAY - Nasdaq
If your idea of fun is throwing money away on mindless arcade games, Dave & Buster’s is the place for you. If you’d prefer to throw your money away on the stock market, Dave & Buster’s can help with that, too. Shares of the arcade and sports bar operator tumbled after S&P Global Ratings slashed the company’s credit outlook to negative from positive, citing seven consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales, high expenditures for renovations and store openings, and tightening household budgets that are taking a bite out of discretionary spending. All of this comes as the company has driven up costs by expanding the chain aggressively, creating a “risk that sales will not keep pace with increased operating expenses,” S&P said. Investors are hearing that dying Pac-Man sound.
Dorel Industries Inc. (DOG)
DII.B - TSX
There go those darned Americans again, ruining everything. If the barrage of tariffs wasn’t enough, the strong U.S. dollar is also complicating matters for companies, such as Dorel Industries, that sell products abroad and report results in U.S. currency. In the fourth quarter, the Montreal-based maker of home furnishings, baby strollers and infant car seats posted a wider operating loss, with a “significant component of the shortfall in earnings … in the Juvenile segment caused by the stronger U.S. dollar in the last quarter of 2024,” the company said. Including restructuring costs and writedowns, Dorel’s net loss widened to US$73-million, up from a loss of US$3.8 million a year earlier. Investors could use a soother.
Gold (STAR)
GCJ25
There once was a metal called gold
That hit record highs, so I’m told
When everyone’s nervous
Gold’s there at your service
Except for the poor folks who sold