Business

Shoppers at a Walmart store on Black Friday in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Nov. 24, 2023.Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMattel and Hasbro decreased their end-of-year guidance ahead of the key holiday season as toy sales continue to slide during the third quarter.Earnings per share for both toy giants beat out Wall Street expectations while revenue missed, according to consensus estimates compiled by LSEG.But mixed results for both companies' third quarters were reflected in the updated year-end guidance for 2024.Mattel said it expects sales for the last three months of the year to be "comparable to slightly down" from its prior guidance update. Hasbro, meanwhile, lowered its expected revenue guidance. It now expects revenue to decline between 12% and 14% for consumer products, down ...

Scout Terra pickup truck and Scout Traveler SUV conceptsScoutNASHVILLE, Tenn. — Volkswagen-backed Scout Motors revealed its first electric vehicles Thursday and announced plans for the brand to expand its lineup to include an emerging type of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in addition to EV models.Scout, a former American vehicle brand from 1961 to 1980, was expected to exclusively offer EVs in a bid for the German automaker to expand its presence in the U.S. However, slower-than-expected adoption of EVs and higher costs have led it to change course and include extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs."Being a startup that moves quickly, we can pivot," Scout CEO Scott Keogh, a longtime auto executive who previously led VW's operations in the U.S., told CNBC. "The pivot that we made a nu...

With the Federal Reserve rate-cutting cycle now underway, income investors may want to take a closer look at their portfolios. The central bank slashed the federal funds rate by a half-percentage point in September and fed funds futures prices suggest a 93% probability that rates will drop another 25 basis points in November, according to the CME FedWatch Tool . One basis point equals 0.01%. Futures point to a 74% likelihood of another quarter point cut in November. In this environment, Vanguard likes higher-quality, fixed-income assets. The money manager expects the economy to slow to below-trend growth but avoid recession, and anticipates the yield curve will revert to its typical upward-sloping angle. "Historically, when economic growth has slowed but stayed positive, higher-quality fix...

Coach and Michael Kors.Michael M. Santiago | Eduardo Parra | Europa Press | Getty ImagesA federal judge blocked Tapestry's acquisition of Capri on Thursday following a brief trial last month in New York.In her order, Judge Jennifer Rochon granted the Federal Trade Commission's motion for a preliminary injunction to block the proposed merger, which would marry America's two largest luxury houses and put six fashion brands under one company: Tapestry's Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman with Capri's Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors. Tapestry's stock surged 10% after the order was filed while Capri's plunged about 50%.In a statement, Tapestry said it plans to appeal the order, "consistent with our obligations under the merger agreement.""Today's decision granting the FTC's request for ...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks at an event on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus on May 20, 2024. Nadella is betting a new generation of computers with specialized artificial intelligence chips and faster performance will revive the long-running rivalry between Windows PCs and Apple Inc.'s Mac.Chona Kasinger | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMicrosoft gave CEO Satya Nadella a pay raise for the 2024 fiscal year of more than $30 million. But his total package would have been $5.5 million higher if not for a series of cyberattacks.Nadella received $79.1 million for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, up from $48.5 million in the prior year, according to a proxy filing on Thursday. Most of his pay is in the form of stock. The board's compensation committee said Nadella asked that the cas...

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading. Dexcom — Shares slid nearly 7%, despite the manufacturer of diabetes management devices posting a third-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue beat. Dexcom also reaffirmed full-year revenue guidance that encompassed FactSet's estimate. L3Harris Technologies — The defense stock climbed 4% after posting a third-quarter beat on both the top and bottom lines. L3Harris reported adjusted earnings of $3.34 per share on revenue of $5.29 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG had expected $3.26 per share on $5.28 billion in revenue. Capri , Tapestry — Capri shares cratered 48%, while Tapestry shares surged 12% after a judge blocked the $8.5 billion merger of two luxury goods makers. Tapestry, which owns the Coach and Kate Spade brands, ha...

Bond market investors are having trouble figuring out an economy that looks good from 30,000 feet, but less so closer to the ground. Treasury yields have been surging over the past month or so, even with Thursday's decline , helping pull down stocks this week. While a variety of reasons have been cited, one of the most popular is the simple notion that the Federal Reserve is closer to achieving its much-touted soft landing in which it can use high interest rates to bring down inflation without wrecking the broader economy. Higher growth expectations generally translate into higher bond yields. Virtually all of the macroeconomic data lately has supported that thesis. Whether it's payrolls, gross domestic product or retail sales, or a host of other measures, growth looks solid, at the very l...

Boeing 737 fuselages on railcars at Spirit AeroSystems' factory in Wichita, Kansas, US, on Monday, July 1, 2024. Nick Oxford | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesSpirit AeroSystems is weighing furloughs or layoffs of hundreds more employees if the Boeing machinists' strike stretches beyond Nov. 25, a company spokesman told CNBC Thursday.Boeing's machinists, whose strike is about to enter its sixth week, voted 64% against a newly proposed labor contract on Wednesday, extending the work stoppage that has halted production of most of Boeing's aircraft, which is centered in the Seattle area.Spirit, which makes fuselages for Boeing's best-selling 737 Max as well as other major parts had already been preparing to temporarily furlough about 700 workers in its Wichita, Kansas, facilities. Those furloughs cou...

As October nears its end, Oppenheimer is eyeing some stocks that it thinks are slated for gains over the next year. October has historically been a volatile month for stocks, and this year's period has been no different. Both the S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted their third losing session in a row on Wednesday. That said, the broad market index as well as the Nasdaq Composite are still on track to close out the month in the green. These moves come amid a strong earnings season so far. To date, 32% of the S & P companies have reported, and their earnings and revenue have beaten analysts' expectations by 6% and 1.3%, respectively, per LSEG. Their performance is also much better than last year's period, with earnings up 4.3% and revenue up 4.2%. Looking ahead to N...

While investors have been infatuated with the latest AI-fueled growth story, I'm actually finding more and more opportunities in defensive areas of the market. These are stocks that have generally underperformed for much of 2024, but recent price and momentum improvements are creating powerful setups with upside potential. Shares of Kroger Co. (KR) are threatening a new 52-week high this week, and a breakout above current levels would confirm one of the most bullish price patterns in the technical toolkit: the cup-with-handle pattern. We can see the cup-with-handle pattern developing on the daily chart, consisting of a six-month rounded bottoming pattern followed by a brief pullback in the month of October. The key to a cup with handle pattern is the "rim" of the cup, which is essentially ...