U.S. stocks were broadly lower today as more negative data indicated a possible economic slow down, energy was once again lagged the general market, and investors kept a wary eye on the FOMC meeting.
A number of companies, such as E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), Cummins Inc (NYSE:CMI) and Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) reported EPS which beat the street estimates, but missed on revenue numbers. That trend had traders concerned, as well.
Crude oil was off nearly 2%, with prices touching $43 per barrel today on supply concerns. Despite oil’s weakness, the Dow Transports were also quite weak.
In economic news, the Commerce Department reported that Durable goods orders were down 1.2% in September, coming on the heels of a negative read in August as well. Sectors were lower across the board, except for healthcare, which was firmly in the green.
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were off more than 0.2%, while the slightly stronger Nasdaq was almost flat.
However, another big Wall Street merger lifted Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) today, while Coach Inc (NYSE:COH) and Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) were surging for other reasons. Here’s what made them three of today’s best stocks.
Rite Aid Corporation (RAD)
RAD jumped 42% today after The Wall Street Journal reported that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) is ready to acquire RAD for close to $10 billion.
Such a deal would merge the No. 2 and No. 3 pharmacy chains and enable them to lower costs and increase leverage with suppliers, as health care companies struggle to deal with more regulation from the Affordable Care Act.
The WBA-RAD deal would first have to be approved by antitrust regulators. WBA stock was up 6% on the news.
Coach Inc (COH)
COH shareholders were lining their handbags with money today after the luxury accessories manufacturer reported first-quarter 2016 earnings of 41 cents per share, better than the 39 cents that Wall Street was expecting, despite being down 12 cents year-over-year.
Revenue also declined 0.8% to $1.03 billion, but that drop was the smallest for COH in two years. Wall Street had estimated revenue of $1.04 billion, but forgave COH for the small miss.
COH has been underperforming the general market over the past four months, but today’s action — in which COH rose by more than 4% — looks like the start of something more promising.
Corning Incorporated (GLW)
GLW stock also had a strong day following its third-quarter earnings report. The glass maker posted adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share, which met the street’s expectations. Revenue of $2.45 billion fell short of the analysts’ view for $2.54 billion, but GLW rose more than 5% by day’s end.
Normally, meeting expectations but missing on revenue would sink a stock. But GLW stock got a boost today from the company’s announcement that it will spend $20 billion over the next four years, with half of that spent toward a buyback of GLW stock and its dividend .
The other half of the $20 billion will go toward research and development and acquisitions. The buybacks will begin with $1.25 billion this quarter. Dividends will rise by at least 10% per year until 2019.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
