News was light today which led to a bit of profit taking. The Dow 30 was down 44, the S&P 500 lost 4, and the Nasdaq 100 lost 24. The main focus was on oil which posted a nice 4% rally. Tomorrow the news will be light again. There is an FOMC member speech but it's not really in focus at this time.
Pier 1 Imports (PIR ) fell hard early today (-15.21%) after the home furnishing retailer said late Wednesday that its CEO Alex Smith will step down at the end of the year and warned of a wider than expected loss for the second quarter. Investors sold on the news taking PIR to a new 6 month low on well above average volume.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE ) has announced that they will be getting even smaller. This news didn't impress investors though. HPE, which was spun off last year by Hewlett Packard, is now spinning off and merging its software business with UK-based Micro Focus in an effort to build shareholder value. The deal is valued at $8.8 billion. The announcement came late Wednesday as the company reported earnings per share that topped analysts' estimates. Revenue missed forecasts with sales falling 6.5% from a year ago. Investors seemed to focus on the earnings miss, pushing shares lower by 3.12%
Twitter (TWTR ) sold off 5.89% today as investors seemed to have little faith that a closely-watched board meeting will result in the company getting sold. The board of directors met today and it's been said that discussing a possible sale and cutting costs would be on the schedule. This created a bit of concern by investors who decided to take some risk off the table.
