Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Five Below Inc. rose nearly 7% late Wednesday after the discount retailer reported per-share earnings above expectations and called for more store openings. Five Below said it earned $49.8 million, or 90 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $42 million in the year-ago period. Net sales rose to $388.1 million, from $326.4 million a year ago, the company said. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected per-share earnings of 89 cents a share on sales of $388 million. The company said it plans to open about 100 new stores in 2017, including locations in California. Net sales for the first quarter are expected to be between $228 million and $232 million, assuming a 2% increase in comparable-store sales. Per-share earnings were seen between 12 cents and 14 cents in the first quarter, the company said. The stock ended the regular trading session down 1.9%.

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Nike Inc. is an easy scapegoat for the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s fifth-straight loss Wednesday, as the athletic apparel company’s stock suffered its biggest price decline since it went public in December 1980. The stock plunged $4.09, or 7.05%, after the company provided late Tuesday a tepid sales outlook along with its fiscal third-quarter results. The price decline shaved about 28 points off the price of the Dow, which closed down 6.71 points. In comparison, the S&P 500 closed up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%. Meanwhile, Nike’s one-day percentage decline was the biggest since June 29, 2012. The stock has lost 17% over the past 12 months, while the Dow has climbed 18%.

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The U.S. stock market rebounded from the previous day’s selloff to close slightly higher Wednesday as gains in tech stocks helped lift the main indexes. However, a 7% drop in Nike Inc. shares weighed on Dow industrials, which posted a fifth consecutive decline. The S&P 500 advanced 4.43 points, or 0.2%, to 2,348.45, with technology shares leading the gains. The Nasdaq Composite closed 27.82 points, or 0.5%, higher at 5,821.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 6.84 points, or less than 0.1% lower at 20,661.17, extending a losing streak to a fifth day.

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Shares of Frontier Communications Corp. plunged 12% in active trade Wednesday, toward the lowest close in three decades, after Goldman Sachs turned bearish on the telecommunications company. Analyst Brett Feldman downgraded Frontier to a rare sell rating, after being at neutral since September 2014. Of the 2,902 companies covered by Goldman analysts, only 14% are rated sell. Feldman slashed his stock price target to $1.50, which is 28% below current levels, from $3.00. Feldman said he’s concerned that Frontier may have to suspend its dividend after the first quarter in order to “build liquidity to address significant debt maturities” in 2020 to 2022. He believes that at current prices, investors are only pricing in a 50% dividend cut, which Feldman said “would not be sufficient” to drive meaningful debt reduction, and is therefore not likely to support the stock. The current annual dividend yield of 42 cents implied a 20.19% dividend yield. The shares recently traded at $2.08, which puts it on track for the lowest close since Aug. 3, 1984. Volume of 94.4 million shares was about double the full-day average, and enough to make the stock the most actively traded on the Nasdaq exchange. The stock has plunged 38% year to date, while the iShares U.S. Telecommunications ETF has lost 6.5% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.9%.

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There is no “Plan B” for health care if a vote in the House on Thursday does not pass, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday. “This bill represents the best chance of repealing and replacing Obamacare,” Spicer said about the American Health Care Act. Some conservative House members remain holdouts on the bill, saying it won’t lower premiums. Vice President Mike Pence, meanwhile, said he’s “very confident” Republicans will have the votes.

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Four people have died, including one police officer, in a terrorist attack near the Houses of Parliament in London, Metropolitan Police said late Wednesday. Twenty people have been injured, said Mark Rowley, acting deputy commissioner of the Met Police, at a press conference. The incident began Wednesday afternoon on Westminster Bridge, where a car plowed into numerous people, including three police officers. A crime scene in the area surrounding Westminster remains in place as police recover evidence.

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Oil prices nearly erased earlier losses Wednesday afternoon. Prices had been set to settle at their lowest level since late November after U.S. government data revealed a rise of 5 million barrels in crude supplies to a record 533.1 million barrels for the week ended March 17. But the data also showed that gasoline inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels. Reformulated gasoline “and the summer driving season is leading us back from the November lows on crude,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. May WTI crude fell 7 cents, or 0.2%, to trade at $48.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping lows closer to $47.

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Starbucks Corp. plans to create 240,000 new jobs around the world, 68,000 in the U.S., the company announced along with other initiatives at its annual investor meeting Wednesday. The new jobs will come as the company opens 12,000 new cafes by fiscal 2021, 3,400 of those stores will be in the U.S. The company plans to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses, after reaching a prior goal of hiring 10,000. Starbucks came under fire last month after President Donald Trump supporters started the #BoycottStarbucks campaign in response to the company’s pledge to hire 10,000 refugees around the world. The company has now formally partnered with the United Nations’ refugee agency to reach candidates. After announcing gluten-free and vegan additions to its menu on Tuesday, Starbucks has also announced the launch of the Starbucks Mercato menu in more than 100 Chicago stores on April 11. The lunch menu will include salads and sandwiches to meet a variety of dietary needs with leftover items donated nightly to local food banks through the Starbucks FoodShare program with Feed America. The My Starbucks Barista app, which allows voice and messaging ordering, is being rolled out to iOS users, and the mobile order-and-pay platform is being expanded to Ford Motor Co. cars equipped with Sync 3 technology later this year. This is Chief Executive Howard Schultz’s final annual meeting before moving to the executive chairman role. Kevin Johnson will succeed him on April 3, as previously announced. Starbucks shares are up 0.8% in Wednesday trading, and down 5.7% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 14.5% for the last 12 months.

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The Scottish parliament’s debate related to a new independence referendum was suspended on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report citing the lawmaking body’s speaker. The halt came after shots were fired near the U.K.’s Houses of Parliament in London, in an apparently concerted attack including the stabbing of a policeman and a car driving at people outside the building. Authorities said they were treating the attack as a terrorist incident. Scotland has appeared headed for a second independence referendum, sparked by the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union.

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Two people have been shot outside U.K.’s parliament, according to a Sky News report Wednesday, and Westminster is on lockdown. An alleged assailant has been shot at the parliament by armed police, according to a Reuters report.

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