Month: September 2015

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew reiterated Thursday the federal government can stay under the debt limit briefly past late October. In a letter to congressional leaders, Lew said Treasury’s view hasn’t changed since his July 29 letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other leaders. Lew then wrote that “extraordinary measures” taken by Treasury to allow continued borrowing wouldn’t be exhausted before late October and they would likely last for at least a brief extra period. “That continues to be our view, based upon our best and most recent information,” Lew wrote Thursday. He urged lawmakers to raise the debt limit as soon as possible. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has projected the Treasury would run out of borrowing ability between mid-November and early December if the debt limit isn’t raised.

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Finisar Corp. Chief Executive Eitan Gertel stepped down Thursday, with no reason given for the departure. The networking company announced Gertel’s resignation in a three-paragraph news release and said Chairman Jerry Rawls will assume the role of CEO. “We appreciate Eitan’s leadership and the important strategic initiatives he has driven for the company,” Rawls said in the release. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company also detailed earnings for its fiscal first quarter Thursday, revealing profit of $3.4 million, or 3 cents a share, on sales of $314 million; after adjustments, Finisar claimed profit of 23 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted profits of 26 cents a share on sales of $319 million. Finisar shares fell more than 6% in late trading after closing with a 1.1% gain at $14.91.

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Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc. slid in Thursday’s extended trade after the high-end home furnishings retailer reported quarterly earnings and released a weak outlook for the current quarter. Restoration Hardware said its second-quarter earnings rose to $29.9 million, or 71 cents a share, from $27.3 million, or 66 cents a share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 85 cents a share, ahead of the 83 cents a share forecast by analysts in a FactSet survey. Revenue grew to $506.9 million from $433.8 million. In the third quarter, Restoration Hardware is projecting revenue in a range of $531 million to $541 million and adjusted earnings per share of 60 cents to 66 cents, below analysts’ average estimates of $559 million in revenue and adjusted EPS of 67 cents. Shares were off 2.8% in the after-hours session.

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Zumiez Inc. shares fell 19% Thursday after the retailer reported lower-than-expected earnings and lower comparable-store sales. Zumiez said it earned $3.2 million, or 11 cents a share, in the second quarter, a 56% decrease from the $7.5 million reported a year ago. Sales rose 1.8% to $179.8 million in the quarter, from $176.7 million a year ago. Comparable-store sales fell 4.5% in the quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected the retailer to report earnings of 18 cents a share in the quarter. The second-quarter results reflected a slowdown in domestic sales that required the company “to become more promotional than planned to clear slow moving inventory,” Chief Executive Rick Brooks said in a statement. Shares of Zumiez had ended the regular session down 3.6%.

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Dollar Tree Inc. was downgraded to underperform from neutral at Credit Suisse on Thursday. The firm cited uncertainty about the Family Dollar acquisition and fiscal second-quarter losses as reasons for the move. “While management remains positive on the FDO acquisition overall, it’s clear to us the transaction is not living up to initial expectations,” Credit Suisse said in a note. The firm lowered its price target to $60 from $70. And it lowered its 2015 earnings estimate to $2.80 from $2.88. Dollar Tree shares are down 2.5% in late trade and have fallen 15.4% over the past three months. The S&P is down 7% over the past three months.

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Shares of Avon Products Inc. rose on Thursday following a report that the beauty-products company is holding talks with private-equity firms, including Cerberus Capital Management and Platinum Equity, to attract fresh investment. Avon is holding an auction process known as a private investment in public equity with bids due next week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. Avon shares, which had surged above $5 a share when the news broke, were up 1.8% to $4.61.

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Google Inc. announced Thursday that its refreshed mobile-payments offering, Android Pay, has launched in the United States. The offering, which replaces Google Wallet as a mobile-payments option on Android phones and challenges Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay system, will allow users to pay for goods in equipped physical locations with their Android smartphones. Google said that it is accepting credit and debit cards from four major payments processors — American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa — through most banks. The Web giant said that of the banks it has not signed up yet, Citi and Wells Fargo are expected in the next few days, and Capital One is “coming soon.” “We’ll be rolling out gradually over the next few days, and this is just the beginning,” Android Pay executive Pali Bhat wrote in a blog post announcing the launch. Existing Google Wallet users should be able to update to Android Pay and new users can find the app in the Google Play Store in the next few days, Bhat wrote.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – President Barack Obama has set a goal for his administration to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, up from roughly 1,800 expected to be accepted this year, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Thursday.

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Former Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers partner Ellen Pao will not pursue an appeal against her former firm over a gender discrimination lawsuit, according to a statement reported by Re/Code. In the statement, Pao said she would pay Kleiner Perkins’ legal costs and is dropping the suit because “I cannot afford the risk of even more costs to fight against a firm with tremendous financial resources and massive legal and PR armies.” Pao had filed a lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins on causes of sexism and gender discrimination but lost the trial. The court had ordered Pao to pay about $276,000 of Kleiner’s legal fees. In the statement, Pao said she did not reach a settlement with the law firm because that would have required her to not speak about her experiences. “I feel gratified that my actions have encouraged others to speak up about discrimination in venture capital and technology more broadly,” she said in the statement. “I feel gratified that my actions have encouraged others to speak up about discrimination in venture capital and technology more broadly,” she said in the statement.

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ThredUp, an online secondhand clothing marketplace, announced an $81 million funding round Thursday led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners . The company opened a 136,000 square foot facility in Pennsylvania and said it expects to open two more facilities and hire 1,000 employees. ThredUp says it expects to process more than two million pieces of clothing every month by the end of 2016. “Our industry research revealed a huge opportunity to change consumer behavior around both shopping and selling secondhand apparel,” said Ian Friedman, co-head of GSIP Private Investments, in the press release. Friedman will also join ThreadUP’s board of directors. Other investors in the series E round include its existing investors: Trinity Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Upfront Venture. The company has raised more than $125 million across all funding rounds.

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