The general equities market in the US has been retreating in the past couple of weeks. The S&P500 for example fell around 4.4% from 2940 last week to around 2811 by Wednesday (10/10). In this same period McDonald's $MCD has been resilient and actually edged out a small gain around last 165 to 170 (around 3%). We might think of MCD as a defensive stock in this environment, but the market is also looking at its potential growth as it leverages automated technology like kiosks to improve its operating margins. MCD Daily Chart(click to enlarge)Staying Resilient:- MCD has been consolidating almost since the start of the year. - Price fell from around $179 a share in late January to $148.20 a share in early March.- Since then, price has gotten into a ranging mode as we can see on the daily chart.- Price moved up during the 10/10 session but ended the session pretty much unchanged. If the overall market didn't bleed out so much during the 10/10 session, we might have seen MCD in a strong bullish breakout.Growth Drivers:- Guggenheim upgraded the stock to a buy today (10/10) with a target of $200 a share. - Tech improvements like implementation of self-order kiosks are showing signs of being able to improve operating margins. - The margin-reducing effect of a higher minimum wage might also be alleviated if people are spending more and faster at McDonald's.