Federal Reserve meeting minutes were released yesterday, but the specter of an interest rate hike following the central bank’s June meeting is widely attributed as the reason U.S. stocks slumped Thursday.
The dollar rose against the euro, sending oil and gold lower on the day while the S&P 500 lost 0.37%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.52% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.56%.
On another disappointing day for equities, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) were anything but disappointing.
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
Apparel retailer American Eagle jumped 18.3% on volume that was more than triple the daily average after the company said it earned 22 cents a share in the first quarter, up from 15 cents a year earlier. Analysts expected AEO to post first-quarter earnings of 18 cents a share.
AEO’s first-quarter revenue of $749.4 million topped analysts’ estimate of $731 million. AEO’s same-store sales rose 6% during the first quarter.
For the second quarter, AEO expects to earn 20 to 21 cents a share, up from 17 cents a year earlier.
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)
Cisco Systems, the largest maker of networking gear, saw its shares climb 3.2% on nearly double the average turnover after the California-based company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings per share of 57 cents. Analysts expected CSCO to earn 55 cents.
CSCO said sales fell 1%, but sales in Asia, a key region for CSCO, surged 10% to $1.94 billion. Ex-U.S. markets account for a third of CSCO’s revenue. CSCO is a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT)
Shares of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, surged nearly 9.6% on more than triple the usual volume after the company said it earned 98 cents a share in its most recently completed quarter. That easily beat the 88 cents a share analysts expected WMT to earn. WMT said U.S. same-store sales increased 1%.
WMT’s first-quarter revenue increased 0.9% to $115.9 billion. For the current quarter, Arkansas-based WMT forecast a same-store sales increase of 1% on EPS of 95 cents to $1.08. Analysts expect WMT to earn 98 cents a share.
WMT is also a Dow component.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
