Tag: stock market

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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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — China critic Peter Navarro will run a new White House effort on trade in the Trump administration, the Financial Times reported. Navarro will head what’s called the National Trade Council that would aim to boost job creation in infrastructure and defense and work with the National Security Council, the National Economic Council and the Domestic Policy Council. The report said it would mark the first time there was an office dedicated to manufacturing inside the White House. Navarro co-authored a white paper — along with Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross — on the trade, regulatory and energy policy impact of the Trump economic plan.

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Oil prices finished lower Wednesday, halting three straight sessions of gains, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected climb in crude stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for February delivery settled down 81 cents, or 1.5%, at $52.49 a barrel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration early Wednesday indicated that domestic crude supplies grew by 2.26 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 16. Stockpiles had been expected to fall by 2.3 million barrels, according to a survey of 13 analysts and traders by The Wall Street Journal. The loss ends three straight sessions of advances for WTI oil in the wake of an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other non-OPEC producers to curb output.

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Ironically, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock , which has contributed the most by far to the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s recent rally toward 20,000, is the biggest reason the Dow is down on Wednesday. The banker’s stock was shedding $2.10, or 0.9%, to shave about 14 points off the Dow, which was down 12 points in afternoon trade. Meanwhile, the $29.88, or 14%, Goldman’s stock has climbed since Nov. 22, when the Dow first closed above 19,000, has added about 205 points to the Dow’s 938-point gain, to come up about 38 points shy of 20K.

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Monster Beverage Corp.’s stock ran up 4.8% in afternoon trade, after the energy drinks company was upgraded at Jefferies, which cited accelerating U.S. sales trends and a more attractive valuation given its recent underperformance. Analyst Kevin Grundy raised his rating to buy from hold, and made the stock one of his top picks. Given President-elect Donald Trump’s policy promises of being tough on trade and corporate tax reform, he believes investors in the consumer products and beverage sectors should favor U.S. centric companies, to avoid potential headwinds of a stronger U.S. dollar and to have greater benefit from tax cuts. Grundy said Monster’s stock is being valued below its historical average, and there’s always a possibility that Monster’s largest shareholder, Coca-Cola Co. , may decide to buy the shares it doesn’t already own. Coke owned 17.9% of Monster’s shares outstanding, according to a Sept. 1 regulatory filing. The stock has lost 8.2% year to date, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF has tacked on 3.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 11%.

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