Category: Stock Market News

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. shares sank 16.4% in Friday premarket trading after the retailer reported second-quarter losses that exceeded expectations. J.C. Penney reported a net loss of $62.0 million, or 20 cents per share, after a loss of $56.0 million, or 18 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted losses were 9 cents per share, wider than the FactSet consensus for a 4-cent loss. Sales were $2.96 billion, up slightly from $2.92 billion, and ahead of the FactSet consensus of $2.84 billion. Same-store sales fell 1.3% for the quarter. Nearly all categories had improved sales results, according to Chief Executive Marvin Ellison, and the company liquidated inventory in 127 of its closing stores, which had an impact on earnings and margins. Inventory was $2.8 billion at the end of the second quarter, a 6.8% decline year-over-year. J.C. Penney reaffirmed its full-year 2017 outlook, expecting adjusted EPS of 40 cents to 65 cents and same-store sales between a 1% decline and 1% increase. The FactSet consensus is for EPS of 49 cents. J.C. Penney shares are down 11% for the last three months and 43.3% for the year so far. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 10.6% for 2017 to date, and the S&P 500 index is up nearly 9% for the period.

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Jeffrey Lord, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, has been fired from CNN after tweeting “Sieg Heil” at a liberal activist. “Nazi salutes are indefensible,” the network said in a statement. Angelo Carusone of Media Matters for America had criticized Lord and asked “why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don’t take yourself seriously,” when Lord responded with the German victory salute. In the Twitter thread, Lord said he opposed Nazis and fascists.

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Nvidia Corp. shares plunged 4.2% in after-hours trading Thursday, after the graphic processing unit (GPU) designer beat expectations for earnings and sales. In the second-quarter, the company logged earnings of 92 cents a share on revenue of $2.23 billion, up 56% from the same quarter last year. Analysts had modeled EPS of 70 cents, and sales of $1.96 billion, according to FactSet. Nvidia has beaten the FactSet consensus for earnings the last eight quarters in a row. Executives issued third-quarter sales guidance of $2.35 billion, with a two percent margin of error, while analysts modeled revenue of $2.1 billion, according to FactSet. Nvidia stock has nearly tripled in the past year, gaining 183% as the S&P 500 index has gained 11.7%.

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Shares of Snap Inc. were falling 4% after hours Thursday after the company missed second-quarter earnings expectations and reported weaker-than-expected user numbers. Snap reported a net loss of $443 million, or a loss of 36 cents per share, wider than a loss of $115.9 million, or a loss of 14 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. The FactSet consensus was for a loss of 30 cents. Revenue was $181.6 million, up from $71.8 million in the year-earlier period, but below the FactSet consensus of $186.2 million. Snap reported 173 million daily active users, a 4% increase from last quarter, and below the FactSet consensus of 175 DAUs. Average revenue per user was $1.05, up 16% from the previous quarter, but also below the FactSet consensus of $1.07. Shares of Snap have fallen 40% in the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.6%.

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U.S. stocks declined on Thursday, marking the first time since April that all main indexes fell in unison for a third session as elevated tensions with North Korea weighed on sentiment. The U.S. and the Asian country continued to trade verbal threats with Pyongyang detailing plans to strike at Guam, a U.S. territory. The S&P 500 dropped 35 points, or 1.5%, to close at 2,438
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 203 points, or 0.9%, to end at 21,845. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 135 points, or 2.1%, to close at 6,216.

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Shares of live event company and Ticketmaster owner Live Nation Entertainment Inc. took a negative turn in afternoon trade after a Reuters report that Amazon.com Inc. was seeking partners to launch into live-event ticketing. Shares of Live Nation, which had been up 12.5% from Wednesday’s close after posting positive second-quarter earnings, swung to a more than 3% loss before bouncing back. Live Nation’s Ticketmaster is the juggernaut in the live event ticketing landscape. Ebay Inc. , which owns StubHub, swung to a 3% loss after the report. Shares of Live Nation are up 48% in the year to date, while Amazon shares are up nearly 28% and Ebay shares are up almost 18%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up 9% in the year.

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Benchmark Capital Partners, an investor in Uber Technologies Inc., has sued Uber’s former chief executive Travis Kalanick for breach of duty. The complaint, which was filed Thursday in the Delaware Chancery Court, centers on the fact that Kalanick was able to name three new voting directors to Uber’s board in 2016, expanding the number of voting directors from eight to 11. Kalanick took one of those seats after his resignation, but the other two have yet to be filled. When approving the expanded number of seats, Benchmark said Kalanick concealed “gross mismanagement,” including company harassment issues as well as the acquisition of self-driving truck startup, Otto, which is now at the center of a lawsuit with Alphabet Inc. . Benchmark said it would not have approved the three seats, had it known about these issues, and that Kalanick used the seats to gain power knowing that he could be removed. Kalanick recently resigned from Uber, but has reportedly been trying to come back to the company. “Kalanick’s overarching objective is to pack Uber’s board with loyal allies in an effort to insulate his prior conduct from scrutiny and clear the path for his eventual return as CEO,” the complaint says. Benchmark is asking for an invalidation of that stockholder vote, which would get rid of those three seats and also remove Kalanick from the board. Before that, it is asking the court for preliminary injunction against Kalanick participating, voting or having a say in board matters.

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President Donald Trump on Thursday said the White House would declare the opioid crisis to be a national emergency, something he didn’t do during a discussion on the topic he held earlier this week. “We’re going to draw it up and we’re going to make it a national emergency,” Trump told reporters from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., before comparing it to LSD during his youth. “But this is a national emergency and we are drawing documents now to so attest.”

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The S&P 500 is just three days removed from, and 1.1% below, its record close of 2,480.91 on Monday, but stocks hitting new 52-week lows on the NYSE are outnumbering new highs by 142-to-52 score. That’s the biggest spread of new lows over new highs since Nov. 14, 2016, when it was 293 to 85. On Wednesday, new lows outnumbered new highs by a 113-to-104 score, when the S&P 500 was just two days removed and just 0.3% below its record close.

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Wheat futures prices on Thursday logged their lowest settlement in about two months after the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised its global wheat production estimate because of record output in Russia. The USDA raised its world output projection on wheat for the 2017/2018 crop year to 743.18 million metric tons in its latest monthly report, from its previous estimate of 737.83 million metric tons. Russian wheat output “rocketed to a record 77.5 million metric tons, beating last year’s record by 5 million tons,” said Sal Gilbertie, president and chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading LLC. Corn and soybean futures also declined Thursday. The USDA production estimates “shocked the grain markets with corn yields beating trade estimates by about 3 bushels per acre and soybeans by almost 2 bushels per acre,” said Gilbertie. September wheat fell 4.1%, at $4.40 1/2 a bushel. December corn ended at $3.71 a bushel, down 4% and November soybeans lost 3.4% to $9.40 1/4 a bushel.

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