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The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it is reorganizing into four business segments as part of a strategic overhaul aimed at boosting growth. The entertainment giant said the new structure comprises a new direct-to-consumer and international segment, a combined parks, experiences and consumer products segment, a media networks segment and a studio entertainment segment. The reorganization is effective immediately. “We are strategically positioning our businesses for the future, creating a more effective, global framework to serve consumers worldwide, increase growth, and maximize shareholder value,” Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement. The company has named Kevin Mayer, currently chief strategy officer, as head of the new direct-to-consumer and international business. That business will house the international media businesses, as well as the coming streaming service, the company’s stake in Hulu and its soon to-be-launched ESPN-plus streaming service. The company expects to transition to financial reporting under the new structure by the beginning of fiscal 2019. Shares were slightly lower Wednesday, and are down 8% in the last 12 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained about 19% and the S&P 500 has gained about 16%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded firmly lower on Wednesday, amid a broad downturn in U.S. equities led by selling in financials and industrials. Most recently, the Dow was down 271 points, or 1%, at 24,751, led by a selloff in industrials giant and Dow component Boeing Co. , which was down 4%, or nearly $14, and shaving about 100 points from the blue-chip index. A $1 move in any one of the Dow’s 30 components equates to a 6.89-point swing in the average.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Wednesday that its chief marketing officer, Mark Crumpacker, will resign, effective Thursday. Crumpacker will receive cash severance totaling 26 weeks of his base salary and 12 months to exercise vested stock-only stock appreciation rights. Chipotle shares are down 1.8% in Wednesday trading, and down 20.4% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 16.6% for the last 12 months.

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Oil prices moved slightly lower Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude supplies rose by 5 million barrels for the week ended March 9. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a climb of 2.5 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a rise of nearly 1.2 million barrels, according to sources. Gasoline stockpiles, however, dropped 6.3 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles lost 4.4 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast supply declines of 500,000 barrels for gasoline and 1.6 million barrels for distillates. April crude fell 10 cents, or 0.2%, to $60.61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $60.95 before the supply data.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced civil and criminal insider trading charges against Jun Ying, who allegedly used confidential information entrusted to him by the company to conclude that Equifax had suffered a serious breach. The SEC alleges that before Equifax’s public disclosure of the data breach, Ying exercised all of his vested Equifax stock options and then sold the shares, reaping proceeds of nearly $1 million. According to the complaint, by selling before public disclosure of the data breach, Ying avoided more than $117,000 in losses. Despite the breach, shares of Equifax have risen by 4.7% so far in 2018, compared with a gain of 0.9% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a rise of 3.4% for the S&P 500 index over the same period, according to FactSet data.

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Denny’s Corp. said Wednesday that it has partnered with Amazon.com Inc.’s to expand its Denny’s on Demand digital ordering to Amazon Alexa. The restaurant chain launched Denny’s on Demand last May and has since delivered 1.3 million orders. Denny’s shares are nearly flat in Wednesday trading, and up 21% for the year to date. The S&P 500 index is up 3.4% for the period.

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Business inventories in the U.S. rose 0.6% in January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Inventories in December were also revised up to a 0.6% gain from the prior estimate of 0.4%. Sales fell 0.2% in the month after a 0.5% gain in December. The rise in inventories and the drop in sales brought up the ratio of inventories to sales to 1.34 in January from 1.33 in the prior month. That’s how many months it would take to sell all the inventory on hand. One year ago, the ratio was 1.37. Auto inventories jumped 1.7% in January after falling 0.3% in December.

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S&P Global Ratings downgraded Ann Taylor parent Ascena Retail Group Inc.’s rating to B from B-plus on Wednesday, after the women’s apparel retailer reported declines in same-store sales and margins in its recent fiscal second-quarter earnings. “We expect Ascena’s operating performance to remain challenged because of the company’s lack of operating capabilities to effectively adapt to the sustained structural changes in the specialty apparel industry,” S&P analyst Mathew Christy wrote in a note. The outlook on the rating is negative, meaning the agency could downgrade it again in the medium term. S&P is expecting operating trends and credit metrics to remain negative, even though it expects Ascena to pay down some debt with repatriated cash. Ann Taylor and Dressbarn are expected to continue to post negative same-store sales, which will weigh against “modestly positive” trends at Justice and Lane Bryant. “Although the company continues to execute on its operating initiatives, such as product procurement and back-office function consolidation, we believe its omnichannel capabilities, store experience, and loyalty programs lag behind peers’,” said Christy. “As such, the company will likely continue to be reliant on discounting to drive traffic, which we expect to further pressure margins.” Shares were up 1% on Wednesday, but have fallen 50% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it was issuing a safety recall of about 1.38 million vehicles in North America, including 1.30 million vehicles in the U.S., for potentially loose steering wheel bolts after reports of two accidents and one injury. The affected vehicles include 2014 to 2017 Ford Fusions built at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant between August 2013 to February 2016; 2014 to 2018 Ford Fusions built at the Hermosillo Assembly Plant from July 2013 to March 2018; and 2014 to 2018 Lincoln MKZs built at the Hermosillo Assembly Plant from July 2013 to March 2018. Ford said it the potentially loose steering wheel bolts could result in a steering wheel detaching from the steering column, leading to a loss of steering and an increased risk of a crash. Separately, Ford said it was issuing a safety recall of about 6,000 2013 to 2016 Ford Focus vehicles for potential clutch plate fracture with a risk of fire. The stock rallied 5.6% in morning trade, boosted by a Morgan Stanley upgrade to overweight from underweight. The stock has shed 8.6% over the past three months while the S&P 500 has gained 4.5%.

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From:: Stock Market News