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Stocks fall as coronavirus cases jump in some states

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Stock futures ticked down Wednesday evening, adding to losses from the regular session.

The S&P 500 and Dow snapped a three-day winning streak by market close, with concerns over a jump in coronavirus cases in some major states contributing to declines. However, big tech shares continued to climb and added to their run of outperformance, despite increasing scrutiny from regulators in the U.S. and Europe. Apple’s (AAPL) stock climbed to an all-time intraday high, but steadied near the flat line during late trading.

Travel and leisure stocks fell Wednesday, with increases in new coronavirus cases appearing and threatening a smooth reopening process. New cases in Florida jumped to the highest level since the pandemic began, and Texas’s hospitalization rate surged by the most since the beginning of the month. Other states including Arizona, Nevada and Oregon also saw spikes in cases as of Wednesday’s counts, as regions struggled to keep

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A/C costs could jump 50% for people locked down amid the coronavirus

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

During the hot summer months, workers typically pass their days in the well air-conditioned office buildings. And the employers pay for the A/C.

Free food had been a go-to perk of pre-COVID workplaces, but as many workers around the country are now stuck at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, free air conditioning may turn out to be the benefit workers miss most.

Estimates for air conditioning often use 8 hours per day as a benchmark for calculating costs. With workers asked to work remotely by many companies this summer, many will be on the hook for an additional 8 hours of A/C usage per day, doubling their cooling costs. 

(If you currently run A/C 16 hours per day, costs would rise 50%.)

According to Energy Star, a program run by the Environmental Protection Agency, air conditioning will be the most significant increase to households’ power costs

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Walmart Q1 boosted by 74% surge in online coronavirus buying, sales jump 10%

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Retail giant Walmart (WMT) reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, driven by a surge in e-commerce and higher traffic in stores as the coronavirus pandemic sparked massive purchases in household goods.

Here were the main numbers compared to Bloomberg consensus forecasts:

  • Revenue: $134.6 billion vs. expectations of $132.48 billion

  • Adjusted EPS: $1.84 vs. expectations of $1.12

  • Walmart U.S. comp-store sales (excluding gas): 10% versus expectations of +8.6%

  • Walmart U.S. e-commerce sales: up 74%

As consumers stocked up on pantry staples and household products during widespread stay-at-home orders sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, the retail giant reaped the benefit in sales and revenue. Walmart’s stock, which closed up Monday at $127.75, soared by than 4% higher in the pre-market.

“Our omnichannel strategy, enabling customers to shop in seamless, flexible ways, is built for serving the needs of customers during this crisis and in the future,” CEO Doug McMillon said in the

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Too soon to jump on ‘sell in May and go away’ bandwagon: BMO strategist

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Investors have been transitioning away from fear surrounding the coronavirus to focus more on stocks and fundamentals, says a top market strategist.

“The thing that’s gone on the most over the last couple of weeks is … this transition into a ‘more normalized ways of looking at the market,’” Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, told Yahoo Finance.

“How many people are going to be going to a bar, how many people are going to go in a restaurant, how many people are going to be on an airplane. We can measure that and we can, we can invest around that,” said Belski.

He believes for a while some investors, strategists, and economists were too driven by fear and rhetoric.

“Some of these projections with respect to Q1 and Q2, albeit probably accurate in terms of how negative they are, but I think a little bit too

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Stock futures little changed, Alphabet shares jump

By Tommy Flemm 1 year ago

Stock futures kicked off the overnight session flat Tuesday as investors digested a slew of mixed corporate earnings results after market close.

Big tech stocks including Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix led the broader market lower during Monday’s regular session. After the bell, however, shares of Google-parent company Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) rose after the internet search giant reported first-quarter sales that topped expectations, reflecting strong trends in the period before the coronavirus pandemic broadened out and dampened many of its customers’ advertising spending plans.

Other major companies’ results already reflected a sharper downturn. Starbucks (SBUX) reported a quarterly same-store sales decline that was worse than consensus analysts expected, and said the negative impact to current-quarter results in the U.S. would likely be “significantly greater” before moderating. Automaker Ford (F) posted automotive sales that dropped 16% in the first quarter over last year and said it expects to lose more than

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