Ford posted solid earnings for the most recent quarter, sending its shares up 6% after hours.
Net income fell by a third, but most of the drop was due to charges for closing plants in South America, Europe and Russia. Excluding those special charges, adjusted income was slightly higher.
Both sales and profits increased for North America, one of its most important markets.
The company said that it expects that its sales and profits for 2019 will top 2018.
Ford didn’t share any new details about its ongoing redesign of its global operations, which it said will cost it $11 billion in the next few years. So far it has spelled out only $1 billion worth of those plans.
“More to come” it said in a set of slides for Thursday evening’s investor conference call.
Ford (F) is also looking to make new alliances as it restructures its business. It’s teamed with Volkwagen to develop new products, and just announced a $500 million investment in Rivian, which plans to debut an electric truck next year.
Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) rose about 2% after-hours Thursday, when the company posted good results for the first three months of the year.
Sales at US stores open at least a year jumped 4% in the period, beating Wall Street’s expectations. In China, sales at stores open at least a year grew 3%.
The increases are a sign that Starbucks’ efforts to expand in both the United States and China, its biggest markets, are working, CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement. Johnson added that he’s “especially pleased” with performance in those markets. Starbucks opened 319 new stores during the quarter, most of them outside of the United States.
Net revenues grew 5% to $6.3 billion compared to the same period last year.
The company also said that it now has 16.8 million active members in its US loyalty program, a 13% increase year over year.
3M Thursday’s trading day is over and (MMM) got hammered. Here’s what investors will focus on next.
Barbie, Hot Wheels and Toy Story are carrying toymaker Mattel (MAT).
Mattel’s sales fell 3% during its most recent quarter compared with a year ago. But that wasn’t as steep as some analysts feared.
Sales for the three major toy lines were up, despite struggles for Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends.
Mattel reported a net loss of $184 million during the quarter, but that was an improvement from the same quarter a year ago.
Mattel’s stock surged 11% in after-hours trading.
“This was another strong quarter, demonstrating meaningful progress in the execution of our strategy,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a statement.
Mattel was hurt last year by the Toys “R” Us’ bankruptcy. Last July, Mattel announced it would lay off more than 2,000 workers.
Amazon (AMZN) is seeing sales growth slow, but it’s making fatter profits than ever before.
On Thursday, the company reported a record profit of $3.6 billion during the first quarter of 2019, more than doubling from $1.6 billion last year. This is the sixth consecutive quarter where Amazon’s profits exceeded $1 billion.
But revenue growth is slowing down as the company runs up against the law of large numbers. Amazon posted revenue of $59.7 billion for the quarter, up 17% from the prior year. By comparison, Amazon’s revenue grew 43% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2018.
Stocks ended the day mixed.
The Nasdaq Composite fell just short of setting a new closing high that would have surpassed the record it set on Tuesday.
The biggest loser in the Dow by far was 3M (MMM), which reported weak results and slashed its forward guidance before the bell. Its shares closed nearly 13% down.
With less than 15 minutes until markets close, the Nasdaq Composite is yet again on track to set an all-time closing record.
The index last stood at 8,130.75 points, compared with Tuesday’s close of 8,120.82 points, which had marked a fresh closing high. The Nasdaq finished slightly lower yesterday.
The Nasdaq also reached an all-time intraday trading high today, when it touched 8,151.85 points earlier.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, was last trading just below the record it set Tuesday.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on Iran won’t completely wipe out the nation’s oil exports, according to Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Kachikwu.
“It’s not possible,” the OPEC member told CNN’s John Defterios on Thursday.
The White House vowed this week to zero out Iran’s oil exports by removing waivers that allowed some countries to keep buying crude from the sanctioned country.
Kachikwu said Iran would “sell oil somehow” to smaller third parties, though at lower volumes than today.
Facts Global Energy, a consulting firm, suggested in a report this week that Iran will smuggle out 200,000 to 300,000 barrels of rebranded oil per day through Iraq, Pakistan and perhaps Turkey.
The Nigerian oil minister said he wants to see OPEC and its allies extend their production agreement when the group meets in Vienna next month. However, he conceded that OPEC and its allies could decide to increase output.
Kachikwu lamented the fact that the world is now looking to OPEC to “pick up the can.”
“OPEC is formed as a cartel to look at its members’ interests,” he said. “It’s not, quite frankly, to concur to the needs of global world powers because we can’t play that sort of game.”
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have crept back into positive territory in the second half of the trading day.
The Dow, however, is still weaker and 3M (MMM) remains the culprit. Shares of the post-it maker are still down more than 12% after it posted troubling first quarter earnings.
In the S&P, Facebook (FB) is in the lead, followed by Fortune Brands Home & Security (FBHS). Both stocks are up nearly 6%.
Chipotle (CMG) shares dropped 5% after it revealed that it had received a new government subpoena relating to health and safety problems at some of its restaurants.
Last week, US federal prosecutors requested information related to illnesses traced back to some restaurants in California, Virginia, Massachusetts and Ohio.
Several Chipotle locations have dealt with health issues, including an E. Coli outbreak in late 2015 and 2016. The cause of the outbreak is still unknown.
Customers have remained wary of the chain for years after, dragging down profits and spooking investors.
Microsoft (MSFT) crossed the threshold of a $1 trillion valuation this morning shortly after the stock market opened.
Rising sales in its first quarter earnings release boosted its share price. The stock was last up about 4%.
Whether it’s a day for the books remains to be seen. Microsoft’s market capitalization will be determined by its closing price, rather than its highest level during intraday trading.
Arch rival Apple (AAPL) closed with the magical $1 trillion valuation in August last year, but has since fallen below that threshold. Amazon (AMZN) reached the level in September, but only during intraday trading. Both Apple and Amazon are due to report earnings today and tomorrow, which could boost their shares — and make the $1 trillion mark reachable again.
Southwest Airlines (LUV) exclusively uses Boeing 737 aircraft, but CEO Gary Kelly said its fleet lineup could change.
“That doesn’t mean we will be an all 737 carrier into perpetuity,” Kelly said on CNBC earlier.
Kelly said he’s “not happy” about the grounding the Boeing 737 Max, which consists of less than 5% of the airline’s fleet, but he’s not concerned that Boeing (BA) is putting speed ahead of safety.
“Our negotiations and our relationship with Boeing is something I’ll take up with them privately,” he said.
Earlier today, the airline revealed in its earnings that the grounding of its 737 Max planes, the government shutdown, and other “several unexpected events” cost the airline $200 million in the first quarter.
About an hour into the trading day, the Dow, the S&P 500 are down and the Nasdaq has given back its earlier gains.
3M (MMM) continues to be the biggest drag on the Dow, dropping 10.5%. Equipment maker Caterpiller (CAT), which was already weak following yesterday’s earnings, added to its slide and was down 2.5%.
3M is also an S&P component, and one of the biggest losers in that index as well. It was only outdone by semiconductor producer Xilinx (XLNX), which fell nearly 15% after it reported earnings earlier.
Kenny Mitchell will be Snap’s first Chief Marketing Officer.
He begins in June, and will report to CEO Evan Spiegel. Mitchell will lead the company’s consumer and product marketing. Previously, he was the VP of brand content and engagement at McDonald’s (MCD).
Mitchell joins the company as Snap (SNAP) works to boost its marketing efforts to attract new users. Snapchat recently revamped its Android app, which could be key to expanding its audience.
On Snap’s earnings call this week, Spiegel acknowledged the company will have to win back Android users who had a bad experience with the old version of the app. Part of that effort will be through a marketing campaign.
Stocks were mixed at the start of the trading day, as investors await further earnings reports.
Microsoft (MSFT) opened higher after yesterday’s strong earnings, rising enough to bring its market capitalization above $1 trillion immediately after the market open. Shares were last up 3.7%.
3M (MMM) reported weakening sales and slashed its forward guidance, which is weighing on its stock and the Dow. The company’s shares were off 10.2%.
Facebook (FB), which reported after the bell yesterday, was up 7.2%. The social media giant said it expected to pay up to $5 billion in a fine to the US Federal Trade Commission, but that doesn’t seem to faze investors.
A polar vortex, extreme flooding and massive amounts of snow in the first few months of the year across the United States has hurt UPS.
The shipping company said the severe weather shaved $80 million off its US bottom line in its first quarter, which is why it reported a lower-than-expected profit.
Earnings-per-share for the quarter came in slightly below expectations, but UPS still expects its full-year 2019 profit to remain on target.
UPS (UPS) shares are down 7% in early trading.
Microsoft is en route to top $1 trillion in market cap today.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares were up nearly 5% in premarket trading at $131.15, forecasting a valuation above the psychologically-important $1 trillion mark at the market open.
The tech company was boosted by Wednesday’s first quarter earnings report. Microsoft reported a 41% jump in revenues for its commercial cloud business.
Apple (AAPL) is the only US company that has reached the $1 trillion market capitalization valuation so far, zooming past the mark last year. On Wednesday, Apple’s market cap stood at round $977 billion at the close. With the company’s earnings due on Friday, it could rally to top the key level again.
Amazon (AMZN) is in a similar boat, with its market cap standing at $936 billion at Wednesday’s close. Amazon is reporting later in the day and could take course on the $1 trillion valuation.
This won’t make Tesla (TSLA) executives feel any better a day after it’s horrid earnings report.
Daniel Ives, a once-bullish Tesla analyst at Wedbush Securities, is expressing reservations about the company:
Ives said he’s throwing in the “white towel on the name” and is downgrading the stock to a neutral from outperform and slashed his price target on the stock.
He expressed a loss of “confidence in the story with no pilot on the plane to navigate through this severe demand turbulence.”
Tesla’s shares are down more than 1% in premarket trading.
3M’s (MMM), which makes Post-It notes and Scotch tape, had a “disappointing start to the year,” according to its CEO.
Southwest (LUV) revealed that the government shutdown, the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max fleet and other “several unexpected events” cost the airline $200 million in the first quarter.
Earlier this month, Southwest said that it was extending changes to its flight schedule to account for the grounded aircraft’s absence through much of the busy summer travel season.
The airline had a largely positive earnings report: Revenue and earnings per share slightly beat analysts’ expectations.
Southwest’s stock is up 3% in premarket trading.
