What Happened in the Stock Market Today
Much of November was dreadful for investors, but major market benchmarks moved up on Friday and actually ended the month in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was up 1.7% in November and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) added 1.8%.
Today's stock market
Index | Percentage Change | Point Change |
|---|---|---|
Dow | 0.79% | 199.62 |
S&P 500 | 0.82% | 22.40 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Another drop in oil prices lifted transportation stocks but hurt energy shares. The SPDR S&P Transportation ETF (NYSEMKT: XTN) gained 1.7% and the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (NYSEMKT: XES) fell 2.8%.
As for individual stocks, Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) jumped after reporting strong growth and GameStop (NYSE: GME) gave a weak outlook.
Image source: Getty Images.
Workday reports an excellent quarter
Workday reported accelerated revenue growth in its fiscal third quarter, and shares soared 12.9%. Revenue increased 33.8% to $743.2 million and subscription revenue soared 34.7% to $624.4 million, which beat its guidance for 31% to 32% growth, as well as the 30.2% growth it achieved in the second quarter.
The company reported a GAAP loss per share of $0.70 compared with a loss of $0.41 in the period a year ago. On an adjusted basis, EPS was $0.24, above the $0.14 analysts were expecting.
Workday noted that some deals were pulled up from Q4 into Q3, but still gave very upbeat guidance for next quarter, saying on the conference call that it expects subscription revenue growth of between 35% and 36%. Workday's expansion from human resources software to financial applications is fueling the accelerated growth, as is its recent acquisition of Adaptive Insights.
GameStop dashes hopes for strong holiday sales
Shares of GameStop tumbled 6.6% after the company reported third-quarter results that beat analyst expectations, but followed that with lower profit guidance for the year. Net sales increased 4.8%, or 6.3% in constant currency, to $2.08 billion, ahead of the $2.03 billion analysts were expecting. Excluding a one-time impairment charge, earnings per share climbed 24% to $0.67, compared with the $0.57 analyst consensus estimate.
Despite reporting a good third quarter, CEO Rob Lloyd threw cold water on expectations for the all-important holiday season, saying in the press release, "While our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were strong, we anticipate that our fourth quarter sales will skew more toward hardware than initially planned which, along with underperformance of certain titles, weakness in pre-owned and recent sales promotions, will result in fourth quarter earnings that are below our previous expectations."
GameStop, struggling against industry headwinds, forecast full-year EPS of $2.55-$2.75, well below guidance of $3.00-$3.35 given three months ago.
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Jim Crumly has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Workday. The Motley Fool owns shares of GameStop and has the following options: short January 2019 $16 calls on GameStop. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
