Plus, Bed Bath & Beyond said sales rose nearly 50% in the first quarter, Plug Power got a new Buy rating, and Taboola has gone public via a SPAC acquisition.
Stocks were slightly lower at the open on Wednesday with the Dow and S&P 500 trading just below the flatline. The Nasdaq dropped 0.1%.
Private payrolls grew at a faster pace than expected in June, ADP said today, with an estimated 692,000 jobs added this month. Economists had expected a reading of 550,000. The biggest hiring gain this month came from 332,000 jobs gained in the leisure and hospitality sectors. ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said the job gains in June were “robust,” adding that “service providers, the hardest hit sector, continue to do the heavy lifting, with leisure and hospitality posting the strongest gain as businesses begin to reopen to full capacity across the country.”
The lumber bubble appears to have burst. Lumber futures have tanked 42% in June, putting the commodity on pace for its worst month on record dating back to 1978. “This drop suggests that the cause of that inflation—the mismatch of supply and demand—will not last forever,” said Brad McMillan, CIO at Commonwealth Financial Network. “As suppliers across industries get their acts together, those shortages will fade, along with the inflation. That looks to be happening for lumber now and will happen for other inputs later.” As lumber prices drop, home ales rebounded to their highest level since 2005 in May with sales up 13%, according to the National Association of Realtors. “May’s strong increase in transactions—following April’s decline, as well as a sudden erosion in home affordability—was indeed a surprise,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “The housing market is attracting buyers due to the decline in mortgage rates, which fell below 3%, and from an uptick in listings.”
Bed Bath & Beyond shares are up nearly 12% at the time of writing after the retailer reported first quarter sales rose nearly 50% as the company’s turnaround initiatives drew in customers. Still, Bed Bath & Beyond’s earnings in the quarter were hurt by the costs associated with the turnaround, with the retailer posting earnings per share of $0.05—analysts had expected a reading of earnings per share of $0.08—on revenue of $1.95 billion. . “We’re in the early stages of our transformation,” CEO Mark Tritton said on the earnings call. “Our first-quarter results prove we continue to deliver profitable growth as we reestablish our authority in home.”
Plug Power shares are up over 1% today after RBC analyst Joseph Spak initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and $42 price target. “Hydrogen is increasingly viewed as a key pillar of de-carbonization strategies worldwide. With a lot of investment and government support, we believe a multi-decade hydrogen transition can occur,” Spak said in a note. “The market has looked to Plug as a proxy for hydrogen economy growth. But the growth is significant, which helps justify the valuation.”
And digital ad company Taboola is up 3% today on its first day of trading after merging with ION Acquisition Corp. 1, a SPAC. Taboola now trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker TBLA. “There’s no Google for the open web, there’s no Facebook for open web, there’s no big company serving publishers on the open web and giving advertisers access to that open web, and Taboola wants to be that company,” CEO Adam Singolda said in an investor presentation earlier this year. “As I think about our business, I think of Taboola as a search engine but in reverse. Instead of expecting people to type things they know and look for information, like travel information, news, or products, Taboola is providing them with recommendations for content and things they might like but just never knew existed.”
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MySize Inc (NASDAQ: MYSZ): MySize shares are up nearly 9.5% at the time of writing after he company announced a partnership with India’s largest supply chain services provider, Delhivery. MySize’s handheld sizing solutions instantly transform any delivery driver or warehouse employee into an expert logistics planner,” said Ronen Luzon, CEO and Founder of MySize. “By putting this solution directly into a Delhivery employee’s hands, we’re empowering the people responsible for a parcel’s journey with a critical tool for success and that’s intended to provide a significant number of businesses in India with the best possible delivery experience.”