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Gap Inc. said sales for the four weeks ending Feb. 27 totaled $888 million, down from $918 million a year before. Same-store sales for the month were down 2%. Same-store sales for the Gap global brand and for the Old Navy brand were flat, while Banana Republic had an 11% same-store-sales drop for the month. Gap reported quarterly earnings last week along with the announcement of a new $1 billion share-buyback program. Gap’s stock in inactive in after-hours trading. Shares are up 15.6% for the year so far but are down 32% in the past year. The S&P is down 2.5% in 2016.

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Shares of Cooper Cos. gained in Thursday’s extended session after the contact lens company posted quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Cooper reported its first-quarter earnings fell to $51.4 million, or $1.05 a share, from $61.2 million, or $1.25 a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned $1.83 a share. Revenue rose 1% to $449.6 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.58 a share on revenue of $442 million. For the full year, Cooper projected adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30 and revenue of $1.87 billion to $1.91 billion versus the Street’s average estimates of $7.83 a share and $1.87 billion. Shares climbed 3.4% in after-hours trading.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Shares of Cooper Cos. gained in Thursday’s extended session after the contact lens company posted quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Cooper reported its first-quarter earnings fell to $51.4 million, or $1.05 a share, from $61.2 million, or $1.25 a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned $1.83 a share. Revenue rose 1% to $449.6 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.58 a share on revenue of $442 million. For the full year, Cooper projected adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30 and revenue of $1.87 billion to $1.91 billion versus the Street’s average estimates of $7.83 a share and $1.87 billion. Shares climbed 3.4% in after-hours trading.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Cooper Cos. gained in Thursday’s extended session after the contact lens company posted quarterly results that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Cooper reported its first-quarter earnings fell to $51.4 million, or $1.05 a share, from $61.2 million, or $1.25 a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned $1.83 a share. Revenue rose 1% to $449.6 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.58 a share on revenue of $442 million. For the full year, Cooper projected adjusted EPS of $8 to $8.30 and revenue of $1.87 billion to $1.91 billion versus the Street’s average estimates of $7.83 a share and $1.87 billion. Shares climbed 3.4% in after-hours trading.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprises Co.’s stock surged 5.4% in after-hours trade Thursday, after the business software services company reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results, its first since splitting off HP Inc. . For the quarter ended Jan. 31, earnings fell to $267 million, or 15 cents a share, from $547 million, or 30 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as one-time restructuring charges, adjusted earnings per share came to 42 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 40 cents. Revenue declined 3% to $12.72 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $12.65 billion, as better-than-expected enterprise group revenue offset in line enterprise services revenue and less-than-expected software revenue. Looking ahead, the company expects fiscal second-quarter adjusted EPS of 39 cents to 43 cents, surrounding the FactSet consensus of 42 cents. The company said it plans to return at least 100% of its fiscal 2016 free-cash-flow outlook, which was $2 billion to $2.2 billion, to shareholders, up from a return of $1.3 billion to shareholders in a year ago. The stock had lost 11% year to date through Thursday’s close, while the S&P 500 had slipped 2.5%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Planet Fitness Inc. shares rose in the extended session Thursday after the gym chain’s yearly forecast and fourth-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates. Planet Fitness shares advanced 3% to $15.26 after hours. The company forecast adjusted 2016 earnings of 60 cents to 63 cents a share on revenue of $355 million to $365 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 2016 earnings of 59 cents a share on revenue of $320.2 million. Planet Fitness reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $105.8 million. Analysts had forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $95.9 million.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Oil futures settled with a loss on Thursday, with prices failing to finish above the key $35-a-barrel level as traders weighed the likelihood of an agreement this week among major producers to stabilize output. April West Texas Intermediate crude fell 9 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $34.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had posted gains in each of the last three trading sessions, settling Wednesday at a two-month high.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Gold futures settled higher on Thursday as weakness in the U.S. dollar and downbeat economic data helped the metal post its best finish in more than a year. April gold rose $16.40, or 1.3%, to settle at $1,258.20 an ounce. The settlement was the highest since Feb. 5, 2015, according to data from Dow Jones.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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