Category: Stock Market News

Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service delivered a record more than 2 billion items for sellers worldwide in 2016. Items shipped by FBA rose 50% in the holiday season, while deliveries to prime members numbered in the millions. The online retailer said active sellers using the FBA service increased more than 70% in 2016, and units shipped grew more than 80% outside the U.S. The number of sellers that reached $100,000 in sales rose by 30%. The company estimates that sellers have created more than 600,000 new jobs outside of Amazon. Amazon shares were slightly higher premarket, but have gained 18% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.

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Agile Therapeutics Inc. shares plummeted in the extended session Tuesday even after the women’s health company reported positive results in a study of its Twirla contraceptive patch. Agile shares dropped 73% to $1.33 after hours. Using the Pearl index, which is the number of times the contraceptive fails over a calculated 100 years of use, Twirla scored a 4.80 for its target population, but 51.4% of study participants had to discontinue the study. The FDA will have to review how Agile calculated the Pearl index results, the company said. Agile plans to resubmit its marketing application to the FDA in the first half of 2017.

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Alcoa Corp. on Tuesday said it expects to book restructuring-related charges of $90 million in the fourth quarter from the closure of its alumina refinery and bauxite mines in Suriname. The metals company will also record $31 million in impairment charges for its stake in a gas field in Western Australia after determining that exploration activities do not support its carrying value. The combined impact of these charges will be 66 cents a share. Aloca’s stock was unchanged in the late session after closing up 2.7%.

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J.C. Penney Co. Inc. said Tuesday that it has sold its home office and the 45-acre Plano, Texas, campus it resides on for $353 million, before closing and transaction costs, to Dreien Opportunity Partners LLC. J.C. Penney said in a previous announcement that it would lease back about 65% of the space once ownership has transferred. Rental costs, according to Penney, will be offset by a reduction in maintenance expenses, property taxes and interest expenses after the retailer pays down debt using proceeds from the transaction. The property, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas, has served as J.C. Penney’s global headquarters since 1992. J.C. Penney shares closed up 0.2%, and are up 25.1% in the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 10.5% over the last 12 months.

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Alliance Data Systems Corp. said late Tuesday its board approved the buyback of up to $500 million shares of company stock. The new program replaces the old one which expired at the end of 2016, the company said. Buybacks under the plan will be financed with free cash flow up until the end of the year. Shares of Alliance Data were flat at $233.01 after hours.

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Shares of Tesla Motors fell 2.4% after hours Tuesday after the car marker released its fourth-quarter vehicle numbers, including new records for its Model S and Model X cars orders but also short-term production challenges. Tesla said it produced 24,882 vehicles in the fourth quarter, for a total of 83,922 vehicles in 2016, up 64% from the previous year. Because of production challenges with its autopilot function at the end of October through early December, Tesla said it missed counting 2,750 vehicles as delivered in the fourth quarter. Tesla said it did end up recovering and hitting its production goals. It reported an all-time record of net orders for Model S and Model X cars in the fourth quarter, with orders up 52% higher than the previous year. About 6,450 vehicles were en route to customers at the end of the quarter, which will be counted as deliveries for the first quarter of 2017.

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Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Timothy Massad is resigning, effective Jan 20, 2017, according to a press release from the commodities and futures industry regulator. Massad was appointed by President Obama and sworn in as chairman in June 2014. He will remain at the regulator for a few more weeks in order to allow for a proper transition to the new administration.

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U.S. stocks closed up Tuesday below their highs for the first trading session of 2017 as oil prices dropped. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119.16 points, or 0.6%, to finish at 19,881.76, led higher by shares of Nike Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. . The S&P 500 index closed up 19.00 points, or 0.9%, at 2,257.83, with the telecom and health care sectors the strongest performers. The Nasdaq Composite index finished up 45.97 points, or 0.9%, at 5,429.08. February oil futures settled down 2.6% at $52.33 a barrel.

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Taco Bell announced a series of 2017 commitments on Tuesday that include theelimination of extra-large soda cups, removal of all antibiotics that are important to human medicine from its chicken, and expanding the use of cage-free egg ingredients across its core menu by Jan. 1, 2018. The brand, which is part of the Yum Brands Inc. portfolio, also made a number of longer-term commitments, including creating 100,000 U.S. jobs by 2022 and an additional 10% salt reduction across its menu. The company has already reduced sodium by 15% on average since 2008. Yum Brands shares are down 0.4% in Tuesday trading, but up 20% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 10.1% for the last 12 months.

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Whirlpool Corp. said Tuesday that it has partnered with Amazon.com Inc. on a line of voice-controlled appliances, launching in early 2017. The smart appliances will be Alexa-enabled, allowing users to do things like set and adjust the cooking mode on smart ovens, and ask their smart refrigerator for temperatures and settings. The deal builds on an existing relationship between the brands, which includes automatic reordering of laundry and kitchen products through Amazon’s Dash Replenishment offering. That service will be made available to more appliance models, Whirlpool said. The new Alexa-enabled appliances will be showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show, taking place from Jan. 5 to Jan. 8. Whirlpool shares are up 0.5% in Tuesday trading, and up 24.3% for the past year. Amazon shares are nearly flat in Tuesday trading, and up nearly 11% for the last 12 months. The S&P 500 index is up 10.1% for the last year.

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