Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. will give the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s a big boost Thursday, but not quite enough to halt the recent slide. Wal-Mart’s stock shot up $5.80, or 9.2%, in recent premarket trade after the world’s largest retailer fiscal first-quarter results and current-quarter outlook were above expectations, which puts it on track to post the biggest one-day percentage gain since October 2008. That price gain would add about 40 points to the Dow, which is a price-weighted index. Cisco’s shares climbed $1.44, or 5.4%, ahead of the open, which would add about 10 points to the Dow, after the networking giant beat profit expectations and provided an upbeat outlook. Despite the combined 50-point boost from Wal-Mart and Cisco, Dow futures were still down 27 points, after the Dow fell 184 points the past two sessions.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shares jumped 8.2% in Thursday premarket trading after the retail giant announced earnings that beat estimates. The company reported net income of $3.08 billion, or 98 cents per share, down from $3.34 billion, or $1.03 last year. The FactSet consensus was 88 cents per share. Sales for the quarter totaled $115.9 billion, up from $114.8 billion and exceeding the FactSet consensus of $113.2 billion. Wal-Mart same-store sales grew 1%, driven by a 1.5% increase in traffic. The FactSet consensus was 0.5%. Wal-Mart U.S. same-store sales were up 1% with sales totaling $73.3 billion. Sales at Wal-Mart International totaled $28.08 billion, and sales at Sam’s Club were $13.6 billion. The retailer expects second-quarter earnings per share between 95 cents and $1.08, within range of the 98 cents per share FactSet estimate. And same-store sales for Wal-Mart U.S. are expected to rise 1% with a “slightly positive” same-store sales increase at Sam’s Club. Wal-Mart shares are up 3% for the year so far, but down 17.4% for the past year. The S&P 500 is up 0.2% for the year to date.

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Shares of Advance Auto Parts Inc. tumbled 9.6% in premarket trade Thursday, after the autoparts retailer missed first-quarter profit and sales expectations, cut its outlook and said its chief financial officer was leaving. For the quarter ended April 23, earnings rose to $158.8 million, or $2.14 a share, from $148.1 million, or $2.00 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to $2.51, below the FactSet consensus of $2.60. Sales fell to $2.98 billion from $3.04 billion, while same-store sales declined 1.9%, missing the FactSet consensus for sales of $3.01 billion and for a same-store sales decline of 0.5%. The company cut its full-year 2016 same-store sales outlook to negative 3% to negative 5%, from growth in the low single digits percentage range. Given sales trends experienced at the end of the first quarter, Advance Auto no longer expects to achieve its full-year free cash flow target of at least $500 million. Separately, CFO Mike Norona will be leaving the company after eight years in the position. The stock has dropped 4.5% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.2%.

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French President Francois Hollande told reporters Thursday that the missing EgyptAir FlightMS804 had likely “crashed,” according to the BBC.
Aircrafts and vessels were searching a section of the Mediterranean Sea for the flight that vanished on its way to Cairo from Paris earlier in the day. “The information we have gathered – ministers, members of government and, of course, the Egyptian authorities – confirm sadly that it has crashed. It is lost,” Hollande said. There was confusion earlier after an EgyptAir official said search and rescue teams had picked up a possible emergency locator signal at 4:26 a.m. Cairo time, 89 minutes after the aircraft vanished. However an official for Egypt’s civil aviation ministry later said the report was an error, according to The Wall Street Journal. The plane was roughly 30 minutes from landing, when contact was lost somewhere between the islands of Crete and Cyprus, according to the BBC. A total of 56 passengers, three security members and seven crew members were on board the flight which included 30 Egyptians, 15 French and several other nationalities. Greece’s Navy is investigating a report from the crew of a Greek merchant ship that said they saw something similar to an “explosion” lighting up the sky 130 miles east of the island of Karpathos.

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Moody’s Investor Service cut its 2016 growth forecast for the U.S. economy to 2% from 2.3%, citing subdued global demand and weak business investment. Moody’s 2016 growth outlook for advanced markets is 1.7% in 2016, down from 1.9% in 2015, according to the agency’s Global Credit Research report released Wednesday. “The global recovery has weakened further and the outlook across countries remains uneven and largely weaker than in the previous two decades,” said Elena Duggar, an Associate Managing Director at Moody’s. The ratings agency said a more pronounced slowdown than expected from China’s economy is currently one of the biggest risks to the global economy. In its U.S. analysis, Moody’s predicted the Federal Reserve will lift benchmark interest rates twice this year, at most, and make the moves gradually to prevent potential disruption for capital markets and growth. Moody’s said U.S. consumption would continue to strengthen through the rest of the year, but the economy will see drag from subdued external demand and low energy prices on industrial production and business investment.

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Moody’s Investor Service cut its 2016 growth forecast for the U.S. economy to 2% from 2.3%, citing subdued global demand and weak business investment. Moody’s 2016 growth outlook for advanced markets is 1.7% in 2016, down from 1.9% in 2015, according to the agency’s Global Credit Research report released Wednesday. “The global recovery has weakened further and the outlook across countries remains uneven and largely weaker than in the previous two decades,” said Elena Duggar, an Associate Managing Director at Moody’s. The ratings agency said a more pronounced slowdown than expected from China’s economy is currently one of the biggest risks to the global economy. In its U.S. analysis, Moody’s predicted the Federal Reserve will lift benchmark interest rates twice this year, at most, and make the moves gradually to prevent potential disruption for capital markets and growth. Moody’s said U.S. consumption would continue to strengthen through the rest of the year, but the economy will see drag from subdued external demand and low energy prices on industrial production and business investment.

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Greece is investigating a report of a possible explosion over the Aegean Sea, The Wall Street Journal reported, as authorities try to determine what happened to an EgyptAir plane that went missing early Thursday morning. The crew of a merchant ship said they saw what looked like “an explosion that lit up the sky” about 130 miles east of Karpathos, the report said. Greek navy teams are in that area as part of an international search for Flight MS804, which vanished from radar en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board.

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Shares of travel operators and airlines dropped on Thursday after an EgyptAir flight disappeared en route from Paris to Cairo. The incident follows an EgyptAir hijacking in March and a spate of terror attacks in Europe and Turkey that have left the travel industry struggling with lower bookings for the summer holidays. Shares of Thomas Cook Group PLC were hardest hit on Thursday, down 17%. However, Thomas Cook’s share price slump was also driven by a downbeat full-year outlook from the tour operator, which said demand for travel to Turkey has dropped significantly. Shares of peer company TUI AG dropped 2.9%, while EasyJet PLC lost 1.9% and International Consolidated Airlines SA fell 1.6%.

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The missing EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo has crashed, according to Egyptian aviation officials speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Flight MS804 vanished from the radar just after entering Egyptian airspace at around 2:45 a.m. Cairo time on Thursday, with 66 people on board. Given the plane has not landed at local airports, the “possibility that the plane crashed has been confirmed,” the officials told AP. Separately, an Egyptian civil aviation authority spokesman told Sky News Arabia that the plane had most likely crashed into the sea. A search for the debris from the Airbus plane has been launched, the report said. Greece has joined Egypt’s airborne hunt for survivors, providing two aircraft, media reports said.

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An EgyptAir jetliner from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar Wednesday night, according to a tweet from the airline. According to EgyptAir, Flight MS804 took off with 59 passengers and 10 crew from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport around 11 p.m. local time. FlightRadar24 reported the plane was an Airbus A320-232. The airline said it lost contact with the plane over the Mediterranean, about 80 miles outside Egyptian airspace. Search and rescue efforts are said to be underway.

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