The Bank of England lowered interest rates and weekly jobless claims rose slightly ahead of Fridays July jobs report, but broader equity indexes were able to eke out small gains. Weekly jobless gains rose by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 269,000. Economists were expecting 265,000 jobless claims.
The S&P 500 finished the day higher by 0.02% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 0.02%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.13%.
Bullish earnings reports made Cott Corporation (NYSE:COT), Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ:JACK) and Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) three of today’s best performers.
Cott Corporation (USA) (COT)
Cott Corporation, the Canadian maker of soft drinks, juices and teas, jumped almost 10% on volume that was over triple the daily average after the company reported a second-quarter profit of 6 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, COTT earned 15 cents per share. COTT delivered revenue of $765 million.
COTT also said it will acquire privately held S&D Coffee for $355 million. S&D Coffee supplies coffee and other beverages to some major fast-food chains.
Moody’s said the deal is credit positive for COTT, but the ratings agency added it is not lifting its rating on the company.
Jack in the Box Inc. (JACK)
Shares of fast-food chain Jack in the Box Inc. surged 10.6% on nearly five times the average daily volume after the California-based company reported fiscal third-quarter earnings of $1.07 per share. That easily beat the 87 cents a share analysts were expecting JACK to earn.
JACK reported sales of $369 million. JACK forecast full year earnings of $3.65 to $3.75 per share.
“We remain impressed by the ongoing portfolio transformation, most recently led by Jack refranchising initiatives, with management pleased by the early progress on G&A cost reduction efforts. JACK is at ~21.5x forward (after hours), vs. a 17-32x 3- year range & 23.5x average,” according to part of a Barclays note posted by Barron’s.
Square Inc (SQ)
Mobile payments processor Square Inc jumped 8.3% on heavy volume after the company reported a second-quarter loss of 8 cents a share, but that was still better than the 11 cents per share analysts were expecting SQ to lose.
SQ reported revenue of $439 million, beating the Wall Street estimate of $406 million. A year earlier, SQ lost 20 cents per share on revenue of $310 million.
For the full year, SQ “sees revenue of $1.63 billion to $1.67 billion, in total, with adjusted revenue of $655 million to $670 million, up from the company’s previous forecast of $615 million to $635 million,” reports Barron’s.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
