Plus, Amazon was also hit with a record fine for violating the EU’s data protection rules, Chevron and Exxon both reported profits for the second straight quarter, and Robinhood closed down 8% after its market debut.
Stocks were lower at the open on Friday with the Dow dropping 71 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 slid by 0.5%, while the Nasdaq traded 1.1% lower.
Amazon is on track for its worst day since March 2020, and is down 7% at the time of writing. The drop in the stock comes after Amazon missed on revenue expectations for the second quarter, reporting revenue of $113.08 billion versus estimates for a reading of $115.2 billion. Amazon also warned that it expects to see slower growth for the next few quarters versus year-over-year comparisons to its business amid COVID-19 lockdowns. “AMZN reported revenue and [operating income] that were 2% and 1% below consensus and guided 3Q below,” Barclays analyst Ross Sandler said in a note. “This kind of miss is a rare occurrence for a high quality name like AMZN, but forecasting the back side of the pandemic surge is proving challenging for many companies, and despite the deceleration, AMZN continues to add prime members and gain e-commerce share. This print won’t derail the long-term bull case around [Amazon Web Services] and retail, but likely means we are range bound for the next few months until a catalyst emerges.”
In other Amazon news, the e-commerce giant was hit with a record 746 million euro ($888 million) fine for violating the European Union’s tough data protection rules. The fine was issued two weeks ago by Luxembourg’s privacy regulator, and was disclosed by Amazon this morning in a securities filing. The Luxembourg National Commission for Data Protection said Amazon’s processing of personal data didn’t comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. “Maintaining the security of our customers’ information and their trust are top priorities. There has been no data breach, and no customer data has been exposed to any third party,” Amazon said in a statement. “These facts are undisputed. We strongly disagree with the CNPD’s ruling, and we intend to appeal. The decision relating to how we show customers relevant advertising relies on subjective and untested interpretations of European privacy law, and the proposed fine is entirely out of proportion with even that interpretation.”
in other earnings news, Chevron and Exxon both reported profits or the second straight quarter as rising demand for petroleum products and a jump in oil and gas prices boosted results. Chevron said it earnings $1.71 per share on revenue of $37.6 billion, while analysts were expecting earrings per share of $1.59 on revenue of $35.94 billion. “Our free cash flow was the highest in two years due to solid operational and financial performance and lower capital spending,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said in a statement. “We will resume share repurchases in the third quarter at an expected rate of $2-$3 billion per year.” Exxon said it earned $1.10 per share on revenue of $67.74 billion, beating estimates for earnings per share of $0.99 on revenue of $66.81 billion. “Positive momentum continued during the second quarter across all of our businesses as the global economic recovery increased demand for our products,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said. “We’re realizing significant benefits from an improved cost structure, solid operating performance and low-cost-of-supply investments that, together, are generating attractive returns and strong cash flow to fund our capital program, pay the dividend and reduce debt.”
Robinhood closed down more than 8% after its debut on the Nasdaq yesterday, after pricing in the low end of its IPO range, and is trading below the flatline this morning. The muted debut prompted at least three listing candidates to delay debuts intended to raise close to a combined $3 billion. In the first seven months of 2021, U.S. IPO volume has reached a record $231 billion, eclipsing 2020’s total of $180 billion. “There’s a little bit of an investor fatigue right now,” said Nelson Griggs, president of Nasdaq Stock Exchange. “There’s a case to make about a time out right now but probably short term.”
And the CDC warned lawmakers in the House that the COVID-19 delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox, has a longer transmission window than the original COVID-19 strain, and may make older patients sicker, even if they’ve been fully vaccinated. According to a document submitted by the CDC, the delta variant that is sweeping across the nation is more transmissible than the common cold, the 1918 Spanish flu, smallpox, Ebola, and MERS and SARS, two diseases that are also caused by coronaviruses, with only measles appearing to spread faster than the variant. “The war has changed,” the CDC said in the document. The warning came just two days after the CDC reversed course on its prior guidance and recommended fully vaccinated Americans living in high COVID infection rates return to wearing masks indoors.
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Align Technology (NASDAQ: ALGN): Align shares gained as much as 9.76% yesterday after the company announced second quarter earnings results. “Overall, we are very pleased with our second-quarter results and our continued strong performance across regions, customer channels, and products. While there continues to be uncertainty around the pandemic and increasing restrictions related to COVID-19 in certain geographies, we are continuing to invest in our strategic growth initiatives, including sales, marketing, innovation, and manufacturing capacity, to drive demand and conversion globally and are confident in our competitive position and ability to execute,” Align Technology CFO and SVP Global Finance John Morici said in the earnings release. “At the same time, we are also anticipating more pronounced summer seasonality across all regions than we have experienced in recent years, as doctors, their staff, and patients take long overdue vacations. Notwithstanding seasonality, given our strong performance and continued confidence in the huge market opportunity, our industry leadership, and our ability to execute, we are increasing our 2021 revenue guidance provided in April on the Q1’21 earnings call to a range of $3.85 billion to $3.95 billion. Additionally, we now expect our second half year-over-year revenue growth rate to be above the mid-point of our long-term operating model target of 20% to 30%. On a GAAP basis, we now anticipate our 2021 operation margin to be better than our prior guidance, in the range of 24.0% and 25.0%. On a Non-GAAP basis, we expect the 2021 operating margin to be approximately 3 points higher than our GAAP operating margin, after excluding stock-based compensation and intangible amortization.”