On Tuesday evening, there was panic among online traders. The internet was littered with concern as futures markets took a dive. That was not the case come Wednesday morning, where stocks pushed higher. In fact, investors saw record highs in the stock market today.
So what happened? Iran’s attack didn’t result in any casualties. I’m not a political or war-time expert, but it felt like Iran’s action was a way of retaliating, but not in a way that inflicted much damage and would escalate matters.
While that was not the takeaway on Tuesday night, that seemed to be the market’s reaction on Wednesday morning. When President Donald Trump said the U.S. would only respond with economic sanctions, Wall Street cheered again, as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSEARCA:DIA) and the PowerShares QQQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) all surged to new all-time highs.
Movers in the Stock Market Today
Bad news for Boeing (NYSE:BA), again. Another Boeing 737 plane crashed in Iran minutes into the flight, killing all 176 people on board due to an engine failure. While this plane wasn’t the well-known 737 MAX, it was a 737-800 which was among Boeing’s third generation of 737 planes while the MAX was part of its fourth generation.
Perhaps surprisingly, shares fell just 1.8%.
Shares are surging for Grubhub (NYSE:GRUB), up 13%, with news of a potential sale. After word got out that the company hired advisors to explore options for the company, buyers gobbled up the stock. One of Grubhub’s biggest competitors, Uber (NYSE:UBER) Eats, also saw a spike in shares with anticipation of consolidation in the food delivery space.
Quibi will be joining the streaming world on April 6, 2020, as announced at CES. Customers will be able to choose the $4.99 per month option with ads or the $8.99 version without ads. It will have over 175 original shows as well as 8,500 short episodes. Quibi will try to set itself apart from its various competitors by offering ten minute or less videos including everything from news to entertainment.
According to the company, Quibi isn’t going up against traditional streaming giants like Disney (NYSE:DIS) and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). Instead of competing on the TV, it’s going for mobile devices. But it will still find tough competition there too, with Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and others. Quibi has raised $1 billion and is headed by CEO Meg Whitman, formerly with eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and HP (NYSE:HPQ).
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) is leading the charge with its first augmented reality app. It will bring iPhone users a 360-degree experience of their card benefits in the second quarter of 2020. While not likely market-moving stuff, it’s an interesting concept and could give it a leg up over competitors like Visa (NYSE:V) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) for new customers.
V and MA hit new highs on the day.
Retail Roundup
Macy’s (NYSE:M) climbed 2.4% after the company announced that comparable-store sales from its November and December period fell 0.7% at its company-owned stores and 0.6% overall. That’s better than analysts had expected, with fourth-quarter forecasts calling for a loss of 1.8%. Macy’s also announced it will close 28 stores (and one Bloomingdale’s location).
Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) fell 5.8% on the day after the company reported disappointing quarterly results. Earnings of $1.37 per share missed expectations by 4 cents, while revenue of $34.3 billion grew 1.5%, but missed estimates by $110 million.
Shares broke below uptrend support as a result, and made the Top Stock Trades list for Thursday.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long DIS and V.