Category: Stock Market News

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday the electric car maker will make a “product announcement” at noon Pacific time, without giving any specifics. Tesla shares added to gains after the tweet, and were recently up 1.6% compared with gains of 0.4% for the S&P 500 index. Musk has broken Tesla news via Twitter often, including updates in April about reservations on Tesla’s Model 3 mass-market sedan.

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Oil futures reversed course Tuesday to trade higher after Reuters reported that Iran is “sending positive signals” that it may support group action to lift the oil market. The report cites sources in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the oil industry. Iran was unwilling to participate in a deal last spring to freeze production. OPEC is set to hold an informal meeting to again discuss an output freeze late next month. October WTI crude added 48 cents, or 1%, to trade at $47.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping lows under $47.

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Shares of Sophiris Bio Inc. plunged 32% in active morning trade, enough to make them the biggest decliner on the Nasdaq exchange, after the biopharmaceutical company said it priced its public share offering at a deep discount. Trading volume was about 4.3 million shares, nearly matching the full-day average just 40 minutes into the regular session. Sophiris said its offering of 6.5 million common shares, and warrants to buy 4.875 million shares with an exercise price of $4 a share, were offered at $4 a share. That was 31% below Monday’s closing price of $5.82. If the warrants are exercised, the 11.4 million shares sold would boost the shares outstanding by about 50%. Despite the selloff, the stock has still more than doubled year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.3%.

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U.S. stocks kicked off trading in positive territory Tuesday, as the S&P 500 index and Dow industrials tried to bounce back from two sessions in a row of losses. Gains for equities came as most global stock-market benchmarks headed higher and as crude-oil prices extended Monday’s losses. The S&P 500 index rose 8 points, or 0.4%, to 2,191, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 85 points, or 0.5%, at 18,617, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 20 points, or 0.4%, to 5,265. In corporate news, shares of Best Buy Co. Inc. surged after the electronics retailer beat Wall Street earnings expectations.

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Shares of Square Inc. surged 2.3% in premarket trade Tuesday, after Stifel Nicolaus turned bullish on the payments processing company, citing increased confidence in the company’s ability to show sustainable growth. Analyst Scott Devitt raised his rating to buy from hold, and set a stock price target of $15, which is 27% above Monday’s closing price of $11.82. After three quarterly reports since going public nine months ago, Devitt said Square has shown consistent “strong execution” in the development of its platform. In addition, two post-IPO lock-up expirations have already passed. “Square has generated better-than-expected top-line growth despite investor concerns surrounding the competitive threats and the size of the actual addressable market,” Devitt wrote in a note to clients. The stock, which has whipsawed within a range of $8.37 to $15.48 since it went public on Nov. 19, closed Monday 31% above its IPO price of $9. The S&P 500 has 4.8% over the same time.

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J.M. Smucker reported mixed first-quarter earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported net income of $170 million, or $1.46 a share, compared with $136 million, or $1.14 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time costs, the company said it earned $1.86 a share, beating average expectations on Wall Street of $1.74 a share, according to FactSet. Revenue for the period fell 7% year-over-year to $1.8 billion from $1.95 billion last year, missing the consensus estimate of $1.9 billion. The company reiterated a fiscal 2017 earnings per share guidance range of $7.60 to $7.75 a share, compared with analyst expectations of $7.70, but lowered its comparable sales estimate slightly, now expecting them to be flat or down 1%, versus an increase of 1% previously. Shares of J.M. Smucker rose 0.2% in premarket trade on light volume. They’ve risen 23% in the past three months and 42% in the past year. The S&P 500 , meanwhile, has risen 6.5% and 10.7% in the past three and 12 months.

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Shares of Best Buy Co. Inc. soared 15% toward a 10-month high in premarket trade Tuesday, after the consumer electronics retailer reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat expectations, including a surprise rise in same-store sales. For the quarter ended July 30, earnings rose to $198 million, or 61 cents a share, from $164 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as discontinued operations, adjusted earnings per share came to 57 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 43 cents. Revenue inched up to $8.533 billion from $8.528 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $8.392 billion, with domestic and international revenue both topping expectations. Same-store sales increased 0.8%, compared with the FactSet consensus of a 0.4% decline. “We saw continued positive momentum in our online sales – delivering a second straight quarter of nearly 24% growth,” said Chief Executive Hubert Joly. Looking ahead, the company expects third-quarter adjusted EPS of 43 cents to 47 cents, surrounding the FactSet consensus of 45 cents. The stock had climbed 7.7% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 had gained 6.8%.

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Toll Brothers Inc. on Tuesday posted quarterly sales that were above Wall Street’s estimate. Third-quarter net earnings were $105.5 million, or 61 cents a share, up from $66.7 million, or 36 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $1.27 billion from $1.03 billion in the same period last year. Analysts polled by FactSet expected 61 cents a share in earnings on sales of $1.25 billion. Toll Brothers said orders rose 18% to 1,748 units. The company now expects fiscal year 2016 deliveries of 5,900 to 6,200 homes at an average price of between $840,000 and $850,000 for each unit.

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Shares of Sophiris Bio Inc. sank in Monday’s extended session after the biopharmaceutical company said it is planning a secondary offering. It will also sell warrants, a type of security that allows the holder to buy the company’s underlying stock at a fixed price. Piper Jaffray & Co. is serving as a book-running manager for the deal. Sophiris shares tumbled 27% after hours.

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Tableau Software Inc. has snagged an executive from Amazon.com Inc.’s successful cloud-computing arm to serve as its new chief executive. Tableau, a big-data software company, said its cofounder and current CEO, Christian Chabot, will move to chairman of the company’s board to make room for Adam Selipsky, who was a vice president for Amazon Web Services. “The company is positioned to become the new world standard in analytics,” Selipsky said in Monday’s news release. “I’m honored to join the leadership team and all the great people that have fueled Tableau’s disruption of business analytics.” Another Tableau cofounder, Chris Stolte, will also give up his day-to-day role as chief development officer, becoming a technical adviser as longtime developer Andrew Beers takes on his former role. Tableau also said that it would create a new chief product officer position for another longtime employee, Francois Ajenstat. “Tableau has the capability to become the standard for how people work with data, and in doing so to grow into a globally recognized technology brand,” Chabot said Monday. “With the company’s scale and success to date, we have the opportunity to broaden our leadership team as we continue to delight customers and to build the company.” Tableau shares, which have plunged more than 40% this year, gained almost 4% in late trading after the announcement Monday afternoon.

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