Category: Stock Market News

Rite Aid Corp. reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that fell to $15.0 million, or 1 cent a share, from $59.5 million, or 6 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The drugstore chain, which is being acquired by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. , said adjusted earnings per share, which excluded non-recurring items, was 2 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 4 cents. Revenue slipped to $8.09 billion from $8.15 billion, missing the FactSet consensus of $8.23 billion. Same-store sales fell 3.4%, as pharmacy sales fell 4.7% and front-end sales declined 0.4%. “Despite the difficult operating environment created by the extended duration of the merger process with [Walgreens], our third quarter results show solid performance in our front-end business, good cost control and continued strong growth at our pharmacy benefit manager, EnvisionRx,” said Chief Executive John Standley. The stock, which slipped 0.2% in premarket trade, has gained 8% year to date, while Walgreens shares have tacked on 0.8% and the S&P 500 had climbed 11%.

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The U.K.’s Treasury Committee said Thursday it’s launching a review of the effectiveness and impact of monetary policy after the 2008 global financial crisis. “Interest rates are stuck near zero, the Bank of England has used increasingly unconventional forms of quantitative easing, and inflation has been below the two per cent target for three years,” said Treasury Committee Chairman Andrew Tyrie in a statement. “The efficacy of monetary policy or otherwise, its unintended consequences, and its prospects, need careful examination.” The committee is seeking written submissions on issues ranging from the impact from policy on housing market and financial stability, and on competition, “zombie companies” and productivity. The deadline for submissions is March 5, 2017.

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Shares of embattled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA slid 7.2% in early trade after media reports said a state bailout could be announced as soon as Thursday. The bank, which has been racing to raise 5 billion euros ($5.22 billion) by the end of the year, said late Wednesday it had failed to secure an anchor investor for its private rescue deal, according to media reports. That had dissuaded other major investors from supporting the deal, making the €5 billion target almost impossible to reach. BMPS had hoped Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund would inject €1 billion into the bank, but that option is now off the table, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the rescue plan. Additionally, a debt-for-equity swap offer failed to raise as much capital as hoped. Italy’s parliament on Wednesday approved a €20 billion loan to the country’s ailing banking sector, which also can be used to bailout Monte dei Paschi.

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Hillary Clinton received the most votes of any losing presidential candidate in U.S. history, according to the final and certified election results announced late Wednesday. Clinton ended up with 65,844,954 votes (48.2%) compared to Donald Trump’s 62,979,879 (46.1%), beating the president-elect by 2.9 million votes. Trump, however, won the presidency with a comfortable Electoral College victory. Trump’s popular-vote deficit of 2.1% was the third-worst of any presidential victor. In a tweet Wednesday, Trump said “I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote,” claiming he would have campaigned differently.

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Honda Motor Co. Ltd. said Wednesday that its R&D subsidiary is in discussions for a collaboration with Waymo, the Alphabet Inc. division that has developed technology for self-driving cars. The potential collaboration is the first major news for Waymo since Alphabet announced last week that the Google project would become its own division and look to license the technology it has developed to traditional auto makers, instead of trying to make its own cars. “This technical collaboration between Honda researchers and Waymo’s self-driving technology team would allow both companies to learn about the integration of Waymo’s fully self-driving sensors, software and computing platform into Honda vehicles,” the Japanese auto maker said in its announcement. Honda said it could provide Waymo with vehicles to outfit and test with self-driving technology as part of the collaboration discussions.

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OvaScience Inc. fell more than 30% in late trading Wednesday after the fertility-treatments company announced a restructuring that includes massive layoffs and the departure of two of its top executives. OvaScience said it would slow down commercial expansion and studies of a once-promising fertility treatment called Augment and reduce its workforce by about 30%. Chief Executive Harald Stock and COO Paul Chapman, whom OvaScience noted were brought on board to lead commercial expansion of Augment, decided to leave the company amid the changes. OvaScience has struggled this year, offering new shares in May for $7, much lower than the going price at that time but much higher than current prices. The company, which had a market capitalization of $105.6 million with a per-share price of $2.97 at the close Wednesday, fell to about $2 a share in after-hours action.

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Red Hat Inc. plummeted more than 13% Wednesday afternoon after announcing the departure of its chief financial officer along with an earnings report that included a lower than expected forecast. The open-source enterprise-tech company reported net income of $68 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $615.3 million. After adjustments for stock-based compensation and other effects, Red Hat claimed earnings of 61 cents a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Red Hat to report adjusted earnings of 58 cents a share on sales of $619 million. Red Hat forecast fourth-quarter and full-year revenue ranges of $614 million-to-$622 million and $2.397 billion to $2.405 billion, respectively. Both ranges came in lower than analyst expectations, according to FactSet, which found average analyst forecasts of $638 million for the fourth quarter and $2.42 billion for the year. Red Hat also said that CFO Frank Calderoni is stepping down to accept a CEO job at another company, and will be replaced on an interim basis by principal accounting officer Eric Shander. Red Hat shares fell to less than $69 after closing with a 0.5% gain at $79.79.

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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. shares fell more than 5% in late trading Wednesday after the retail chain announced earnings and a forecast that came in lower than expectations. The company said it had net income of $126.4 million, or 85 cents a share, on sales of $2.96 billion in its fiscal third quarter, reflecting a stark decline in profit from $1.09 a share in the same period a year before. Analysts polled by FactSet expected the company to report earnings of 98 cents a share on sales of $3 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond also said it now expects full fiscal-year profit to be at the low end of its guidance range, which was $4.50 a share to about $5 a share. Analysts had projected full-year earnings of $4.73 a share, according to FactSet. Bed Bath & Beyond stock fell to less than $43.50 in after-hours trading, after closing with a 1.4% decline at $45.56.

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Shares of Micron Technology Inc. ran up 7.4% in after-hours trade Wednesday, after the memory chip maker reported its first quarterly profit in a year, that beat expectations. Earnings for the quarter to Dec. 1 were $180 million, or 16 cents a share, down from $206 million, or 19 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 32 cents, beating the FactSet consensus of 26 cents. Revenue rose 23% to $3.97 billion from $3.35 billion, the first year-over-year growth in seven quarters and above the FactSet consensus of $3.95 billion. The company said the growth in revenue was primarily a result of an 18% increase and DRAM and a 26% rise in trade NAND sales volumes, and a 5% increase in DRAM average selling prices. “Positive market momentum, driven by favorable demand trends and limited industry supply, produced solid results for our first quarter,” said Chief Executive Mark Durcan. The stock had soared 45% year to date through Wednesday’s close, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index had climbed 38% and the S&P 500 had gained 11%.

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For investors love volatility, Wednesday has been their worst nightmare in a little over two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has traded in a intraday range of just 43.71 points, with the intraday high of 19,986.56 reached within five minutes of the open, and the low of 19,942.85 hit within 25 minutes of the close. That’s on track to be the narrowest intraday point range since it traded in a 42.60-point range (17,833.76-17,791.16) on Nov. 26, 2014, which was the day before Thanksgiving. The Dow was recently down 16 points at 19,958, or just below the midpoint of the day’s range of 19,964.71.

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