Category: Stock Market News

Ulta Beauty Inc. shares rallied in the extended session Thursday after the beauty-products retailer’s quarterly results topped Wall Street estimates. Ulta shares surged 4.4% to $305.89 after hours. The company reported adjusted first-quarter earnings of $1.91 a share on revenue of $1.31 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated earnings of $1.80 a share on revenue of $1.27 billion. For the second quarter, Ulta estimated earnings of $1.72 to $1.77 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion to $1.28 billion. Analysts estimate earnings of $1.77 a share on revenue of $1.27 billion.

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The tumble in crude oil prices helped spark a rally in airline stocks, amid optimism over lower fuel costs. The NYSE Arca Airline Index jumped 2.1%, to trade within 0.5% of the near 16-year closing high reached on May 16. Among the index’s more-active components, shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. rallied 2.6%, Southwest Airlines Co. climbed 2.2%, American Airlines Group Inc. rose 2.4%, United Continental Holdings Inc. advanced 2.8% and Spirit Airlines Inc. gained 4.1%. July crude oil futures tumbled 5.5% to $48.54 a barrel, after OPEC disappointed traders by extending current production cuts rather than increasing them. The airline index has now gained 3.8% year to date, while the S&P 500 has climbed 7.9%.

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Viacom Inc. and broadband and cable provider Alice USA said on Thursday they’ve entered a new multi-year advertising and content distribution partnership. The deal will see Altice’s audience data — increasingly important for network advertisers — multi-screen advertising platforms and measurement and analytics capabilities paired with Viacom’s advertising offerings to deliver local and national advertising across TV, mobile and desktop. “These agreements demonstrate our commitment to collaborating on next-generation solutions that provide a better experience for viewers and exciting new business opportunities for our partners,” said Viacom’s Content Distribution head Tom Gorke in a statement. The content distribution side of the partnership will renew the carriage of Viacom’s premier networks on Altice’s Optimum system, return distribution rights for Viacom networks at Suddenlink and expand rights for the multi-platform distribution such as virtual reality and 4K. Shares of Viacom’s commonly owned class B shares are up less than 1% in the year to date, while Altice shares are up nearly 18% and the S&P 500 index is up 8% during the same time frame.

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Oil prices settled at their lowest level in more than a week on Thursday as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ decision to extend their production-cut agreement through March of next year raised concerns over higher U.S. crude output. “OPEC ramps down, the U.S. producer ramps up and the vicious cycle repeats,” said Curt Taylor, president of Opportune LLP’s Ralph E. Davis Associates, a petroleum engineering firm. July West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $2.46, or 4.8%, to settle at $48.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Shares of Appian Corp. were soaring 36% midday Thursday after the software company’s debut on the Nasdaq. Appian, which provides a software development platform for organizations, sold 6.25 million shares at $12 each to raise $75 million. Appian recorded revenue of $132.9 million in 2016, up from $111.2 million in 2015 on top of net losses of $12.5 million in 2016, wider than a net loss of $7 million in 2015. Appian has granted its underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 937,400 shares of common stock. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co and Barclays were the lead underwriters on the offering.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Appian Corp. were soaring 36% midday Thursday after the software company’s debut on the Nasdaq. Appian, which provides a software development platform for organizations, sold 6.25 million shares at $12 each to raise $75 million. Appian recorded revenue of $132.9 million in 2016, up from $111.2 million in 2015 on top of net losses of $12.5 million in 2016, wider than a net loss of $7 million in 2015. Appian has granted its underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 937,400 shares of common stock. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co and Barclays were the lead underwriters on the offering.

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Shares of PayPal Holdings Inc. slipped 0.3% in midday trade Thursday, pulling back from the previous session’s record close, after Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the digital payments company because the stock had achieved its objective ahead of schedule. Analyst Scott Devitt cut his rating to hold from buy, while keeping his 12-month stock price target at $51. Through Wednesday’s record close of $51.05, the stock had soared 15% since the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results after the April 26 close, compared with a 1.2% gain in the S&P 500 over the same time. “We continue to believe that the company is well-positioned for long-term growth in the digital payments space as management executes in driving deeper relationships with merchants and consumers across multiple verticals,” Devitt wrote in a note to clients.

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Amazon.com Inc. announced Thursday that the AmazonFresh Pickup service is now available for customers in Seattle. A free service for Prime members with no minimum purchase, AmazonFresh Pickup allows customers to order groceries at home or via mobile devices and schedule a pickup time. Shoppers can pickup their groceries at one of two AmazonFresh Pickup locations in Seattle in as little as 15 minutes. AmazonFresh Pickup was launched in beta for employees in March. Amazon shares are up 1.8% in Thursday trading, and up 41% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 15.5% for the last 12 months.

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Shares of oil companies were broadly and sharply lower Thursday, after OPEC’s decision to extend its production plan, rather than cut it, sent crude oil prices tumbling below $50 a barrel. The SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF dropped 1.4%, bucking the rally in the broader stock market, with 32 of its 34 equity components trading lower. Among the biggest losers and most-active shares, Transocean Ltd. sank 6.2%, Chesapeake Energy Corp. slid 5.3% and Marathon Oil Corp. shed 5.2%. Among the ETF’s most-heavily weighted, shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. dropped 0.7%, Chevron Corp. shed 1% and Schlumberger Ltd. gave up 2.2%. The two XLE gainers were shares of Kinder Morgan Inc. , up 0.3% and Tesoro Corp. , up 2.3%. July crude oil futures plunged 4.8% to $48.91 a barrel. While the XLE tumbled, the S&P 500 rallied 0.4% toward a record close.

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U.S. crude-oil prices on Thursday turned sharply lower in midday trade, slipping under $50 dollar a barrel, as investors expressed disappointment about the scope of an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to extend production cuts by nine months. Most recently, West Texas Intermediate crude-oil for July delivery was down 3.5% at $49.56 a barrel, the contract, along with its international counterpart Brent crude, had been trading at one-month highs just prior to the highly anticipated OPEC meeting. Brent crude was off 3.2% at $52.20 a barrel. WTI oil looked set to slip below both its 50 and 200-day moving averages, which have converged in recent trade due to a narrow range of trading for futures. Oil’s 50-day moving average is $49.59 a barrel, while its 200-day moving average is $49.55, according to FactSet data. Technical analysts use trading averages to help assess an asset’s short-term and long-term momentum. Fears that OPEC’s latest decision to extend its six-month production cuts, begun in January, into the first quarter of 2018, without any additional reductions won’t be enough to absorb a global cut of crude and an increased pace of production from U.S. shale producers. Those concerns have been cited as the main reason oil has surged lower. “The market is sending a signal that they were looking from more out of the [OPEC] meeting, maybe a 12 month extension,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. He also said technical factors were at play, with traders repositioning trades as many had already anticipated OPEC’s decision to extend its output limits

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