As global investors await the results of the Brexit vote, riskier assets soared, indicating Great Britain will opt to remain part of the European Union. With risk appetite robust on Thursday, old declined while oil rallied.
The rally carried over to stocks where all three of the major U.S. indexes gained more than 1%, led by a gain of almost 1.6% for the Nasdaq Composite. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.34% and 1.29%, respectively.
On a banner day for stocks, Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (USA) (NYSE:POT) were among Thursday’s best performers.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)
Shares of book retailer Barnes & Noble, Inc. jumped 7.9% on heavy volume after the company offered up a bullish outlook for fiscal 2017. BKS reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of 24 cents a share on an adjusted basis. BKS said revenue for the quarter was $876.7 million.
For fiscal 2017, BKS “expects comparable bookstore sales to range from approximately flat to an increase of approximately 1 percent, more than what some analysts were expecting,” reports CNBC.
BKS could also open as many as four new concept stores in New York later this year.
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU)
Flash memory chip maker Micron Technology, Inc. soared 10.5% on some bullish analyst chatter. Susquehanna Group’s Mehdi Hosseini lifted his rating on MU to “positive” from “neutral” while boosting his price target on MU in significant fashion to $18 from $10.
Late Wednesday, Nomura’s Romit Shah upgraded MU to “buy” from “reduce.”
Hosseini notes that there is some production tightening in the NAND market, which could lead to supply shortages, equaling a positive for MU, reports Barron’s.
Market observers see some signs of improving fundamentals in the DRAM and NAND markets, catalysts that could lift MU going forward.
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (POT)
Shares of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, the maker of its namesake crop nutrient, surged 5.8% on above-average volume following reports that the world’s two biggest potash producers are considering working together again.
Russian potash producer Uralkali, the world’s largest potash maker, and Belarus’s Belaruskali, the second-largest producer, previously had an alliance that collapsed in 2013. Potash prices and shares of producers such as POT have been under pressure since then.
Shares of POT are down nearly 45% over the past year.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
