Home Depot stock slides as labor-crunch warning lands, with earnings next on deck

Home Depot is now under pressure from a shareholder proposal urging the company to evaluate privacy and civil-rights risks linked to its surveillance vendors. This comes after reports revealed that license-plate camera data was used in Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations. Zevin Asset Management, holding over $7 million in Home Depot shares, is spearheading the proposal with backing from 17 co-sponsors ahead of the retailer’s annual meeting expected in May, Reuters said. Home Depot confirmed it employs Flock Safety’s license-plate readers but insists it does not provide federal agencies access. A company spokesperson added it “cannot legally interfere with federal enforcement agencies, including preventing them from coming into our stores and parking lots.”

Home Depot shares rose about 4% in midday trading on Friday as investors bought housing-linked names after President Donald Trump ordered mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities, bonds backed by pools of home loans. The stock was up 4.1% at $374.25. Redfin economist Chen Zhao called the plan’s impact “fairly small” and pegged any drop in mortgage rates at 10 to 15 basis points, or 0.10 to 0.15 percentage point.