Category: Stock Market News

Facebook Inc. will delay the unveiling of its upcoming smart speaker with a digital assistant, Bloomberg News reported late Tuesday. The device was set to be previewed at Facebook’s upcoming developers conference in May, but will be put on hold in the wake of the recent scandal involving Cambridge Analytica’s unauthorized mining of Facebook users’ data. Facebook will now take extra time to ensure the new device will sufficiently protect users’ data, Bloomberg said. Facebook still plans to launch the device, which will compete with Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo and Alphabet Inc’s Google Home, later this year, Bloomberg reported.

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From:: Stock Market News

Facebook Inc. will delay the unveiling of its upcoming smart speaker with a digital assistant, Bloomberg News reported late Tuesday. The device was set to be previewed at Facebook’s upcoming developers conference in May, but will be put on hold in the wake of the recent scandal involving Cambridge Analytica’s unauthorized mining of Facebook users’ data. Facebook will now take extra time to ensure the new device will sufficiently protect users’ data, Bloomberg said. Facebook still plans to launch the device, which will compete with Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo and Alphabet Inc’s Google Home, later this year, Bloomberg reported.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is still willing to meet with the U.S., Chinese state media reported late Tuesday, confirming reports that he was in Beijing on a surprise trip. According to multiple reports, state TV network CCTV said Kim and his wife were in Beijing for the past four days, his first trip outside his country since taking power in 2011. Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly discussed proposals to improve relations, and Kim apparently said he was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump surprisingly accepted Kim’s invitation to meet later this year, although there has been no official response from North Korea since then.

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Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reiterated Tuesday that cryptocurrency mining was less than 10% of its revenue last year in response to reports that a change in Ethereum mining would damage its business. “Yesterday a report was published on AMD which hypothesized very high revenue for Ethereum-related GPU sales,” the company wrote in an unsigned blog post. “As a reminder, on our Q4’17 earnings conference call we stated that the percentage of annual revenue related to Blockchain was approximately mid-single digit percentage in 2017.” While the post did not name any names, Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland downgraded the stock to negative from neutral on Monday, and wrote that “the proliferation of Ethereum mining ASICs have the ability to impact ~20% of AMD’s total company revenue.” AMD and Nvidia Corp. are thought to have benefited from the use of their GPUs to mine on the Ethereum blockchain last year, but that cryptocurrency is believed to be almost ready to move beyond GPU mining and require ASIC chips. AMD’s blog post focused on the company’s core businesses and their ability to grow, specifically mentioning its inclusion in some Apple Inc. products. AMD stock fell a combined 5.9% Monday and Tuesday; in late trading Tuesday after the blog post hit, shares gained about 0.3%.

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Shares of RH jumped more than 14% late Tuesday after the home-goods company, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, reported fourth-quarter earnings above Wall Street expectations and forecast better profits in the first quarter. RH said it earned $261,000, or 1 cent a share, compared with $9.4 million, or 23 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, RH earned $43.3 million, or $1.69 a share, in the quarter, compared with $28 million, or 68 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 14% to $670.3 million, from $587 million a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.56 a share on sales of $672 million. “In 2018, we will continue our focus on execution, architecture and cash,” the company said in a statement. For the year, RH said it expects sales between $2.53 billion and $2.57 billion, and adjusted per-share earnings between $5.45 and $6.20. Shares of RH ended the Tuesday session down 4.1%.

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Sonic Corp. shares fell 5% in the extended session Tuesday after issuing a weaker than expected full-year guidance. Sonic shares closed up more than 2% to $25.34 during the regular session. The company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $19.5 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with $11 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 17 cents a share. Revenue fell to $88.1 million from $100.2 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $94.2 million. Sonic said it expects full-year earnings of $1.43 a share to $1.50 a share; analysts model earnings of $1.52 a share. Sonic stock has fallen 7.8% this year, with the S&P 500 index falling less than 1%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Sonic Corp. shares fell 5% in the extended session Tuesday after issuing a weaker than expected full-year guidance. Sonic shares closed up more than 2% to $25.34 during the regular session. The company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $19.5 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with $11 million, or 25 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 17 cents a share. Revenue fell to $88.1 million from $100.2 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $94.2 million. Sonic said it expects full-year earnings of $1.43 a share to $1.50 a share; analysts model earnings of $1.52 a share. Sonic stock has fallen 7.8% this year, with the S&P 500 index falling less than 1%.

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Moody’s Investors Services late Tuesday downgraded Tesla Inc. corporate debt rating to B3 from B2, one notch further down on its junk-bond rating, saying the Silicon Valley car maker “will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall.” The ratings reflect “the significant shortfall” in the Model 3 production rate as well as the company’s “liquidity pressures due to its large negative free cash flow and the pending maturities of convertible bonds ($230 million in November 2018 and $920 million in March 2019),” Moody’s said. The bond rating company also downgraded the company’s 2025 notes to Caa1, from B3, thanks to “the junior position of the notes relative to the company’s $1.9 billion secured credit facility,” it said. Tesla enjoys “solid market acceptance” of its Model S and Model X vehicles, favorable Model 3 reviews, and growing regulatory support for electric vehicles. The negative outlook, however, reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to tap capital markets to fend off a potential liquidity crunch. The rating could be lowered further if there are shortfalls in the company’s Model 3 production targets and raised if the Model 3 production rate meets expectations and if the company maintains good liquidity, Moody’s said. Shares of Tesla were down 0.1% in the extended session, and ended the regular trading day down 8%. Tesla’s 2025 bonds were trading at the lowest levels recently.

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From:: Stock Market News

The technology sector tumbled on Tuesday, dropping as the biggest decliner among S&P 500 sectors and leading the overall market lower. The sector sank 3.5%, dropping in what was set to be its biggest one-day decline since Feb. 8. While the group is one of only two industries to be positive for 2018 — it is up 1.8% on the year, behind only the 2.4% gain of consumer-discretionary stocks — it has struggled of late. The sector has dropped in eight of the past 11 sessions, and two of those positive sessions were gains of less than 0.1%. Thus far this month, it is down 5.3%, the second-worst performer behind financials. Among the biggest drags in the tech sector, Apple Inc. fell 2.9% while Microsoft Corp. was off 4.6%. Both are coming off sharp rallies in the previous session, including Microsoft’s best one-day pop since 2015. Semiconductor stocks also weighed on the group, with Nvidia Corp. off 9.5% and Advanced Micro Devices down 5.1%.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off more than 400 points in late-Tuesday afternoon trade, as shares of Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. , among the leaders of Monday’s surge, came under heavy selling pressure. Along with shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , those Dow components were exacting a roughly 110-point toll on the price-weighted blue-chip average. The technology sector was being buffeted the most, with the exchange-traded Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF trading down 2.4% on the day. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index was off 3.4%. Most recently, the Dow was down about 444 points, or 1.7%, at 23,784, while the S&P 500 index was 2.1% lower at 2,602.

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