The markets were mixed today as the week comes to a close. Trading was light today which left the Dow 30 down 2, the S&P 500 up by 3, and the Nasdaq 100 higher by 28. Next week starts with some market moving news on Monday as the durable goods numbers will be out along with a speech from ECB President Mario Draghi.
Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) was one of the big stocks in the headlines today as shares tanked on earnings news. The retailer really missed Wall Street expectations for earnings across the board. The company announced earnings per share of 53 cents with revenue of $2.74 billion. The street had foretasted a profit of 66 cents and sales of $2.79 billion. In their conference call, Bed Bath & Beyond blamed "softness" for brick and mortar store sales and higher shipping costs among other things as reasons for the miss. Shares plummeted today and are now lower on the year by over 27%.
Blackberry (NASDAQ: BBRY) was also a big loser today thanks to earnings. The company was able to show a quarterly profit, but sales were the metric that fell short. Blackberry announced earnings per share of 2 cents with revenue of $244 million. Analysts were looking for sales to be closer to $265.4 million. Blackberry executive chairman and CEO John Chen twas all over the financial media today with comments "In the first quarter, we made great progress strengthening our strategic position in emerging growth markets, most notably in cyber-security and the Enterprise of Things." Despite today's dramatic move lower, shares are still higher by almost 40% on the year.
Lowes (NYSE: LOW) shares fell all the way down to the 200 day moving average today where they closed. The stock has been under pressure this week with sellers pushing the stock down over 6%. For the year shares are still higher by 7% but retail stocks with diminishing margins continue to be sold.