A Reading Of Optimism And Fear Surrounding The Amazon-Whole Foods Deal

While some fear Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN might take over the world one day, others are ecstatic grocery prices might come down a little after Amazon’s proposed acquisition of Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM.

Benzinga took a look at consumer sentiment data from its alternative data network to get a better sense of what people think of the deal.

One service that offered some data to Benzinga leverages machine learning on more than 50 social indicators to offer a new perspective to his or her investments. For each underlying data point, the service uses natural language processing to extract eight primary human emotions to understand a variety of topics. In this case, the stress level, sentiment, optimism and fear from people following Amazon's proposed acquisition.

Here are the results:

• Amazon - Participants in social media are nervous, but still expressing optimism.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT - Users of social don't see this deal causing huge stress for Walmart, and are actually more positive.
• Kroger Co KR - The sentiment is still optimistic, but it seems as if it's hard for people not to worry about Kroger's future as Amazon invades its industry.
• Costco Wholesale Corporation COST - Sentiment suggests Costco will still be a dominant player and people still are very positive about the company.
• XPO Logistics Inc XPO and Old Dominion Freight Line ODFL - People are still optimistic about Old Dominion Freight Line, and clearly believe the Amazon-Whole Foods merger is a win for transportation companies.

Why Should You Use Sentiment Data?

Quant traders oftentimes use sentiment data to formulate investment strategies. Ultimately, the goal is for users to take this data, apply it to a business, and use it as a directional signal for a market or a company's stock.

For inquiries on licensing global sentiment data, contact Benzinga’s cloud content licensing@benzinga.com.