Tag: stock market

Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. slid in Thursday’s extended session after the Mexican-themed fast food chain posted weak quarterly revenue. El Pollo Loco reported its fourth-quarter earnings rose to $5.4 million, or 14 cents a share, from $4.6 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company, whose name means “the crazy chicken” in Spanish, earned 15 cents a share. Revenue slipped to $86.3 million from $90 million and system-wide same-store sales rose 1.8%. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $88.1 million. The company projected same-store sales to grow in the low single digits in 2016 and announced plans to open up to 22 new company-owned restaurants. El Pollo Loco shares fell 5.7% in after-hours trading.

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Shares of El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. slid in Thursday’s extended session after the Mexican-themed fast food chain posted weak quarterly revenue. El Pollo Loco reported its fourth-quarter earnings rose to $5.4 million, or 14 cents a share, from $4.6 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company, whose name means “the crazy chicken” in Spanish, earned 15 cents a share. Revenue slipped to $86.3 million from $90 million and system-wide same-store sales rose 1.8%. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 13 cents a share on revenue of $88.1 million. The company projected same-store sales to grow in the low single digits in 2016 and announced plans to open up to 22 new company-owned restaurants. El Pollo Loco shares fell 5.7% in after-hours trading.

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U.S. stocks came off session lows to close slightly lower Thursday as a rout in oil prices weighed on the main benchmarks. Investors largely shrugged off new easing measures from the European Central Bank, which exceeded the market’s expectations and fueled an early-morning rally. The S&P 500 ended unchanged at 1,989, led by losses in industrials and tech. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 6 points, or less than 0.1%, to 16,994, led by a 2% drop in shares of E.I du Pont de Nemours and Company . Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite closed down 12 points, or 0.3% at 4,662.

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Gold futures rallied Thursday to their highest level since early February of last year, buoyed by a drop in the U.S. stock market and a sharply weaker U.S. dollar. April gold rose $15.40, or 1.2%, to settle at $1,272.80 an ounce.

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Natural-gas futures turned lower on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity declined by 57 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 4. That was in line with the fall of between 55 billion and 59 billion cubic feet expected by analysts polled by Platts, but less than the 118 billion cubic foot five-year average decline, according to Citi Futures. Total stocks now stand at 2.479 trillion cubic feet, up 911 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 727 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. April natural gas was down a penny at $1.752 per million British thermal units. Prices traded $1.786 before the supply data.

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Crude-oil prices turned sharply lower Thursday after a report signaled that a meeting of major oil producers to solidify a global pact to freeze production is “unlikely” to happen. A Reuters report on Thursday said the closely watched meeting set for March 20 is “unlikely to take place” in Russia, citing unnamed sources. The oil-producer confab had been viewed by key officials as a crucial step to getting more producers, including Iran, to agree to production cuts. However, Iran is being cited as a roadblock to a meeting, Reuters reported. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for April delivery trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange was 1.2% lower at $37.86 a barrel, while the international benchmark, May Brent crude was off 2% at $40.27 a barrel. “If this is a breakdown of the agreement to freeze production it would be a bid deal for oil markets because the market had priced in production cuts,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.

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European Central Bank Mario Draghi on Thursday rebuffed recent criticism that central banks are running out of tools to boost flagging economies. Speaking at news conference in Frankfurt, the ECB chief took issue with the idea that whatever tools central banks use, their impact is minimal. “The best answer is being given by our decisions today. It’s a fairly long list of measures, and each one is very significant and designed to have maximum impact on boosting the economy and returning to price stability. So we have shown today we are not short of ammunition,” he said. The comments came after the ECB earlier on Thursday introduced a surprisingly aggressive easing package, including rate cuts, an increase in its quantitative-easing program and a new series of cheap loans to banks.

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U.S. stocks opened modestly higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank unveiled fresh stimulus measures to shore up the economy. The S&P 500 opened 5 points, or 0.3%, higher at 1,994. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 53 points, or 0.4%, to 17,054. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite began the day up 19 points, or 0.4% at 4,693.

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Vericel Corp.’s stock rocketed 92% in very active premarket trade Thursday, after the biotechnology company announced positive trial results for its heart failure treatment. Trading volume just before the open was about 730,000 shares, compared with the full-day average of about 37,000 shares over the past 30 days, according to FactSet. The company said a Phase 2b trial of ixmyelocel-T, a multicellular therapy made from the patients’ own bone marrow, in patients with advanced heart failure, met its primary endpoint of a reduction in the total number of deaths, hospitalizations and unplanned emergency room visits. The stock which is on track to open at the highest level in a year, has tumbled 18% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has slipped 2.7%.

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Nuance Communications Inc. said Thursday it has agreed to buy back $500 million of its own stock from billionaire investor Carl Icahn and some of his affiliates. Nuance will pay $19 per share, or a 6% discount to its closing price Wednesday, to buy 26.3 million of its shares. The deal will reduce Nuance’s fiscal 2016 weighted average shares outstanding by about 14.3 million shares. The company will fund the deal through a mixture of $375 million of cash on hand and a promissory note with a face value of $125 million. The deal is expected to close on or around March 15. Shares were up about 0.5% in premarket trade, and are up 44% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has lost 2.6%.

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