What Happened?
Shares of restaurant company Cracker Barrel (NASDAQ: CBRL) fell 3.1% in the afternoon session after President Donald Trump threatened to impose "massive" tariffs on Chinese products, reigniting trade war fears.
The unexpected social media post was a stated countermeasure to Beijing's recent announcement of new export controls on rare-earth minerals. These minerals are critical components for manufacturing everything from consumer electronics to jet engines, and the news jolted a previously calm Wall Street. The renewed fears of a trade war sent all major indices into negative territory. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the steepest decline, falling 1.7%, as investors weighed the potential impact of supply chain disruptions for key manufacturing components.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks. Is now the time to buy Cracker Barrel? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Cracker Barrel’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 40 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 10 days ago when the stock dropped 2.4% on the news that Argus Research lowered its price target on the stock to $50 from $62. Despite the 19% reduction in the price target, the research firm maintained its "Buy" rating on the shares. This adjustment followed a series of other price target decreases from several other firms, including Citigroup, Truist Securities, Piper Sandler, and B of A Securities, which occurred on a prior date. The collective actions from market analysts pointed to growing concerns about the company's valuation.
Cracker Barrel is down 27.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $39.71 per share, it is trading 44.7% below its 52-week high of $71.86 from July 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Cracker Barrel’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $337.18.
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