Wall Street logged an uneven start today with the S&P 500 falling 3 points to 1,923, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 20 points to 16,474 and the Nasdaq slipping 15 points to 4,518. The S&P Retail ETF declined 53 cents to $41.22.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s stock fell over 4 percent to $62.95 after the discount giant delivered its fourth-quarter results showing slowing sales and higher expenses. Wal-Mart’s adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal fourth quarter were $1.49, which beat the FactSet estimate of $1.46, but was considerably lower than last year’s $1.61 per share.
Wal-Mart reported that growth was pressured by challenges in key international markets. Total revenue fell 1.4 percent to $129.7 billion from $131.6 billion a year ago. Wal-Mart said in its earnings release that net sales growth is expected to be flat for the fiscal year 2017.
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Cabela’s Inc. was not immune to the problems with the warm winter, but the company managed to beat estimates for the fiscal fourth quarter. The sporting outfit reported fourth-quarter net income of $86.8 million, a 9.5 percent increase over a year earlier with diluted earnings per share of $1.26. The earnings beat the FactSet estimate of $1.21 and topped year-ago earnings of $1.11 per share. However, comparable sales dropped by 3.5 percent. Cabela’s stock slid by more than 4 percent in early trading to $42.10.
Oil prices initially rallied on rumors of production cuts between Saudi Arabia and Russia, however Iran and Iraq have refused to commit to any such cuts and this has pulled oil back to $31 a barrel.
Initial weekly jobless claims have tumbled to 262,000, which was below the consensus of 274,000. Unfortunately, the continuing claims rose to 2.273 million from 2.243 million.
Asian markets closed the day higher across the board. The European markets rallied with the German DAX climbing 1.5 percent on gains from the automakers. The French CAC rose 0.9 percent and, in the U.K, the FTSE fell 0.4 percent on weakness in the mining group.