Stocks experienced a decline on Wednesday, relinquishing their earlier gains due to rising bond yields and higher oil prices. Despite this, Costco Wholesale managed to surpass analysts’ expectations with its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and sales, causing its stock to rise by 1.3%. However, the company did not provide any updates regarding a potential increase in membership fees, a move that many on Wall Street believe is overdue. On the other hand, furniture company MillerKnoll raised its fiscal 2024 outlook, expecting better adjusted earnings per share of $1.85 to $2.15, compared to its previous guidance of $1.70 to $2.00, leading to a significant 29% jump in its stock.
Additionally, Cloudflare saw a 5.8% increase in its stock value after announcing a partnership with Meta Platforms to make its open source large language model, Llama 2, available to developers building AI applications on Cloudflare’s developer platform, Workers. The electric-vehicle charging equipment companies, Blink Charging and ChargePoint, also experienced positive growth after receiving Buy ratings from UBS. Guardant Health, an oncology company, saw a 5.5% rise in its shares following an upgrade to Overweight from Neutral by Piper Sandler. Paychex, the payroll services company, experienced a 4% increase in its stock price after raising its adjusted earnings guidance for the fiscal year.
In contrast, Progress Software faced a decline of 3.2% as the programming tools maker lowered its fiscal-year adjusted free cash flow guidance. The toymakers, Hasbro and Mattel, were both affected differently, with Hasbro falling 0.1% and Mattel rising 3.2%, after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the companies, assigning them an Overweight rating. Paramount saw a 2% increase in its stock value after Hollywood writers reached a deal to end their strike. On the other hand, Netflix and Walt Disney experienced slight drops in their share prices, while Amazon.com fell by 1.1% following a 4% slump on Wednesday when the Federal Trade Commission announced a lawsuit against the online retailer and cloud company, alleging anti-competitive behavior.
