Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Container Store Group Inc. sank in Thursday’s extended session after the retailer posted disappointing results. The storage and organization products company swung to a third-quarter loss of $1.7 million, or 4 cents a share, from a profit of $6.2 million, or 13 cents a share, a year earlier. Latest quarter results reflect 3 cents a share in expenses related to strategic initiatives, which was a cent higher than anticipated, the company said. Revenue increased to $197.2 million from $190.9 million a year ago while same-store sales rose 0.5% from the same period last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Container Store to report earnings of 5 cents a share on revenue of $200 million. Shares sank 12% in after-hours trading.

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Urban Outfitters Inc. said that holiday season same-store sales decreased 2% for the two months ending Dec. 31. Total sales for the period were flat compared with last year. Sales increased 2% at Free People, but decreased 2% at Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. Sales for the wholesale segment increased 40% partially due to delayed shipments from the third quarter, the company said. “We continued to experience strong direct-to-consumer growth at all our brands during this holiday season,” said Richard Hayne, chief executive at Urban Outfitters. “These gains were offset by weaker store sales which we believe was driven by declining store traffic.” Urban Outfitters shares are down 37.2% for the past 12 months while the S&P is down 4.1%.

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Shares of SunEdison Inc. tanked 40% on Thursday as the solar-power company issued bonds and announced other financial transactions. “We believe all the transactions demonstrate progress in improving the company’s liquidity position and deleveraging balance sheet,” analysts at RBC Capital said in a note Thursday. Shares of SunEdison fell 0.6% in after-hours trading Thursday.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve should plan to raise interest rates in 2016 fewer times than the U.S. central bank’s baseline of four hikes, said Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, on Thursday. “I believe that policy should plan to follow an even shallower path for the federal funds rate than currently envisioned,” Evans said in a speech to the Wisconsin Bankers Association in Madison, Wis. Evans said he saw “downside risks” to forecasts that inflation would rise to the Fed’s 2% target, even in the next three years. Evans said he was open to changing his mind depending on the data. The Chicago Fed President is one of the most dovish Fed regional bank presidents. He is not a voting member this year.

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China’s central bank is under pressure from key advisers to let the yuan quickly depreciate by as much as 15%, according to a Reuters report. As it has sought to guide its currency lower in recent months, China’s central bank has spent billions of dollars to fend off speculators, who see betting against the yuan as a profitable trade. The central bank’s advisers feel it would be better for a sharp depreciation, which would help protect China’s debt-burdened companies. Chinese yuan traded in the onshore market fell to a five-year low Thursday as weak economic data encouraged investors to pile into bets against the currency. The report appeared to send U.S. stocks back toward their session lows.

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The Boeing Co. said Thursday it delivered 762 commercial airplanes in 2015, a record for the company and 39 more than a year ago. The company said it booked 768 net orders valued at $112.4 billion at current list prices. The company had a backlog of 5,795 unfilled orders at year-end. “That will help ensure a steady stream of deliveries for years to come,” Chief Executive Ray Conner said in a statement. Boeing shares were trading down 3.7% in early afternoon trade, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 338 points.

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Nordstrom Inc. was downgraded to underweight from equal-weight at Morgan Stanley, which believes the retailer’s earnings potential is limited. Analysts lowered the price target to $45 from $61. Morgan Stanley was equal-weight on Nordstrom since Nov. 2011, it said in a Thursday note. The brokerage forecasts a decline in department store margins in 2016 driven by a shift to e-commerce. Among the other issues Nordstrom faces are eroding sales at its off-price Rack stores and less money for buybacks. Still, Morgan Stanley believes Nordstrom offers “standout service, competitive prcing, coveted product and [a] seamless multichannel shopping experience.” Analysts said the retailer will remain “highly relevant.” Nordstrom shares are up 1.4% today, but down 38.1% for the past 12 months. The S&P is down 3.7% for the past year.

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House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday the House of Representatives will vote on sanctioning North Korea over its latest nuclear test. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, did not provide details about what the sanctions would entail or exactly when the vote would be. On Wednesday, the White House said its initial analysis of the test indicated it was not a hydrogen bomb, as North Korea claimed.

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Natural-gas futures rallied on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity dropped by 113 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 1. Analysts polled by Platts expected a decline of between 93 billion cubic feet and 97 billion cubic feet. The data, however, included a reclassification, which resulted in a slight increase in working gas stocks, the EIA said. Total stocks now stand at 3.643 trillion cubic feet, up 535 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 464 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas was at $1.818 per million British thermal units, up 2.8 cents, or 1.4%. Prices traded $2.319 before the supply data.

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China Securities Regulatory Commission on Thursday suspended its circuit breaker system, just four days after it was introduced, according to media reports. The system has already led to two trading halts in Chinese stock markets this week and has been criticized for exacerbating volatility rather than fixing it. On Thursday, Chinese equity indexes were halted after just 30 minutes of trade, sending shivers through financial markets globally. U.S. stocks opened with losses of more than 2%, while the Europe Stoxx 600 index was off 2.3%.

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