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Homebuilder Toll Brothers was upgraded to overweight from equal-weight at Morgan Stanley on Tuesday, while rival PulteGroup was downgraded to underweight from equal-weight. Analyst Haendel St. Juste also raised his price target on Lennar Corp. to $61 from $55. He said the market does not appreciate the potential of Toll Brothers, while it is overvaluing PulteGroup’s deferred tax assets. Overall, Haendel expects the housing market’s growth to decelerate slightly year-over-year in 2016. Shares of Toll Brothers climbed 0.7% to $37.34 in premarket trade, while those of PulteGroup fell 1.7% to $19.75. Lennar’s stock was inactive in premarket trade

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Under Armour Inc.’s stock slumped 2.3% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the athletic apparel company said Chief Financial Officer Brad Dickerson will step down after seven years in the position to pursue another opportunity. Dickerson, who was also named chief operating officer earlier this year, will remain with the company until February 2016, as the company searches externally for his replacement. The new opportunity Dickerson is pursuing it outside of the athletic performance industry, Under Armour said. The stock has soared 52% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 has lost 2%.

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From:: Stock Market News

General Electric Co. said it reached a deal to sell GE Capital’s commercial distribution finance and corporate finance businesses, with ending net investment (ENI) of $30 billion, to Wells Fargo & Co. The sale, which includes about 3,000 employees, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. GE said the deal will contribute about $4.2 billion of capital to the target of $35 billion of dividends GE Capital is expected to be paid GE. “This is our largest transaction to date and a critical step in our efforts to reduce the size of GE Capital,” said GE Capital Chief Executive Keith Sherin. “Since our April 10 announcement, we’ve signed more than $126 billion in transactions, which is over 60 percent of our overall plan, and are on track to become less than 10 percent of GE’s earnings as the company transitions to a more focused digital industrial company.” GE’s stock, which slipped 0.5% in premarket trade, has climbed 11% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 3.9%.

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Twitter Inc. shares rose 3% in premarket trade Tuesday after the company announced the approval of a restructuring plan that would cut up to 336 employees, or 8% of Twitter’s global workforce. With the job cuts, Twitter expects its revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter to be in line or above the estimated range of $545 million to $560 million for revenue and $110 million to $115 million for EBITDA. The reduction of employees could result in $10 million to $20 million of cash expenditures, mostly due to severance. The restructuring is estimated to cost the company $5 million to $15 million, which Twitter expects to recognize in the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2015. The restructuring was made to focus on the company’s top products and become more efficient, according to the SEC filing. “We feel strongly that Engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our workforce. And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel,” CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in an email to employees.

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Tyco International said Tuesday that it named Robert Olson as its chief financial officer, replacing Arun Nayar who will retire at the end of the year. Olson was most recently CFO of Dish Network Corp. , which was reported over the summer to be in talks with banks about funding for a bid to buy T-Mobile U.S. Inc. . The fire protection and security company affirmed its fourth-quarter adjusted earnings-per-share outlook of 60 cents to 62 cents, which surrounds the FactSet consensus of 61 cents. “Robert’s effective record in chief financial officer roles combined with his broad experience in service-oriented technology companies will be especially valuable as we grow our services and solutions businesses,” said Chief Executive George Oliver. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has dropped 18% year to date, while the S&P 500 has slipped 2%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Alibaba Group kicked off its 11.11 Global Shopping Festival on Tuesday, a run-up event to its Black Friday-like “Single’s Day” event, which takes place on Nov. 11. The festival is designed to entice Chinese and multinational brands to offer steep discounts for one day on its e-commerce sites, similar to the way Western brands offer huge promotions to kick off the holiday season in the U.S. Last year, Alibaba reported a record $9 billion in Singles’ Day sales. Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma reiterated the company’s international strategy on Tuesday, which he said is to serve as the “gateway to China” for international brands. He also defended China’s economy, saying that while there are currently 300 million middle class in China, and that number will rise to 500 million within 15 years. “China’s consumption power will rise quickly and that will not only drive China’s economy but also the world’s economy,” he said. Alibaba also said it is partnering with individual countries this year to facilitate imports directly into China. Shares of Alibaba fell 1% to $69.59 in premarket trade. They are down 14% over the last three months, underperforming the S&P 500, which is down 4%.

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Starbucks Corp. is launching the first Starbucks Green Apron Delivery service in the Empire State Building today. The pilot program, designed for densely-populated urban areas, according to a statement, will allow the building’s 12,000 workers to order select food and beverage items from a dedicated website. Orders will be delivered within 30 minutes to a designated area (reception, for instance) where the customer will meet them. Tourists and other visitors cannot use the service. The Empire State Building has 150 tenants spread across 75 floors. Starbucks stock is up 47.6% for the year-to-date. The S&P is down 2% for the same period.

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Kyocera Solar Inc. and installer Dynamic Solar Solutions have installed 24.75 kilowatts of solar modules atop the Emilio Bacardi Group headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, making the building 100% solar. The system will produce 34,533 kilowatt hours annually and will pay for itself in five years, Kyocera said in a statement. That includes government incentives that will cover 30% of the cost. Electricity prices in the Caribbean are among the highest in the world, with Puerto Rico’s rates often double that of the U.S. The Emilio Bacardi Group owns Dynamic Solar Solutions, Caribbean Energy Distributor Corp., and eight other companies.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve should gradually raise interest rates, said James Bullard, the president of the St. Louis Fed, on Tuesday. “Prudent monetary policy suggests gradually edging the policy settings closer to normal, since the goals have been met and policy would still remain very accommodative,” Bullard said in a speech to the National Association for Business Economics in Washington. The accommodative stance “will provide plenty of insurance against any remaining risks to the U.S. economy,” he said. Bullard will be a voting member of the Fed policy committee in 2016.

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Xerox Corp. said that its third-quarter results will show an after-tax charge of $240 million, or 22 cents per share, related to its health enterprise medicaid platform implementations. The charge is due to discussions Xerox had with clients in California and Montana regarding the status and scope of health enterprise platform projects, according to a news release. Xerox does not believe it is probable that it will fully complete the implementation of the platform in these states, but expects to continue processing Medicaid claims using existing legacy systems. Xerox is set to report third-quarter earnings on Monday, Oct. 26. Analyst tracked by FactSet expect the company to report per-share earnings of 23 cents, and revenue of $4.55 billion. Shares of Xerox are down 24.5% in the year to date, while the S&P is down 2%.

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From:: Stock Market News