Tag: stock market

DuPont & Co.’s stock surged $3.04, or 3.9%, in midday trade Wednesday, enough to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory, after The Wall Street Journal reported that European regulators were set to clear the chemical company’s merger with Dow Chemical Co. . The stock’s price gain was adding about 21 points to the Dow, which was up 9 points. That compares to the S&P 500’s 0.2% decline and the Dow Jones Transportation Average’s 1.3% drop. Dow Chemical’s stock rallied 4.1% in midday trade. The Dow and DuPont merger deal is on track to win regulatory approval from the European Union’s antitrust regulator before the April deadline, after the company offered earlier this month to sell some businesses, according to the WSJ report.

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Shares of First Solar Inc. fell more than 7% on Wednesday as analysts with Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to their equivalent of sell, from hold. The timing on several of the company’s projects this year poses risks to estimates, and next year’s projects seem “unlikely to support” earnings growth, the analysts said in a note. The analysts also lowered their price target on the stock to $29, from $30, implying a 12% downside to Wednesday’s prices. First Solar late Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that beat Wall Street expectations.

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Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday upgraded Alphabet Inc.’s corporate credit rating to AA-plus from AA and said the outlook is stable, citing the Google parent’s improving operational performance of the past few years. The rating is the second highest in S&P’s scale, just below the coveted AAA rating. The move “reflects Alphabet Inc.’s consistently strong operating performance, despite a challenging and evolving digital advertising market, while it continues to maintain a conservative financial policy and strong liquidity profile,” said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst David Tsui. The company has a leading position in desktop and mobile search ad markets, robust technology and user data and the intellectual and financial capital to allow it to exploit new opportunities and defend itself against new competitors, said Tsui. With about $90 billion of revenue in 2016, the company is much bigger than its nearest competitor in online search and display advertising, he added. Alphabet’s most active bonds, the 1.998% notes due to mature in August of 2026, were last quoted at about 93 cents on the dollar, according to MarketAxess.

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The euro on Wednesday was paring its loss against the dollar following reports that French centrist politician Francois Bayrou will not run for president and instead back Emmanuel Macron, a centrist candidate. The shared currency was changing hands at $1.0543, after trading below $1.05 ahead of the news. Analysts have said the euro could fall to $1.03 if the prospects for populist Marine Le Pen becoming the country’s next president keep strengthening. Macron is believed to have a good chance of beating Le Pen if a second round of voting were needed.

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Shares of Hawaii-based ocean shipping company Matson Inc. tumbled 10% toward a 7 1/2-month low in morning trade Wednesday, pressuring the Dow Jones Transportation Average to underperform the broader stock market by a wide margin, after a disappointing fourth-quarter report and outlook. Matson reported late Tuesday revenue that topped expectations but missed on profit, and said first-quarter ocean transportation income is expected to be less than half of what it was a year ago. The stock’s price drop of $3.63 shaved about 22 points off the Dow transports. The index was down 100 points, with 19 of 20 components losing ground, compared with a 2-point, or less than 0.1% decline, in the Dow Jones Industrial Average . Among the other biggest decliners within the Dow transports, shares of United Parcel Service Inc. slid 1.7%, of JetBlue Airways Corp. shed 1.6% and of CSX Corp. gave up 1.4%. The lone gainer was Expeditors International of Washington Inc.’s stock , which tacked on 0.5%.

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Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw further pressure Wednesday, a day after the two over-the-counter stocks plunged in the wake of a federal appeals court upholding a decision that investors could not sue to overturn the sweep of the mortgage buyers’ profits to the U.S. Treasury. Fannie shares were recently down 4% and Freddie Mac was down about 1%.

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Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it is offering an $8.62 discount on all purchases of $50 or more after the company earned a record score of 86.27 in this year’s Harris Annual Corporate Reputation Poll. The company ranked number one in the poll for the second consecutive year, and the score is a record high for the 18-year history of the poll, the company said. The Harris Poll surveyed more than 23,000 Americans on areas including products and services, emotional appeal and financial performance. Amazon shares are down 0.2% in Wednesday trading, but up 52.7% for the last year. The S&P 500 index is up 21.3% for the past 12 months.

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Shares of Texas Roadhouse Inc. tumbled 9.7% in morning trade Wednesday to a 3 1/2-month low in the wake of disappointing fourth-quarter results, with Canaccord Genuity saying investors should still wait before investing in what it believes offers consumers the “best value” in casual dining. The restaurant chain reported late Tuesday earnings, revenue and same-store sales that missed expectations, and provided a disappointing same-store sales outlook for the current quarter. Analyst Lynne Collier at Canaccord reiterated her hold rating and $42 stock price target, which is nearly 3% below current prices. “While we continue to believe that [Texas Roadhouse] offers consumers the ‘best value’ in casual dining and believe that…some of the [same-store sales] pressure is transitory, we would look for a better entry point before becoming constructive on shares,” Collier wrote in a note to clients. The stock, which is now 14% below the Dec. 9, 2016 record close of $50.20, has gained 17% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has climbed 21%.

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U.S. stocks opened marginally lower on Wednesday as the three main benchmarks struggled to continue their run of records amid a pullback in oil prices. The S&P 500 index slipped three points, or 0.1%, to 2,362.34. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 27 points, or 0.1%, to 20,712. The Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 10 points, or 0.2%, to 5,856. U.S.-traded crude-oil futures slipped 1.5% to $53.54 a barrel in recent trade, weighing on energy stocks. Shares of Toll Brothers Inc. jumped after the company posted a fall in profit and revenue. First Solar Inc. shares fell, even though the company posted adjusted earnings and sales that beat expectations. Shares of TJX Cos. rose after the off-price retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings and sales beat expectations. Investors are now looking ahead to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting, which they will scrutinize for clues about the central bank’s plans for raising interest rates and unwinding its balance sheet.

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TJX Cos. shares rose 1.6% in Wednesday premarket trading after the off-price retailer announced fourth-quarter earnings and sales that beat estimates. TJX stores include T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods. Net income was $677.9 million, or $1.03 per share, up from from $666.5 million, or 99 cents per share, last year. The FactSet consensus was $1.00. Sales were $9.47 billion, up from $8.96 billion last year and ahead of the $9.44 billion FactSet consensus. Same-store sales increased 3%, beating the FactSet consensus for a 2.6% increase. TJX plans to increase the quarterly dividend by 20% to 31.25 cents per share for common stock declared in April 2017, payable in June 2017. The company also announced a stock repurchase program of about $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion during the fiscal year ending Feb. 3, 2018. There’s $1.8 billion remaining in the existing fiscal 2017 repurchase program. For the first quarter, TJX sees EPS in the range of 76 cents to 78 cents compared with 76 cents last year and below the 81-cent FactSet consensus. The company expects wage increases to hurt EPS growth by 3%. TJX shares are up 4.4% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 21.6% for the same period.

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