Category: Stock Market News

CIT Group Inc. plans to sell its commercial aircraft leasing business for $10 billion to Avolon Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of China’s Bohai Capital Holding Co., the commercial lender said late Thursday. Once the deal is finalized, CIT plans to return $2.98 billion in common equity to shareholders, including $64 million in dividends. The sale, which is expected to close in the first quarter, is part of CIT’s strategy to become a leading middle-market bank. Shares of CIT jumped 8.6% after hours.

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Honeywell International Inc. shares declined in the extended session Thursday after the industrial products company trimmed its outlook. Honeywell shares fell 3.3% to $111.75 after hours. The company said it expects third-quarter earnings of about $1.60 a share, or $1.67 a share excluding stock compensation restructuring. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate $1.70 a share. Honeywell forecast fourth-quarter earnings of $1.74 to $1.78 a share. Analysts expect $1.80 a share.

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Gap Inc. said Thursday it had September sales of $1.43 billion for the month ending Oct. 1, down 2% from $1.46 billion for the same period last year. Same-store sales dropped 3% for the month. The retailer, whose brands include the namesake Gap stores, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, estimates that a fire that occurred at its Fishkill, NY distribution center negatively impacted the same-store sales result by 3 percentage points. The company expects the incident to negatively impact October same-store sales by about 3 percentage points, and have a negative impact on fiscal fourth-quarter same-store sales. At the time, a Gap spokesperson told MarketWatch that the company has “contingency plans in place” to manage the aftermath of the fire. Gap Global had the steepest decline in September same-store sales at 10%. Banana Republic same-store sales fell 9%. Old Navy saw same-store sales climb 4%. Gap Inc. shares are up 5.6% in after-hours trading, but are down nearly 20% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 9.1% for the last 12 months.

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Tropical storm Nicole intensified to hurricane strength on Thursday, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mils an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm was located about 345 miles south of Bermuda and was expected to run north-northwest later in the day. “Some additional strengthening is likely over the next day or so, followed by slow weakening,” said the NHC in its latest advisory. The news came as hurricane Matthew, now a category 4 storm, was headed over the Bahamas and toward Florida, where it’s expected to make landfall by Friday.

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Oil futures climbed Thursday, with West Texas Intermediate crude topping $50 a barrel to score its highest settlement since early June. Prices got a boost from expectations that Hurricane Matthew will disrupt supplies, leading to another weekly drawdown in the nation’s stockpiles. November West Texas Intermediate crude rose 61 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $50.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest finish for a front-month contract since June 9, according to FactSet data.

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Walt Disney Co. plans on closing its theme parks, water parks and other properties in central Florida by 5 p.m. Eastern Time
Thursday as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward the U.S.’s East Coast, the company announced on its website. The closures also include Disney’s miniature golf courses and ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The company said it is “taking precautions” for its current guests. Hotel and dining cancellation fees will be waived if the plans were affected by the hurricane.

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European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio denied reports that ECB officials had discussed tapering the central bank’s massive bond-buying program. Constancio told Bloomberg News that there’s no foundation to the rumors, and that stimulus will continue until inflation starts rising toward the central bank’s target. U.S. stocks trimmed their losses on the news, while the euro weakened against the dollar and Treasury yields moved lower. The S&P 500 index was up two points in recent trade at 2,161, while the euro was down 0.4% at $1.1162. Treasury yields pared an early rise, with the 10-year up 1.6 basis points at 1.720%. Earlier in the week, Bloomberg reported that the ECB had reached an “informal consensus” that its monthly bond purchases would need to be gradually reduced once the decision has been made to end the program. An ECB spokesman quickly denied the report, it didn’t stop U.S. stocks from tumbling and the euro from shooting higher.

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Black Friday will not be the top shopping day of the 2016 holiday season, according to the latest forecast from analytics company RetailNext, released on Thursday. Instead, that day will be Friday, Dec. 23, followed by Super Saturday, Dec. 17. Black Friday has fallen to the third spot. Black Friday won’t even be the busiest shopping day of the season. Super Saturday will see the most shopper visits this year, said RetailNext, followed by Black Friday. “As retailers have continued the trend to open more stores on Thanksgiving Day, it has pilfered away both sales and traffic from Black Friday,” said Shelley E. Kohan, vice president of retail consulting, in a statement. “This year, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, most shoppers will want to cut short their shopping early on Saturday, December 24, leaving the day before, Friday, as retail’s biggest opportunity for sales.” RetailNext predicts a 3.2% year-over-year increase in sales, with a 14.9% year-over-year rise in digital sales.

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Hurricane Matthew has already strengthened to a category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center, with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles an hour. “Some additional strengthening is possible, and Matthew should remain a Category 4 hurricane while it approaches the Florida coast,” the NHC said in its latest advisory. The eye of the storm is moving northwest between two islands in the Bahamas and is expected to move close to or over the east coast of the Florida Peninsula through Friday night. A hurricane watch is in effect for the Bahamas and neighboring islands, as well as for the Florida coast tracking up to South Santee River South Carolina.

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Shares of Obalon Therapeutics , a medical device company, were trading at $15.20 Thursday, above the company’s $15 issue price in its market debut. The company sold 5 million shares to raise $750 million. UBS Investment Bank, Canaccord Genuity and Stifel were the lead underwriters on the offering.

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