Wall Street made up for February’s flat Leap Day finish with a spring on March 1. Tuesday’s trading saw stocks fly higher mostly on a jump in crude oil, resulting in the best day for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average in more than a month.
Heading into Wednesday, a few late-day developments have put Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) and Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST)
Here’s what you should know heading into today’s trading:
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)
Tesla shares suffered a late-day selloff after news that short-focused research firm Citron Research announced that it was going short on TSLA.
Per its tweet:
“Citron shorting $TSLA Supply AND demand problems should take down to $100 by years end. News flow all around does not look good for stock”
The news sent Tesla stock, which was trading mostly flat on the day, sharply down in afternoon trading, with shares finishing off nearly 3%. That continued a rough ‘n’ tumble year for TSLA, which has declined more than 20% through just two months of 2016.
Zynga Inc (ZNGA)
Zynga investors were cheering after the bell Tuesday on the announcement that founder Mark Pincus was leaving the CEO office for the second time.
Pincus originally was pressured to step down in July 2013, handing the reins to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox executive Don Mattrick to try to turn around the struggling social gamemaker. At that point, ZNGA had shed 80% from its 2012 highs.
Since then? Zynga did begin to turn in the right direction, thanks in part to shrinking losses and cost-cutting efforts, and shares doubled through their high point in March 2014. But Pincus returned in April 2015 amid renewed struggles, citing the need to broaden the customer base.
However, Pincus has failed to turn Zynga around in any meaningful fashion, and shares have languished, off roughly 25% since Pincus’ re-hiring. No surprise, then, that ZNGA shares were up 8% after the bell once Wall Street learned that the reins would be handed over once more – this time to Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) veteran Frank Gibeau.
Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST)
Ross Stores investors seemed unsure of how to react to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, announced after Tuesday’s closing bell.
ROST earned 66 cents per share on revenues of $3.25 billion, beating Wall Street expectations for 64 cents on $3.21 billion in sales. The profit figure was up 10% year-over-year, and also better than Ross Stores’ own guidance for 60 to 63 cents – numbers the company thought would be “weighed down by sales promotions,” per a MarketWatch report.
However, forward guidance was a bit mixed. While full-year earnings guidance of $2.59 to $2.71 per share beat consensus expectations of $2.49, its Q1 forecast for 69 to 72 cents was well below the 76-cent mark set by Wall Street.
ROST shares were trading flat after the bell.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
