Category: Stock Market News

Tesla Motors Inc. quietly discontinued its resale value guarantee program as of July 1. The program was “discontinued … so we can keep interest rates as low as possible” and offer “compelling” lease and loan programs to customers, a Tesla spokeswoman said Wednesday. The program was available to those who financed or leased their cars through Tesla official financing partners and programs. It guaranteed that Tesla would buy back the car at a minimum preset value after three years and at preset terms, in some cases at least 50% of the car’s base price. It was first offered in 2013, largely to assuage early-adopter fears and ensure buyers that their Model S, Tesla’s first in-house designed and built electric car, would hold value in case sales tanked or other problems arose.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said Wednesday it raised its quarterly dividend 4.2% to 37.5 cents a share from 36 cents a share. The drugstore chain’s new dividend will be effective Sept. 12 to shareholders of record on Aug. 19. The stock gained 0.8% in afternoon trade. At current prices, the new annual dividend of $1.50 implies a dividend yield of 1.83%, compared with the implied aggregate dividend yield for the S&P 500 of 2.12%, according to FactSet. Walgreens’ stock has slipped 3.9% year to date, while the S&P 500 has tacked on 5.1%.

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Oil futures extended their earlier losses Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell by a less-than-expected 2.5 million barrels for the week ended July 8. The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday had reported a 2.2 million-barrel climb, according to sources, while analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected a decline of 3.25 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 1.2 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles jumped by 4.1 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. August crude fell 92 cents, or 2%, from Tuesday’s settlement to $45.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $46.25 before the data.

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Amazon.com Inc. is calling this year’s Prime Day “the biggest day ever,” with customer orders in the U.S. exceeding last year’s Prime Day by more than 50%, and customer orders globally exceeding 2015 by more than 60%. In a statement Wednesday, the e-commerce retailer said it was also the biggest day ever for Amazon devices. The Fire TV Stick sold 2.5 times over last year, making it the best-selling Amazon device. More than 90,000 televisions were purchased, members purchased more than 23,000 iRobot Roomba vacuums, and more than one million customers used the Amazon app for the first time. Amazon shares are up 0.7% in Wednesday trading, and 65.5% for the last 12 months. The S&P 500 is up 2.6% for the past year.

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Incoming U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to name Philip Hammond as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer when she takes over the helm from David Cameron later on Wednesday, according to ITV. Hammond is currently the secretary of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs. The U.K. TV station said current finance minister George Osborne is rumored to be unwilling to accept another role and will leave government in a cabinet reshuffle. May is set to formally become the new U.K. leader at the end of a traditional sequence on Wednesday afternoon. Cameron earlier on Wednesday attended his final Prime Minister’s Questions and is heading to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to the queen.

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U.S. stocks opened higher Wednesday, pushing the S&P 500 and Dow industrials to fresh all-time highs. Record-low sovereign bond yields, which tumbled again on Wednesday, along with a cautious Federal Reserve has fueled demand for U.S. equities, even as oil prices slumped on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 32 points, or 0.2%, to 18,381, the S&P 500 index gained 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,155, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 11 points, or 0.2%, to 5,032.

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Shares of JetBlue Airways Corp. jumped 3.4% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the air carrier reported monthly traffic growth that outpaced capacity growth for the first time in five months. June traffic increased 11.6% to 3.95 billion revenue passenger miles while capacity grew 10.5% to 4.59 billion available seat miles. That pushed June load factor up to 86.2% from 85.3%, the first increase since January. The company said preliminary June revenue per available seat mile (RASM) declined by about 4.5%. Including Wednesday’s premarket gain, the stock was trading up 23% since it closed at a 17-month low of $15.15 on June 27. Year to date, it has tumbled 20% through Tuesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline has gained 2.3% and the S&P 500 index has tacked on 5.3%.

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Healthcare IT security company Imprivata said Wednesday it has agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, in a deal valued at about $544 million. Thoma Bravo will pay $19.25 per Imprivata share in cash, equal to a 33% premium over Imprivata’s closing price Tuesday. Imprivata shares were halted for news pending, but are up 28% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Shares of Pandora Media Inc. surged 3% in premarket trade Wednesday after the stock was upgraded to overweight from neutral and its 12-month price target raised to $18 from $12 at PiperJaffray. The upgrade reflects optimism regarding the potential outcome of music label negotiations, improving margins across the radio business and the upcoming release of a new on-demand platform that could add an incremental 9.2 million subscribers or roughly $750 million in revenue over the next three years, according to PiperJaffray analyst Stan Meyers. “Pandora is approaching the inflection point,” he said. “We see meaningful upside ahead.” The average rating on the stock is the equivalent to buy, while the median price target among a poll of nearly 30 analysts surveyed by FactSet is $14.17. Shares of Pandora were on track to open around $13.44 on Wednesday.

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Aberdeen Asset Management PLC said Wednesday that investors may resume trading in its £3.2 billion ($4.25 billion) U.K. property fund, lifting a suspension that was imposed by the company a week ago. Aberdeen was among the companies that suspended commercial-property funds because of an increase in demand for redemptions in the wake of the U.K.’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union. Aberdeen had cut the value of the fund by 17%. “Investors should be aware that the price may be adjusted on a daily basis to reflect the funds’ requirement to provide liquidity and the need to protect all investors,” said Aberdeen’s Chief Executive Martin Gilbert in a statement. “The market may take time to find its level but I have no doubt that property will continue to play an important part in investors’ portfolios,” he said.

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