Plus, Dick’s Sporting Goods reported sales growth of 21% for the second quarter, American Airlines warned that rising COVID infections are denting August revenue, and Microsoft said its cloud gaming services is coming to new Xbox devices this holiday season.
Stocks were slightly higher at the open on Wednesday with the Dow adding 22 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 gained nearly 0.1%, while the Nasdaq rose by 0.1%.
Johnson & Johnson said today that a booster shot of its COVID-19 vaccine generated a promising immune response in early stage clinical trials. The company said in a press release that the booster shot produced a “rapid and robust increase in spike-binding antibodies, nine-fold higher than 28 days after the primary single-dose” shot. “We have established that a single shot of our COVID-19 vaccine generates strong and robust immune responses that are durable and persistent through eight months. With these new data, we also see that a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine further increases antibody responses among study participants who had previously received our vaccine,” said Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head, Janssen Research & Development, Johnson & Johnson. “We look forward to discussing with public health officials a potential strategy for our Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, boosting eight months or longer after the primary single-dose vaccination.”
Dick’s Sporting Goods shares are up more than 14% this morning after the retailer reported sales growth of 21% for the second quarter. Dick’s Sporting Goods posted earnings per share of $5.08 on revenue of $3.27 billion, beating estimates for earnings per share of $2.80 on revenue of $2.85 billion. “Our record-breaking quarterly sales and earnings significantly exceeded our expectations, reflecting continued strong consumer demand across our diverse category portfolio along with the strength of our omni-channel offering and elevated athlete experience. I’d like to thank all our teammates for how they delivered against our core strategies and for their commitment to DICK’S Sporting Goods, which helped make this performance possible,” Lauren Hobart, President and CEO, said in the earnings release. “Based on the strength of our business and our expectations for continued strong consumer demand, we are pleased to increase our full year sales and earnings outlook for the second time this year.”
Nordstrom shares, on the other hand, are down nearly 18% at the time of writing following the department store retailer reported second quarter sales that remained below pre-pandemic levels. While sales more than doubled in the quarter compared with 2020, on a two-year basis, revenue was down 6%. Nordstrom did, however, deliver an earnings beat, posting earnings per share of $0.49 on revenue of $3.66 billion, versus expectations for earnings of $0.27 per share on revenue of $3.36 billion. “Our second quarter results demonstrate the strength of our two brands, the power of our ‘closer to you’ strategy and the success of our iconic Anniversary Sale,” CEO Erik Nordstrom said in a statement. “We capitalized on improving customer demand with focused execution, healthy inventory sell-through and continued expense management to deliver strong quarterly results. We remain focused on executing our strategy to win in our most important markets, broaden the reach of Nordstrom Rack and increase our digital velocity, and are well-positioned for continued progress toward our long-term strategic and financial goals as we look ahead to the second half of the year.”
American Airlines warned that August revenue is coming in lower than expected as rising COVID cases hurts bookings, becoming the latest carrier to issue such a warning as infections rise. “This has been and we expect will continue to be a very choppy recovery,” American’s chief revenue officer, Vasu Raja, said at an investor conference, adding that while July revenue came in above expectations, rising COVID infections is leading to weaker near-term bookings as well as higher cancellations. “Given the fluidity of the current demand environment we are not ready to make definitive adjustments to our capacity plans or guides at this point in time.”
And Microsoft announced it is bringing its cloud gaming service to Xbox consoles this coming holiday season. During its Gamescom 2021 Xbox streaming event, the company said its Xbox Cloud Gaming will be available on new Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles, as well as older Xbox One devices, enabling Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to play 100+ games from the cloud on their devices. Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently only available on mobile devices and PCs. Microsoft also said it has plans to launch cloud gaming on TVs through partnerships with manufacturers and its own dedicated streaming devices.
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CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: CRWD): CrowdStrike shares rose as much as 9.7% on Tuesday after the company announced it has been named a leader in IDC: MarketScape for U.S. Managed Detection & Response Services (MDR). “As modern-day cybersecurity threats become more evolved and nuanced, security teams need to go above and beyond their legacy antivirus solutions to have a fighting chance at defending their business against potential breaches,” Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike Services and chief security officer at CrowdStrike, said in a statement. “We created Falcon Complete to combine the best-in-class people, processes and technology in the industry, providing an unparalleled holistic approach to MDR. This recognition is a testament to the success of our Falcon Complete offering and CrowdStrike’s unwavering ability and dedication to protect its customers around the clock.”