2. Wal-Mart earnings suffer on weather, food stamp cuts
The price is wrong for the biggest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart (WMT -1.11%) announced earnings for the period that ended Jan. 31st on Thursday that were right on the mark of analyst expectations. But the CEO's warnings about weak expected growth in 2014 (approximately 3% net sales growth), was hated by investors. Fourth-quarter profit fell 21%, and the culprit of Wal-Mart's tough year was food stamps.
Blame Congress. Grocery sales were down in 2013, which could be driven by Congress' decision to cut food stamps, increase payroll taxes, and other painful policies from earlier in the year that hit low-income Americans especially hard. For four straight quarters in 2013, sales fell in Wal-Mart stores open at least one year.
CEOs love blaming the weather, and Wal-Mart's Doug McMillon was no exception. It's been the most freezing and snowy three months that MarketSancks can remember, and it kept shoppers at home. But Wal-Mart is losing market share to Kroger and Safeway, so the stock fell 1.8% Thursday.
4. Grubhub files IPO papers
The papers are in, and online delivery is going public. Later this year, investors will have the chance to own shares of Grubhub Seamless (which merged in 2013 into one, salty, saucy website).
The Initial Public Offerring (IPO) will also allow the current shareholders of the private company to sell and cash in on their awesome investment. After Whatsapp's $19 billion price tag Wednesday, the only question is how many billion will this tech company be worth?
- Existing Home Sales
- Fourth-Quarter Earnings: Dish Newtork, Billabong