Category: Stock Market News

Shares of VF Corp. , the distributor of brands including North Face, Timberland and Wrangler, fell 4% Thursday to lead S&P 500 decliners, as the company outlined plans for the five-year period through 2021. The company told an investor meeting that it is planning to overhaul its portfolio, shift to a consumer and retail-centric model, boost direct-to-consumer and digital operations and shift investment to Asia, especially China. The company expects revenue to grow at a five-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4% to 6% in the period through 2021, EPS to grow at a five-year CAGR of 10% to 12% and margins to reach 51.5% by 2021. The company expects to generate more than $9 billion of cash and return $8 billion to shareholders. The board has approved a new $5 billion share buyback. SIG Susquehanna analysts led by Sam Posen said ahead of the meeting that convincing long-term plan was essential for the stock to recover. “However, the back half weighted FY17 guidance, and weak U.S. businesses at The North Face and Timberland, and a stagnant Jeanswear business continue to be of concern,” they wrote. Shares are down 17% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained almost 6%.

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Gold prices settled lower on Thursday, as strength in the U.S. dollar and some gains in equities drew investor interest away from the precious metal. June gold fell $8.80, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,248 an ounce. That was the lowest finish for the June contract since March 20.

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Analysts at UBS on Thursday upgraded ConocoPhillips stock to buy from neutral after the energy company agreed to sell its 50% stake in a Canadian oil sands partnership and other oil sands assets to Calgary-based Cenovus Energy Inc. for $13.3 billion. ConocoPhillips is selling a low-growth, low-margin asset that will enable it to reduce its debt load and boost its share buyback program, the analysts said. It also improves ConocoPhillips’ production mix, they said. The analysts also raised their price target on the shares to $55 from $51. Shares of ConocoPhillips lead the S&P 500’s energy subindex, up nearly 8% in midday trading.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 43 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 24. That matched the decline expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 2.049 trillion cubic feet, down 423 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 250 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. May natural gas was down 3.5 cents, or 1.2%, from Wednesday’s settlement at $3.196 per million British thermal units. It traded around that same level before the supply data.

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Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it has discovered a more than 82-feet-high well of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs on the Sabroek Block in offshore Guyana. The Snoek well is located in the southern part of the block, which covers 6.6 million acres, Exxon said in a statement. Shares were flat in early trading, and are down 9% in the year so far, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 4.5%.

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The Trump administration is assessing the scope of its power to penalize countries whose currencies it believes are undervalued, CNBC reported, citing two people with direct knowledge of the review. President Trump so far has not made good on his promise to label China as a currency manipulator on day one of his presidency. One law the administration is looking at is the Trade Enforcement and Trade Facilitation Act, the report said, which would allow the president to block future federal contracts with those countries and to choke off government financing for U.S. businesses seeking to invest there.

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U.S. stocks opened flat after fourth-quarter gross domestic product was revised higher, a sign that U.S. economic growth is accelerating more quickly than some economists had expected. The S&P 500 index shed one point to 2,360, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.5 points at 20,657. The Nasdaq Composite Index was off by one point at 5,897, on track for its first daily loss in a week. Stocks have largely recovered from a selloff that followed the withdrawal Friday of a plan backed by President Donald Trump to repeal and replace Obamacare, but investors are still waiting to see if tax reform, his next legislative priority, will face similar difficulties. Shares of Lululemon Athletica Inc. [s lulu] slumped after several analysts cut their price targets for the retailer’s stock. Cenovus Energy Inc. shares tumbled after ConocoPhillips [c: cop] said it would sell its majority stake in its Canadian oil-sands assets to the company. Apple Inc. shares probably also merit watching, after finishing at a record high on Wednesday for the second straight day.

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Shares of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. fell 1% in premarket trade Thursday after the stock was downgraded to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs. While expected demand for tire replacement remains high, the analysts say there is near-term pricing uncertainty as Goodyear announced price increases while raw material prices go down and rebate activity increases. Additionally, Goodyear’s valuation is now more in line with its peers and already reflects these factors. The analysts cut their price target to $33 from $34. Shares of Goodyear have gained 17% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 5.5%.

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Six Flags Entertainment Corp. said Thursday that it has decided not to pursue a spinoff of its real estate assets into a real estate investment trust. The theme park company said it determined that a REIT deal would not be in the best interests of shareholders, given the costs, the operational complexity, the limits on futures strategic flexibility and future growth opportunities. The company said it could revisit the idea in the future. Separately, Six Flags said it expanded its share-buyback plan by $500 million, which it expects to fund with its $1.2 billion debt offering, also announced Thursday. The company said it expects to continue to increase its annual dividend at a high-single-digit to low-double-digit percentage range for a number of years. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has lost 2.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 5.5%.

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Celanese Corp. said Thursday it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against three Chinese makers of high-potency sweeteners. The suit alleges that Suzhou Hope Technology Co. Ltd., Anhui Jinhe Industrial Co. Ltd., and Vitasweet Co. Ltd. are infringing a European patent on Acesulfame Potassium, or Ace-K, by importing it into Europe. The company has withdrawn a complaint from the U.S. International Trade Commission and asked it to review additional claims to its Ace-K patent in the U.S. Shares were not yet active premarket, but have gained 13% in the year so far, outperforming the S&P 500’s 5.6% gain.

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