On Wall Street, Stitch Fix jumped 42 per cent after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue.
Albertsons edged down by 0.1 per cent after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough for their proposed $US24.6 billion ($38.6 billion) merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it’s seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger, whose stock rose 1.1 per cent.
A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington nixed the supermarket giants’ merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition.
After terminating the merger agreement Albertsons said it plans to boost its dividend 25 per cent and increased the size of its program to buy back its own stock.
Mondelez, the company behind Oreo and other food brands, climbed 3.2 per cent after announcing a plan to send cash to shareholders by buying back up to $US9 billion of its own stock. The program replaces a prior $US6 billion plan, which had about $US2.8 billion of capacity remaining and would have otherwise expired at the end of next year.
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On the losing end of Wall Street, Macy’s fell 5.4 per cent after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $US1 of revenue.
Dave & Buster’s Entertainment sank 14.6 per cent after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search firm for the last few months to find its next permanent leader.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.24 per cent from 4.23 per cent late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, edged down to 4.13 per cent from 4.14 per cent.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and slipped 0.8 per cent as Chinese leaders convened an annual planning meeting in Beijing that is expected to set economic policies and growth targets for the coming year.
South Korea’s Kospi rose 1 per cent, up for a second straight day as it climbs back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law.
AP
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