- All three major indexes ended lower on Wednesday.
- Salesforce shares plummet after earnings announcement.
- ConocoPhillips has agreed to acquire Marathon Oil.
Here’s the most important news investors should know before the trading day begins.
Rising Treasury yields weighed on stocks on Wednesday, outweighing the impact of NVIDIA’s gains. Artificial intelligence stocks recovered from early losses to close up 0.8%, but the three major indexes were unable to follow suit. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the biggest loser, dropping 411.32 points (1.06%) to 38,441.54. The S&P 500 fell for the first time in three trading days, dropping 0.74% to 5,266.95. The Nasdaq Composite Index was somewhat buoyed by a small gain from NVIDIA, dropping 0.58% to 16,920.58. Follow real-time market updates.
The Salesforce company logo is displayed at the main entrance of Salesforce Tower in New York City on January 22, 2024.
Gary Hirschhorn | Getty Images
Dark clouds are hanging over Salesforce after it reported its first-quarter results. The company’s shares plunged more than 15% in premarket trading on Thursday after the cloud software company reported weaker-than-expected revenue. Revenue for the period ended April 30 rose 11% to $9.13 billion from $8.25 billion a year earlier, but it still missed expectations for the first time since 2006. Salesforce also raised its profit outlook for fiscal 2025, but its revenue outlook remains in the range of $37.7 billion to $38 billion, below the $38.08 billion expected by analysts surveyed by LSEG. The company’s Chief Financial Officer Amy Weaver said it expects a tightening of deals and a slowdown in projects in its professional services business throughout the fiscal year.
The Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant was built on November 28, 2022 in Wilmington, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The oil and gas industry is undergoing a wave of consolidation, and ConocoPhillips is following suit. The company agreed on Wednesday to acquire Marathon Oil in a stock-for-stock deal valued at $17 billion. The acquisition will add 2 billion barrels of resources to ConocoPhillips’ inventory, expanding its reach into shale fields in Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. According to analysts at Truist Securities, the deal will make the company one of the largest asset holders in North Dakota’s Bakken shale and Texas’ Eagle Ford fields. It will also give the company a market capitalization of more than $150 billion, further extending its lead as the largest independent producer.
Abercrombie & Fitch.
Provided by: Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch made history. The company reported its best-ever first-quarter results on Wednesday, again beating expectations. The company’s sales rose 22 percent to $1.02 billion, up from $836 million last year. Profits increased nearly sevenfold and also beat expectations. Net income for the quarter ended May 4 was $113.9 million, or $2.14 a share, up from $16.6 million, or 32 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The results sent the company’s shares up 24 percent on Wednesday.
“The reality is that the future of investing is changing,” Nelson Peltz, founder and CEO of Trian Fund Management, said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute’s Priorities Summit in Miami, Florida, USA, on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
Marco Bello | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nelson Peltz has left Disney. The activist investor sold all of his Disney stock at about $120 a share, netting him about $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Last month, Peltz’s Trian Partners lost a proxy fight to re-elect Disney’s entire board of directors. Peltz had sought to have himself and former Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo elected to the board.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring, Pia Singh, Jordan Novett and Spencer Kimball Gabriel Fonrouge, Sara Salinas, Scott Wapner contributed to this report.
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