Stocks waver after key data as Micron slides

live7 Updates

• Thursday, June 27, 2024, 9:30 a.m. MST

  The Purdue Pharma ruling will make it harder for owners of bankrupt companies to avoid liability.

  Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan reports:

  New Supreme Court Verdict The ruling, which overturned a $6 billion opioid settlement, makes it harder for company owners to use federal bankruptcy proceedings to protect themselves from legal peril.

  The controversy Harrington v. Purdue The case involved Purdue Pharma, the bankrupt maker of OxyContin, and members of the company’s billionaire owners, the Sackler family.

  The central issue in the case was whether Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings could be used to protect the Sacklers’ personal assets from future opioid-related liabilities.

  In a 5-4 decision, the court said nothing in the U.S. bankruptcy code permitted the type of agreement the Sacklers and the company sought to reach.

  Please see here for the detail.

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 8:40 a.m. MST

  55-year-olds with only a few years left until retirement aren’t saving enough

  Kelly Hannon, senior columnist for Yahoo Finance, reports:

  The median retirement savings for Americans age 55 is less than $50,000.

  This is bad news for Gen Xers, who are just 10 years or so away from retirement and a long way from their goal of saving eight times their annual salary by that age.

  “Many people are falling behind and this has important implications for their long-term retirement.” David Blanchett“It’s not easy,” the head of retirement research at PGIM DC Solutions told Yahoo Finance, “You’re always going to find things you’d rather spend your money on today than save for something that’s going to happen 10, 20, 30 years from now.”

  It’s not just the future that’s bleak: They’re also barely surviving now: More than a third of 55-year-olds say they would have trouble coming up with $400 to cover an emergency expense, compared with 19% of 65-year-olds and 15% of 75-year-olds. Prudential Financial Survey.

  Please see here for the detail.

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 7:08 a.m. MST

  Pending home sales fall in May

  Rising home prices and rising mortgage costs are keeping would-be buyers out of the housing market.

  Pending home sales, a measure of future home sales based on the number of contracts signed, fell 2.1% in May from the previous month, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Year-over-year, they’re down 6.6%, data released Thursday showed.

  The Midwest and South saw fewer contract signings in May compared to the previous month. The Northeast and West saw increases. All regions of the country saw activity decline on an annual basis.

  “The housing market finds itself in an interesting position with rising inventory and declining demand,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Demand and supply dynamics suggest that home price growth will slow in the coming months. More inventory in a job-creating economy inevitably leads to more homebuying, especially as mortgage rates fall.”

  Mortgage rates are at their lowest average level in three months, but that’s still not enough to lure buyers. About 95% of mortgage borrowers are borrowing at rates below current market rates, and about 80% are borrowing at rates more than 2 percentage points below market rates, according to data from Goldman Sachs.

  Looking ahead, Yoon predicts that “mortgage interest rates will decline gradually, home sales will increase and home prices will stabilize.”

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 7:05 a.m. MST

  Walgreens slid 24% after lowering its guidance due to “challenging” trends in the pharmacy industry and consumer weakness.

  Shares of Walgreens plunged 24% to their lowest level since 1997 after the drugstore chain lowered its fiscal 2024 profit outlook, citing “challenging pharmacy industry trends and a weaker-than-expected U.S. consumer environment.”

  “Our customers are becoming increasingly selective and price-sensitive when making purchases,” Tim Wentworth, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, said during the company’s earnings conference call Thursday morning.

  Management noted that 25% of the company’s stores currently do not contribute to its long-term strategy and “change is imminent.”

  Walgreens said it plans to close a “significant portion” of its underperforming stores over the next three years.

  The company now expects adjusted earnings per share of $2.80 to $2.95 for the fiscal year, down from its previous forecast of $3.20 to $3.35.

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 6:48 AM MST

  Netflix and Meta Push Nasdaq Into Green Territory

  Communications stocks helped lift the Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) into positive territory on Thursday, rising 0.3% shortly after the market opened.

  Netflix (NFLX) and Meta (META) both rose more than 1%, helping lift the tech-heavy index, which had been trading just below its flat line.

  The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was little changed.

  Meanwhile, shares of semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA) fell slightly after Micron (MU)’s revenue outlook failed to excite investors with the AI ​​boom that has driven the overall market rally this year.

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 6:35 a.m. MST

  Stocks shaky at open as investors focus on economic data, Micron curbs tech gains

  Stocks opened slightly lower on Thursday as investors assessed economic data released before the open of trading.

  The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was little changed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) was just below flat.

  Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the first quarter of 2024. Third Estimate The Department of Economic Development released the figure Thursday morning, and while it was up slightly from the previous 1.3% figure, it still represented the slowest growth rate since 2022.

  The number of unemployment insurance claims was 233,000, down 6,000 from the previous week. according to Data from the Ministry of Labor.

  On the corporate side, semiconductor maker Micron (MU) reported a revenue outlook for the current quarter that was in line with expectations, but that didn’t satisfy investors hoping for better results from AI companies. The company’s shares fell about 4% at the start of trading. AI chip maker Nvidia (NVDA) also fell about 1% at the start of trading.

• 

  Thursday, June 27, 2024, 2:24 AM MST

  Why are Levi’s quarters so popular?

  Levi’s (LEVI) shares fell 15% in morning trading following the earnings announcement.

  And I think that’s natural for two reasons.

  First, sales in China were down 10% year over year. I’ve talked to a number of people who’ve been to China recently, and one theme is that Chinese consumers are becoming pessimistic and not spending as much as they have in years past. That mood is impacting demand for Levi’s jeans, Starbucks (SBUX) coffee, and, according to General Mills (GIS) earnings report yesterday, Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

  It is difficult to see a turning point in China.

  The same is true for Levi’s wholesale business, which sells to department stores: Sales fell 4% from a year ago, and the company said wholesale demand may not pick up until 2025.

  I’ll be airing some of my concerns with Levi’s CFO Harmit Singh on Yahoo Finance today at 10:30am ET, so tune in!