6 hours ago
Big retail ETF has its worst day since May as Walmart shares fall
Shares of major retailers plunged on Thursday, dragging the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) to its worst day in nearly six months.
XRT slipped 3.4%, marking its worst day since May 19.
The ETF’s decline came shortly after Walmart’s third-quarter financial report. The major retailer beat analysts’ expectations for sales and profit but gave weak guidance for the year and expressed a cautious outlook on consumer spending. Shares fell 8%.
Bath & Body Works, another XRT component, fell nearly 7%. The soap and candle retailer reported adjusted earnings that beat Street forecasts but were in line with sales. Bath & Body Works noted that it has “lower revenue expectations for the fiscal year.”
-Darla Mercado, Chris Hayes
6 hours ago
According to Goldman Sachs, there are six transportation stocks to watch
Lack of volume and disappointing margins meant a very difficult third-quarter earnings season for the transportation sector, Goldman Sachs said.
“Our overall view is that volumes are stabilizing, but the strong rebound from the trough of a freight recession may be more muted this cycle due to uncertainty surrounding the consumer and the speed at which shippers’ inventories are replenished.” wrote analyst Jordan Alliger. “As a result, we generally favor those names that can perform well as lower growth volumes recover, including the rail and parcels industries, which should benefit from potentially more modest freight growth with relatively high fixed costs.”
Alliger named six stocks “with idiosyncratic opportunities and reasonable relative valuations” that investors should keep an eye on. These include Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, JB Hunt Transport Services, United Parcel Service, FedEX and XPO.
—Lisa Kailai Han, Michael Bloom
7 hours ago
According to UBS, emerging market stocks will deliver the highest returns over the next decade
According to UBS, stocks, particularly emerging market stocks, will deliver the highest return among major asset classes over the next decade.
“Overall profit growth is expected to be well supported by robust growth in companies driving disruption in technology, energy and healthcare,” the bank wrote in its outlook for the coming year.
However, it clarified that stock valuations are likely to be lower due to higher interest rates.
“Global diversification will be important to cope in a deglobalizing world,” the bank added. “Emerging market stocks, for example, are trading at significant discounts to historical levels and we expect them to deliver the highest returns over the next decade.”
—Lisa Kailai Han
7 hours ago
Stock futures open little changed
Stock futures opened little changed on Thursday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended a four-day winning streak in regular trading.
Dow futures gained 25 points, or 0.07%, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.06%. Nasdaq futures fell 0.06%.
—Brian Evans