Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Fred’s Inc. plunged 27% in premarket trade Thursday, after the agreement to buy 865 Rite Aid Corp. was terminated. The agreement was originally announced on Dec. 20, 2016. The termination comes after Rite Aid agreed to sell 2,186 stores to Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. , which also terminates the companies’ merger agreement. Fred’s said it will receive a $25 million termination fee. “This is a disappointing outcome; however, the termination of the transaction has no impact on the Company’s transformation strategy or our ability to execute,” said Chief Executive Michael Bloom. The pharmacy and general merchandise chain’s stock selloff puts it on track to open at the lowest level seen since Nov. 16, 2016. The stock had tumbled 34% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 had gained 9.0%.

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Walgreen Boots Alliance Inc. said Thursday it had net income of $1.162 billion, or $1.07 a share, in the second quarter, up from $1.103 billion, or $1.01 a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.33, ahead of the FactSet consensus of $1.30. Sales rose to $30.1 billion from $29.5 billion, also ahead of the FactSet consensus of $29.7 billion. “Our results this quarter continued to meet our expectations as strategic partnerships brought more patients to our U.S. pharmacies,” Chief Executive Stefano Pessina said in a statement. Separately, the company also unveiled a new agreement with Rite Aid Inc. , replacing a 2015 merger agreement. The company raised the lower end of its 2017 EPS guidance to $4.98 to $5.08 from a prior $4.90 to $5.08. Shares rose 1.8% premarket, but are down 7% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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Amazon.com has announced its third annual Prime Day, the online retailing giant’s answer to Black Friday, for July 11. The company had reported earlier its plans to continue the tradition for a third year but this year includes an early announcement of the actual date and previews of some of the sales. This year’s sale will run for over 30 hours, actually starting at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific on July 10 and continuing all day on July 11. Prime Day sales will now be available in China, India and Mexico, bringing the total number of countries with deals to 13. Amazon said there will be “hundreds of thousands of deals,” which do require Prime membership on its platform. Free trials of the service are available on Prime Day as well. The company’s 2016 Prime Day included several reports of checkout glitches. But at the end of the promotion, sales on that day were up more than 60% worldwide compared to 2015’s Prime Day.

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Economic sentiment jumped in the eurozone in June to reach its highest level since a year before the financial crisis, according to monthly data released by the European Commission on Thursday. The Economic Sentiment Indicator, which reflects optimism among eurozone businesses and consumers, rose to 111.1 from 109.2 in May, compared with expectations of a rise to 109.5. The June reading was the highest since August 2007.

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Enterprise data-storage company Tintri Inc. will put off its initial public offering that was scheduled for Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported late Wednesday. The Mountain View, Calif., company was to list on the Nasdaq and trade under the ticker TNTR. It was expected to raise more than $100 million if it priced shares at the high end of their range of $10.50 to $12.50. No reason was given for the delay, and a Tintri spokesman had no comment Wednesday.

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Drugmaker Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. on Wednesday named Douglas Ingram its next chief executive. Ingram, currently the president and CEO at Allergan PLC’s Chase Pharmaceutics, will start Sept. 20, Sarepta said. He replaces Edward Kaye, who took over as interim chief executive in 2015. Last year, Sarepta won government approval for its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug.

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Blue Apron priced its initial public offering at $10 a share late Wednesday, on the low end of its estimate, valuing the meal-kit delivery company at $1.9 billion, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Earlier Wednesday, the New York company revised its projected price range from $15 to $17 a share to $10 to $11 a share. It has been approved to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “APRN.” The company will offer Class A shares of common stock with voting rights. Goldman Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Barclays are the lead underwriters on the offering.

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Bank of America shares climbed more than 1.3% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, following the Charlotte, N.C. lender’s passing of a broad test of the banking systems’ ability to withstand a big market shock. The bank’s passage on Wednesday garnered it approval from the the Federal Reserve to lift its dividend 60% to 12 cents and announce a $12 billion share repurchase plan. All 34 of the financial-service firms tested passed their so-called stress test and received green lights for plans to return capital to shareholders. The exchange-traded Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF , a popular way to invest in the biggest U.S. banks, rose 1.1% in after-hours trade. Check out a live blog of the results from the stress test.

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Shares of Pier 1 Imports Inc. cratered in Wednesday’s extended session after the retailer missed Wall Street’s revenue estimate. Pier 1 reported its first-quarter loss narrowed $3 million, or 4 cents a share, from $6 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $409.5 million from $418.4 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of 5 cents a share on revenue of $421 million. Same-store sales, on a constant currency basis, were flat but online sales, accounting for about a quarter of net sales, rose 23%. Pier 1 shares tumbled 19% after hours.

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The Nasdaq 100 Index bounced sharply back above a key technical level, just one-day after an apparent breakdown, but history suggests it’s still too early to assume the short-term uptrend remains intact. The index rallied 1.4% to 5,753.03, while the 50-day moving average (MA), which many chart watchers use as a dividing line between shorter-term uptrends and downtrends, extended to 5,694.58, according to FactSet. On Tuesday, the tech-heavy index closed below its 50-day MA for the first time since Dec, 6, 2016. The 138-session streak above the 50-day MA was the longest such stretch since it closed above it for 166-straight sessions through Sept. 26, 1995. Back then, after the Nasdaq 100 snapped that streak on Sept. 27, it surged 3.3% to close back above the line on Sept. 28. It then fell 8.1% over the next six sessions before hitting a short-term bottom. The Nasdaq 100 has now rallied 18.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 9.0%.

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