NEW YORK, June 6, 2026, 10:04 (EDT)
General Mills Inc (GIS.N) bounced 2.95% to $33.15 on Friday after a tough week, with buyers moving into defensive consumer stocks during a bigger U.S. selloff. Even with the jump, General Mills ended the week around 2% lower than last Friday and had touched $31.75 on Thursday.
This matters with U.S. cash markets closed for the weekend. Friday’s close is the latest mark for a company still facing weak sales, price investment, and more pressure from packaged-food shoppers.
The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund, which follows big staples stocks, gained 1.7% Friday. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, standing in for the broader index, dropped 2.6%. Staples are called defensive since people keep buying food and basics when investors get nervous about growth.
The action wasn’t limited to General Mills. Shares of Conagra Brands climbed 2.5%, while Kraft Heinz was up 0.5% and Campbell’s gained 0.6%. The buying was more about the whole slow-growth food sector than any single name.
Wall Street is still playing it safe. On Friday, Benzinga’s analyst tracker said Morgan Stanley kept an “underweight” on the stock with a $32 price target—a signal the bank expects it to trail the market or rivals. The last three ratings from Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and UBS averaged $31, below where shares have been trading lately. Benzinga
General Mills posted an 8% drop in net sales to $4.4 billion for its fiscal third quarter, and organic net sales — which leave out things like acquisitions, divestitures and currency changes — were down 3%. Adjusted diluted EPS in constant currency fell 37%. CEO Jeff Harmening said in March that the company was looking for “a return to earnings growth” in the fourth quarter and pointed to “continued market share momentum.” General Mills
Friday’s bounce gave investors some breathing room, but not answers. The focus stays on whether cheaper prices, new products and higher brand spending will pull volume back up while keeping margins from getting squeezed.
General Mills is set to exit its Häagen-Dazs shops in mainland China, agreeing last week to sell them to a group led by tea retailer Ningji. Terms weren’t made public. Sales through third-party retailers will continue. A Reuters source said about 170 shops are part of the deal, which should close this year.
Premium foreign food brands in China are up against it. Häagen-Dazs set high prices “without delivering sufficient product value or cultural relevance,” independent Chinese consumer analyst Yaling Jiang told the Associated Press. AP News
Macro data is the focus next week, with the U.S. consumer price index set to be released Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. The producer price index comes out Thursday, measuring prices from producers. General Mills will next update investors with its fiscal Q4 and full-year results on July 1.
But risks run in both directions. If inflation numbers signal that food or input costs are still high, investors may look at how much leeway General Mills really has to keep cutting prices or spending to win back volume. On the flip side, if the market calms down, the defensive trade seen Friday could lose steam. “The Federal Reserve would be watching this like a hawk,” Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede, told Reuters, adding that rate expectations loom over defensive stocks, not just growth names. Reuters
General Mills goes into the new week with shares showing a bit more life on Friday, but the chart still looks soft. Earnings are set for July. The market has eased up a bit on the stock, though it hasn’t handed over a full reset.
