The stock market pulled back on Thursday amid reports that the U.S. Senate's tax plan may involve delaying corporate tax rate reductions until 2019 -- a move that could undermine President Trump's stance that cutting corporate taxes would spur growth for American businesses.
Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.69%) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.20%) fell as much as 1.1% by early afternoon, before paring their losses at the close.
Today's stock market
| Index | Percentage Change | Point Change |
|---|---|---|
| Dow | (0.43%) | (101.42) |
| S&P 500 | (0.38%) | (9.76) |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Tech had some of today's biggest losers, with the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK 1.48%) dropping 0.8%. But retail stocks helped prop up the broader market, and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT 2.20%) gained 1.6%.
As for individual stocks, earnings news from Roku (ROKU 5.41%) and Vista Outdoor (VSTO 1.16%) sent shares of the two companies in different directions.
Image source: Getty Images.
Roku's stunning inaugural report
Shares of Roku skyrocketed 54.9% after the media streaming device specialist announced quarterly results for the first time since going public in late September.
Roku's results were impressive. Revenue climbed 40% year over year to $124.8 million -- crushing consensus estimates for $110.5 million -- including 3.8% growth in player sales to $67.3 million, and a 137% leap in platform revenue to $57.5 million. The latter was driven by "rapid adoption" of Roku's advertising, audience development, and content distribution services.
On the bottom line, Roku incurred a pro forma (non-GAAP) net loss of $8.6 million, or $0.10 per share, narrowed from a $0.17-per-share loss in the same year-ago period. Here again, that handily beat expectations for a loss of $1.40 per share.
Roku also told investors to expect fourth-quarter sales in the range of $175 million to $190 million, which should result in a net loss ranging from $14 million to $8 million, or roughly $0.16 to $0.09 on a per-share basis. Wall Street was looking for a Q4 loss of $0.13 per share on revenue near the low end of Roku's expected range.
Vista Outdoor misses the mark
Vista Outdoor stock plummeted 28.1% after the outdoor sports and recreation specialist followed mixed fiscal second-quarter 2018 results with disappointing forward guidance.
Vista Outdoor's revenue fell 14.2% year over year to $587.3 million, while adjusted earnings declined more than 50% to $19.5 million, or $0.34 per share. Analysts, on average, were looking for adjusted earnings of $0.27 per share on slightly higher revenue of $590 million.
More concerning, however, was a $152 million asset impairment charge incurred during the quarter within the company's outdoor products segment, which CEO Stephen Nolan said resulted from "increased downward pressure on sales and margins as a result of challenging market conditions that have persisted longer than previously expected."
In addition, Vista announced it's currently in the process of divesting several brands, including Bolle, Serengeti and Cebe, which were acquired through its purchase of Bushnell in 2013 and aren't considered part of its core business.
Vista also expects the competitive environment and market contraction to be even more pronounced in the second half of the year. So, excluding the impact of divestments, Vista Outdoor reduced its full fiscal-year outlook for revenue to be in the range of $2.24 billion to $2.26 billion (compared to $2.36 billion to $2.42 billion previously), and adjusted earnings per share of $0.50 to $0.60 (down from $1.10 to $1.30).
