Category: Stock Market News

J.P. Morgan & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said he isn’t concerned that President-elect Donald Trump’s trade policies will hurt the economy by pushing for tariffs and adopting a protectionist stance. During a call with reporters on Friday following the bank’s quarterly results, Dimon said despite Trump’s rhetoric and frequent use of Twitter, which indicate the real-estate mogul would retool trade agreements with Mexico and hold a hard line with countries like China, he expects the coming president’s administration to “do the right thing.” “Putting aside the one-liners and election rhetoric, I am comforted by the fact that he’s putting real players on the playing field,” Dimon said. Trump, for example, has repeatedly accused China of manipulating its currency and has threatened to place tariffs on its goods. Critics fear that such a tacked would backfire as China would likely retaliate with tariffs of its own. The U.S. is the biggest market for China, accepting about a fifth of its exports. Shares of J.P. Morgan were up nearly 2% on Friday, following its better-than-expected results, which were giving a lift to financials and the Dow Jones Industrial Average . “Give him some time,” Dimon said of Trump. The J.P. Morgan boss is a part of Trump’s economic brain trust, the Strategic and Policy Forum, which consists of 16 business leaders, headed by Stephen Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder of private-equity firm Blackstone Group .

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Retail sales for November and December increased 4% year-over-year to $658.3 billion, according to the latest numbers from the National Retail Federation. The final tally includes $122.9 billion from non-store sales, which includes e-commerce. Non-store sales were up 12.6% from 2015. The overall total exceeds the NRF’s forecast of $655.8 billion, which would have been an increase of 3.6%. The organization forecast a 7% to 10% increase in online sales to $117.0 billion. A number of department store retailers like Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. have issued profit warnings for the holiday season. Sales at department stores were down 7% adjusted year-over-year while clothing and accessories stores increased 2.5%, furniture and home furnishings stores saw a 4.8% increase, and food and beverage stores saw sales increase 3.6%.

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U.S. stocks opened slightly higher Friday as investors were relieved by bank earnings results and economic data. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp earnings beat expectations, though Wells Fargo & Co earnings and revenues were lower than expected. Retail sales in the fourth quarter rose by 0.6%, while producer prices inched up by 0.3%. The main indexes were set to book weekly losses, however. The S&P 500 opened up 3.8 points, or 0.2%, at 2,274, hovering near all-time highs. The Nasdaq Composite began the session up 10 points, or 0.2% higher at 5,557. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 37 points or 0.2%, to 19,927.

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Kellogg Co. said Friday that Fareed Khan will join the company as chief financial officer, succeeding Ron Dissinger, who will stay with the company in 2017 to help with the transition. Dissinger announced his retirement in May 2016. Khan joins from U.S. Foods Holding Corp. where he was CFO from 2013 and aided with the company’s IPO. Kellogg shares are unchanged in premarket trading, and up 1.4% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 20.1% for the last 12 months.

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Shares of GrubHub Inc. surged 4.5% in premarket trade Friday, after Morgan Stanley turned bullish on the online food-ordering company, citing faster diner growth as a result of accelerating restaurant additions. Analyst Brian Nowak raised his rating to overweight, after being at equal weight since May 2016. He raised his stock price target to $44, which is 18% above Thursday’s closing price of $37.37, from $36. “In our view, active diner growth–a sign of GRUB’s ability to bring on new users–and gross food sales per active diner–measuring GRUB’s ability to grow share of stomach–remain the two most important metrics in evaluating the health of GRUB’s business,” Nowak wrote in a note to clients. “We see bullish indicators in both of these, which are likely to lead to higher earnings power and upward revisions.” The stock has dropped 9.3% over the past three months through Thursday, while the Amplify Online Retail ETF has gained 2.7% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 6.5%.

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Netflix Inc.’s stock rallied 0.9% in premarket trade Friday, after Deutsche Bank upgraded the streaming video service, citing expectations that Netflix will report better-than-expected results next week. Analyst Bryan Kraft raised his rating to hold, three months after starting coverage with a sell rating. He raised his stock price target to $110, but that was still 15% below Thursday’s closing price of $129.18, from $92. Kraft said when he initiated coverage of Netflix, he believed the company had “an attractive business model,” but the stock was priced two years ahead of the fundamentals, and that a sale of the company was “highly unlikely.” His new rating and price target is based on a higher subscriber trajectory internationally, a lower tax rate and the believe that fourth-quarter results will beat guidance for international subscribers. “The key driver of the stock price around earnings reports has predominantly been subscribers,” Kraft wrote in a note to clients. Netflix is scheduled to report results after the market closes on Jan. 18. The stock has run up 29% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.5%.

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GameStop Corp. said Friday same-store sales fell 18.7% in the nine-week holiday period to end December, weighed down by weak demand for “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” and “Titanfall 2” and aggressive discounting on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Total sales came to $2.50 billion, down 16.4% from the year-earlier period. Chief Executive Paul Raines said sales were hurt by holiday weakness, pricing pressure and lower traffic. “We are disappointed with our overall results, but looking broadly, we did see continued growth in our non-physical gaming businesses and we expect this category to approach 40% of our earnings in fiscal 2016,” he said in a statement. The company is still aiming to save $100 million in sales, general and admin costs by 2019, he said. GameStop is sticking with its fourth-quarter forecast for EPS of $2.23 to $2.28, below the FactSet consensus of $2.33. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but have fallen 8% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said late Thursday that key parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law — including higher capital requirements and enhanced supervision for big banks — should not be scrapped, according to a Wall Street Journal report. She has previously warned against rolling back Dodd-Frank rules, and it is something that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to do. On Thursday, Yellen also said the U.S. economy faces no serious short-term obstacles, according to a Bloomberg report.

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Tesla Motors Inc. on Thursday night announced details of how it will start charging some customers to use its high-speed Supercharger network. Buyers who order their Model S and Model X vehicles after Jan. 15 will receive free annual credits for 400 kWh, about enough electricity for 1,000 miles, the company said in a statement. After that, they will be charged “a small fee” to use a Supercharger station, with exact prices varying state to state, and country to country. The free-credits plan will not apply to buyers of the Model 3, which is expected to roll out later this year. “We are only aiming to recover a portion of our costs and set up a fair system for everyone; this will never be a profit center for Tesla,” the company said. As examples, Tesla said Superchargers would cost about 20 cents per kWh in California, and that a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles would cost about $15. A cross-country trip from Los Angeles to New York would run about $120. The charges will not apply to existing Tesla owners, who can continue to use Superchargers for free. Tesla first announced the plan to charge new users in November.

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Drone startup Lily Robotics was sued for false advertising and unfair business practices by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office on Thursday, the same day the company announced it was shutting down after failing to secure more funding. Lily made $34 million in pre-orders last year, and said it would send automatic refunds to customers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the district attorney’s office said Lily failed on its promise to deliver the drones to customers, and it lured sales through a misleading promotional video. Lily’s drones had been hyped as revolutionary for their autonomous flight capabilities, and won an innovation award at CES 2016. The San Francisco-based startup had 60,000 orders for the drones, which cost $899. Lily had delayed production of the drones a number of times, and mass production never got off the ground.

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