After a down Tuesday that snapped the market’s five-day winning streak, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a slight tick higher, climbing 0.21% on Wednesday.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) continued its modest upward trend, reversing a rough beginning to the year for the Chinese e-commerce company. Meanwhile, Square Inc (NYSE:BOX) and Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) were both skyrocketing late Wednesday thanks to some positive news on the reporting front.
Square Inc
Most of Square’s earnings action might have actually come during Wednesday trading, as the company surged more than 4% in the lead-up to the evening’s release of fourth-quarter results.
Still, there might be a bit more positive action left for Thursday traders.
The fintech company posted an $80 million loss in Q4, far wider than the $37 million SQ lost in the year-ago period. Backing out stock dividend issued from its IPO, the adjusted loss came to 20 cents per share, which was double the expected loss of a dime per share.
Still, revenues of $374 million — up 49% YoY — were enough to top estimates for $344.74 million, and that came on gross payment volume that improved 47% year-over-year.
SQ shares were set to open Thursday up a couple percent.
Box Inc
The Redwood City, Calif.-based cloud platform was soaring Wednesday afternoon as it posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results, helping the company as it continues to dig out of its 2016 hole.
Box reported a loss of 26 cents per share, beating Wall Street expectations of a loss of 29 cents per share. Additionally, the company posted revenue of $84.98 million, up 36% year-over-year and comparing favorably to the consensus estimate of $81.77 million.
Among other positive notes: The company registered positive cash flow from operations, and its customer count increased, bringing in the likes of American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG), Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD) and Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL).
Box was tracking a big Thursday open, which looks to be around 10%.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd
The Asian e-commerce giant could be on the move Thursday as it announced a deal for a $3 billion five-year loan late Wednesday.
Per Reuters:
“The firm said in a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had signed the syndicated loan deal with a group of eight lead arrangers. It added that the amount could increase if there was steep demand.”
The retailer hopes the move will help it expand beyond online shoppers, tapping into the realm of online video — a step that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has made over the last few years. Overall, Alibaba hopes to increase subscriptions with the move.
After a rough start to the year — something shared by just about every stock out there — Alibaba has rebounded some 17% from its February lows.
