A soft earnings report pressured shares of the nation's largest independent used car retailer, while a semiconductor giant extended its rally following reports of investment talks with another tech powerhouse.
Major U.S. equities indexes lost ground Thursday, declining for a third straight day ahead of a key inflation report set for release Friday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down 0.5%, while the Dow ended 0.4% lower. See here for Investopedia's full roundup of the day's market action.
CarMax (KMX) shares plunged 20%, falling the furthest of any stock in the S&P 500, after the used car retailer reported lower-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal second quarter. CEO Bill Nash pointed to challenges including a pull-forward of demand into the previous quarter along with depreciation in the inventory CarMax built up to support sales.
Intel (INTC) shares added to their recent string of gains, popping 8.9% to secure the S&P 500's top daily performance. The move followed reports that the semiconductor maker has been seeking an investment from Apple (AAPL). The iPhone maker was once a major Intel customer but has more recently moved toward the use of its own chips. Shares of Apple were off 1.8% today.
Although Jabil (JBL) topped revenue and earnings per share forecasts in its latest quarterly report, shares of the electronic parts supplier slipped 6.7%. CEO Mike Dastoor said artificial intelligence helped drive demand in Jabil's capital equipment, data center, and networking markets, but the integrated circuit maker acknowledged pressure facing its automotive and renewable energy segments.
Rothschild Redburn initiated coverage of Oracle (ORCL) stock with a “sell” rating. The research firm believes markets could be pricing in an overly optimistic outlook on Oracle's contracted cloud revenue, optimism about which has driven enthusiasm for the stock since its latest quarterly report arrived. Shares of the enterprise software giant dropped 5.6%.
Global banking giant HSBC (HSBC) said that it had conducted a successful bond trading trial using quantum computers from International Business Machines (IBM) to optimize market predictions. According to the financial firm, incorporating IBM's quantum computing resources resulted in a 34% improvement in predicting the likelihood that a trade would be executed at a particular price compared with using only classical computing techniques. IBM shares powered 5.2% higher, while HSBC's American depository receipts slipped.
After nearly doubling Wednesday after reports that the Trump administration was considering a government stake in the company, shares of Canada-based miner Lithium Americas (LAC) added another 23% Thursday. The company holds a majority stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, which is on track to become one of the largest sources in North America for the battery component. Shares of Albemarle (ALB), the world's largest lithium miner, gained 4%.
