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Oil breaks below $50 for first time in 2017 in sudden selloff

Oil prices suddenly turned sharply lower in Thursday trade, pushing West Texas Intermediate crude below the psychologically important $50-a-barrel level for the first time since December. The April contract dropped 79 cents, or 1.6%, to $49.51 a barrel, after trading as high as $50.84 earlier in the day. Brent for May slid 79 cents, or 1.5%, to $52.30 a barrel. Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, said the sudden sharp move came as traders stopped betting oil prices will higher. “In essence, traders holding longs are selling into a market where the bid is weak,” he said. On Wednesday, both WTI and Brent closed at 2017 lows after U.S. supply data showed inventories have jumped to mark a fresh record. However, earlier on Thursday, oil prices had recovered slightly.

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Scottish leader floats fall 2018 for second independence referendum

Fall 2018 would be a “common sense” time for a second independence referendum, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in a BBC interview that is being broadcast Thursday. Sturgeon also insisted, however, that no final decision had yet been made on holding such a vote, a BBC report said. A referendum at that time would come a few months before the U.K. is due to exit the European Union, adding a big wrinkle to the Brexit process.

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J. Jill prices initial public offering below expected range

J.Jill Inc. late Wednesday priced its initial public offering at under the expected range. The woman’s apparel retailer said it will offer 11.7 million shares at $13 apiece for trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The IPO was expected to price at $14 to $16 a share, according to a late February filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Underwriters have the option to buy up to 1.8 million additional shares to cover overallotments.

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Home Lenders Tout Purchase Financing Volume

Several residential lenders have recently issued reports about the level of production they have generated. In addition to touting overall record activity, some focused on their robust financing of home purchases.

loanDepot LLC, which previously reported $38.2 billion in 2016 mortgage production, said in January that its total originations — including residential and personal loans — have reached $100 billion since opening in 2010.

“As the newest and most forward-looking brand among the nation’s top five retail mortgage lenders, loanDepot has grown originations on average by 70 percent annually since 2010, and grown its market share by 400 percent since 2012,” the statement said.

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E.L.F Beauty shares soar after company’s earnings and outlook beat estimates

E.L.F Beauty Inc. shares soared 14% late Wednesday after the cosmetics company swung to a profit in the fourth quarter and gave guidance above consensus. E.L.F said it earned $6.6 million, or 13 cents a share, in the quarter, versus a loss of $40 million, or $1,151.13 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the Oakland, Calif., company earned 19 cents in the quarter, compared with 14 cents a share a year ago and beating the 13 cents FactSet consensus. Sales rose to $76.4 million in the quarter, up 17% from a year ago. The company said it expects full-year 2017 sales between $285 million and $295 million, and adjusted EPS of 40 cents to 43 cents. The FactSet consensus is for sales of $281.3 million and EPS of 36 cents for the year. E.L.F. shares are down 16.8% for the last three months while the S&P 500 index is up 5.2% for the same period.

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Men’s Wearhouse parent Tailored Brands shares tank on wider-than-expected quarterly loss

Tailored Brands Inc. shares fell more than 22% Wednesday after the parent of Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank and other apparel retailers reported a wider-than-expected loss and lower sales in the fourth quarter. Tailored Brands said it lost 62 cents a share in the three-month period, compared with a loss of $21.86 a share in the same period a year ago. Sales reached $793.3 million in the quarter, down from $826 million a year ago. The company’s fourth-quarter GAAP operating loss included a $14 million charge related to fixed assets in its Macy’s tuxedo stores. Adjusted for one-time items, the company lost 19 cents a share, compared with 30 cents a share in the fourth quarter of 2015. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of 12 cents a share on sales of $811 million in the quarter. A “challenging retail environment resulted in soft traffic across our retail brands,” CEO Doug Ewert said in a statement. In anticipation of similar trends, Tailored Brands projected earnings between $1.45 a share to $1.75 a share for fiscal 2017. The outlook includes an estimated operating loss of $19 million to $20 million from the Macy’s tuxedo business, which did not ramp in 2016 as the company expected. “We are actively engaged in discussions with Macy’s to restructure our agreement. Due to the early stages of our negotiations, our current 2017 plan assumes no further Macy’s store expansion,” and a restructured agreement with the department store “will involve a different operating model,” Tailored Brands said. Shares of the company ended the regular trading day up 1.1%.

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Bankrate shares fall after earnings miss

Bankrate Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Wednesday after the online personal-finance content company’s quarterly results fell short of Wall Street expectations. Shares of Bankrate fell 10% to $9.86 after hours. The company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of 16 cents a share on revenue of $113.6 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 19 cents a share on revenue of $120.2 million. Bankrate expects revenue of $115 million to $118 million for the first quarter, and $500 million to $515 million for the year. Analysts estimate $113.9 million for the first quarter, and $498.3 million for the year.

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Snap rallies after two-day losing streak

Shares of Snap Inc. soared 6.4% to $22.81 on Wednesday, snapping a two-day losing streak. The rally follows a 21% combined decline on Monday and Tuesday from a closing high of $27.09 on Friday. Snap, the parent company of the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, went public at a price of $17 and began trading on Thursday. The company’s splashy IPO led to a buying flurry that sent the stock up sharply in the two days after its market debut. However, a number of bearish initiations, many pointing to the company’s shaky fundamentals and calling the stock overvalued, burst the post-IPO bubble. By comparison, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed slightly higher Wednesday, up 0.6%, while both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended slightly lower.

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