The stock market could make yet another run into record territory today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.40%) has gained eight points in pre-market trading, but it is sitting just 34 points away from a new high. Global markets set a positive tone in overnight sessions, with Europe's Stoxx index leading the bunch by gaining 1.1% as of 8:30 a.m EDT.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry (BB -1.61%) and Rite Aid (RAD 10.00%) stocks are on the move today after delivering their quarterly numbers.
BlackBerry this morning posted a 69% drop in revenue for its fiscal first quarter, along with a surprising rebound in profitability. The mobile giant' hit $966 million in sales, which was right in line with Wall Street's targets. However, BlackBerry beat profit expectations by booking $0.04 in per-share earnings after delivering 2.6 million smartphones to customers. The company also boosted profitability by a full 5 percentage points, to 48% of sales, after slashing expenses. CEO John Chen said in a statement that the quarterly performance "demonstrates that we are firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio." Chief among those financial objectives is a return to positive cash flow, which looks likely this year. The stock was up nearly 13% in pre-market trading.
Rite Aid today blamed rising costs for a huge quarterly profit drop in which net income fell by over 50% to $0.04 a share from last year's $0.09 haul. CEO John Standley said in a statement that the results were hurt by "higher-than-expected drug costs and reimbursement rate pressure." Still, the company posted a solid 3.1% increase in same-store sales as its pharmacy business grew by almost 5%. That improvement helped total revenue climb to $6.5 billion, or 3% above the prior-year period. Rite Aid also confirmed its full-year guidance for revenue of $26 billion and earnings of roughly $0.35 a share. The stock was up 0.8% in pre-market trading.
