Stocks opened mixed, with the Dow and S&P higher and the Nasdaq struggling under the weight of the losses in Nvidia (NVDA) shares. The shares of the GPU maker are still down, but well off their lows following last night’s earnings report. The Dow has been the day’s leader but has seen its gains cut in half as investors start to book profits following the market’s recent run. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the import price index for April was up 0.3% from the prior month. Economists expected a 0.5% rise. The preliminary University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for May was unchanged at 98.8. Analysts had forecast a slight pullback to an expected reading of 98.3. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Symantec (SYMC) plunged 35% after the revelation of an internal audit investigation and lower than expected guidance prompted no less than seven downgrades of the stock by Wall Street analysts. Among them, BTIG analyst Joel Fishbein said the investigation overshadows everything else in last night’s Q4 results and guidance, while Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Nowinski said the board’s investigation creates too much uncertainty to have confidence in management’s fiscal 2019 guidance despite the “strong” Q4 results… Nvidia (NVDA) reported better than expected results and saw a number of Wall Street analysts raise their price targets on its shares, but the stock pulled back 1% after having risen significantly in the weeks leading up to its quarterly report. Similarly, Dropbox (DBX) posted better than expected results in its first quarter since coming public, but its shares are down a bit over 2% near noon… Gamestop (GME) has dropped 2.5% following the resignation of Michael Mauler as CEO after just over three months heading the company. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Verizon (VZ), which rose 3% after JPMorgan analyst Philip Cusick upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral, saying he has a better understanding of the company’s “organic approach to wireless” after meeting with CEO Lowell McAdam. Also higher were Trade Desk (TTD) and Immersion (IMMR), which gained a respective 42% and 7% after reporting quarterly results. Among the notable losers was PPG (PPG), which slipped 2% after it delayed the filing of its quarterly report with the SEC. Also lower were Yelp (YELP) and Flowserve (FLS), which fell 6% and 5%, respectively, after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 78.97, or 0.32%, to 24,818.50, the Nasdaq was roughly unchanged at 7,405.32, and the S&P 500 was up 4.63, or 0.17%, to 2,727.70.
previous post
next post