Category: Stock Market News

Abercrombie & Fitch shares rose 6.8% in Wednesday premarket trading after the retailer reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that beat expectations. Net income for the quarter was $74.2 million, or $1.05 per share, up from $48.8 million, or 71 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was $1.38, beating the $1.10 FactSet consensus. Sales were $1.19 billion, up from $1.04 billion last year and ahead of the $1.16 billion FactSet consensus. Same-store sales grew 9%, with Hollister up 11% and the namesake brand up 5% for the quarter. The FactSet consensus was for 7.7% growth. Abercrombie & Fitch forecasts fiscal 2018 same-store sales and sales growth in the low-single digits. The FactSet consensus is for same-store sales growth of 1.8% and sales of $4.46 billion, up from $3.49 billion this year. Abercrombie & Fitch shares are up 82.2% for the last year while the S&P 500 index is up 15.2% for the period.

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Shares of Dollar Tree Inc. plunged 9.0% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the discount retailer reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit, revenue and same-store sales that missed expectations. Net income for the quarter to Feb. 3 more than tripled to $1.04 billion, or $4.37 a share, from $321.8 million, or $1.36 a share, in the same period a year ago, as the recent tax legislation included a $562 million non-cash benefit. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to $1.89, below the FactSet consensus of $1.90. Revenue rose 12.9% to $6.36 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $6.40 billion. Same-store sales rose 2.4%, while adjusted same-store sales increased 2.5%, helped by increases in average ticket and transaction count, but that missed the FactSet consensus of a 2.9% rise. For the fiscal first quarter, Dollar Tree expects revenue of $5.53 billion to $5.63 billion, which surrounds the FactSet consensus of $5.60 billion, and projects same-store sales to increase in the low single-digit percentage range, compared with expectations of 2.7% growth. The stock has lost 2.8% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has gained 4.0% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 3.5%.

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S&P Global said Wednesday it has entered a $1 billion accelerated share buyback with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter. The credit rating agency said it will use cash on hand to fund the deal. Shares were not yet active premarket, but have gained 46% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Fortive Corp. announced Wednesday a deal to combine four operating units from its automation and specialty platform with Altra Industrial Motion Corp. for total consideration of about $3 billion. The consideration includes $1.4 billion in cash and debt reduction for Fortive, and 35 million newly issued Altra shares valued at about $1.6 billion. Under terms of the deal, Fortive will create a subsidiary to hold the A&S platform and will distribute ownership of that subsidiary to Fortive shareholders, which will be followed by a merger of the subsidiary with a subsidiary of Alta. After the deal’s closing, which is expected by the end of 2018, Fortive will have the right to designate one member of Altra’s board of directors. Shares of both companies are inactive in premarket trade. Over the past three months, Fortive’s stock has gained 2.1%, Altra shares have shed 7.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 3.5%.

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The Trump administration is considering a broad range of import tariffs on Chinese goods, according to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Under the most severe scenario being considered, the U.S. government would levy tariffs on items that range from shoes and clothing to consumer electronics, the report said. The administration is also weighing clamping down on Chinese investments in the U.S. as it aims to respond to claims that Beijing is engaging in intellectual-property theft, according to the report. Concerns about a possible global trade war have been intensifying due to President Donald Trump’s plan to introduce tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and due to the resignation of Gary Cohn, who had been a pro-trade White House adviser. U.S. stock futures were trading sharply lower early Wednesday.

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U.S. stock futures were under pressure early Wednesday, in a move triggered hours earlier after the resignation of Gary Cohn, the White House National Economic Council director. Dow futures’s: ymh8] fell 400 points late Tuesday as that news reached traders. Those futures were down 377 points, or 1.5%, to 24,475 on Wednesday, with S&P 500 futures dropping 34.90 points, or 1.3%, to 2,688.75. Nasdaq-100 futures tumbled 85 points, or 1.2%, to 6,822.25. Other perceived riskier assets, such as oil, came under pressure as well. April crude futures dropped 55 cents, or 0.9%, to $62.05 a barrel. Cohn’s resignation comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a move which the economic advisor had opposed. “With Cohn’s steadying influence no longer steering economic policy in the Trump administration, in addition to Trump’s recommitment to his nationalist trade agenda, market participants are growing increasingly nervous of where the Trump administration is going,” said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, in a note to clients. The ICE Dollar Index fell 0.1% to 89.482. Asian markets were also lower across the board on Wednesday.

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U.S. stocks look poised to tumble in coming trade following news late Tuesday that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is resigning from President Donald Trump’s administration in the coming weeks. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive, was seen as a level head within the administration and one of the chief architects of Wall Street-friendly corporate tax cuts rolled out late last year. Speculation about Cohn’s plans to exit the White House in August similarly roiled markets. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down about 300 points, or 1.2%, at 24,542 late Tuesday, while those for the S&P 500 were down 1% at 2,698. Cohn’s sudden departure comes amid turmoil in the White House over Trump’s plan to implement tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which Cohn has opposed, arguing that it could undercut the Trump’s economic achievements, according to reports. The loss of Cohn may be viewed by viewed by Wall Street as a headwind to the president’s pro-business agenda and underlines ongoing turmoil in the White House, highlighted by a parade of departing officials.

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The Justice Department is suing the state of California over its “sanctuary” laws, according to a New York Times report Tuesday night. The federal government filed suit late Tuesday against California, Gov. Jerry Brown and state Attorney General Xavier Becrerra over three recent laws that the Justice Department claims are unconstitutional and make it impossible for federal immigration officials to do their jobs, the Times reported. The suit claims that California is violating the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which generally states then when federal and state laws conflict, federal law wins. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to formally announce the suit during a speech Wednesday in the state’s capitol, Sacramento. Last year, California passed laws restricting when local law enforcement officers could cooperate with immigration officials. California has been one of the most outspoken opponents of Trump administration policies, including the crackdown and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

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An top adviser to the United Arab Emirates with ties to the Trump administration is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the New York Times reported Tuesday, and has already testified before a grand jury. The Times said Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling may also delve into whether money from the UAE was illegally funneled to the Trump campaign. The adviser, George Nader, reportedly attended a meeting in January 2017 in the Seychelles between a Russian investor with ties to Vladimir Putin and Erik Prince, the founder of the former private security firm Blackwater and at the time an informal Trump adviser. Nader represented the UAE’s crown prince at the meeting, which U.S. intelligence agencies at the time found suspicious. It is illegal for foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns, and also illegal for Americans to knowingly accept such funds.

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Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star also known as Stormy Daniels, is suing President Donald Trump, claiming that her nondisclosure agreement is invalid because Trump did not sign it, NBC News reported late Tuesday. The suit alleges that while she and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen signed the document in which she agreed not to disclose her intimate relationship with Trump, spaces where Trump was supposed to sign were left blank, making the agreement void, NBC News said. Clifford alleges Cohen has pressured her not to speak about the alleged affair as recently as last week. In January, the Wall Street Journal reported Cohen used a shell company to pay Clifford $130,000 for her silence regarding an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Clifford reportedly received the money two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. On Monday, the Journal reported that Cohen has complained that Trump had not reimbursed him for the payment.

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