U.S. Stocks Have Their Best Month Since 1987

May 01, 2020
Business

Here are the other big companies that reported earnings on Thursday:

Twitter said it had an unprofitable quarter for the first time in more than two years, even as more users rushed to the platform. The company lost $8.3 million in the first quarter, breaking a profitability streak that started at the end of 2017. Advertising revenue dropped by 27 percent from March 11 to March 31.

ConocoPhillips said it was cutting production by 35 percent after posting $1.7 billion loss in the first quarter. The company, the largest independent producer of oil and natural gas in the United States, generated $1.6 billion in cash from its operations in the quarter and was in better financial shape than other oil companies.
Comcast saw its biggest jump in broadband subscribers and now has nearly 27 million internet customers. But it also saw one of its biggest declines in video, with more than 388,000 people cutting their TV subscriptions. Advertising, which includes its NBCUniversal division, dropped more than 2 percent, and its theme parks business plummeted 27 percent.
Kraft Heinz, which has struggled in recent years as consumers steered clear of its packaged foods, reported on Thursday that first-quarter sales surged 3.3 percent to $6.2 billion as shoppers stocked up on Kraft Macaroni Cheese, Heinz ketchup and Planters nuts.
The maker of Lysol, Reckitt Benckiser, reported a surge in sales for the first quarter of 2020. Revenue was up 13 percent over the period a year earlier. The company also said it saw strong demand for its Mucinex and Norofen cold and pain relief medicines.
Dunkin’ Brands, one of the world’s largest fast-food restaurant companies, reported that sales plunged 19 percent at Dunkin’ Donuts and 23 percent at Baskin-Robbins in the last three weeks of March.
Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, said on Thursday that it would cut its dividend for the first time since World War II as the company reported a loss of $24 million for the quarter compared with $6 billion in profit in the period a year earlier.

Catch up: Here’s what else is happening.

Macy’s, one of the biggest department store chains in the United States, announced a plan on Thursday to reopen all of its 775 locations, including Bloomingdales and Bluemercury, in the next six to eight weeks, the latest sign of how eager the nation’s largest retailers are to return to business.
Boeing said on Thursday that it had raised $25 billion in a bond offering in an effort to inject liquidity into its business. As a result, the aerospace giant said, it would not seek additional funding through capital markets or aid from the federal government.
United Airlines reported a net loss of $1.7 billion in the first quarter and said it had about $9.6 billion in cash on hand to weather the crisis. The airline expects to burn through cash in the second quarter at an average daily rate of $40 to $45 million, on par with its peers.
Tapestry, the company that owns the brands Coach and Kate Spade, said it would open about 40 of its stores in North America on Friday for “contactless curbside or storefront pickup.”

Reporting was contributed by Sheera Frenkel, Davey Alba, Gregory Schmidt, Michael Corkery, Karen Weise, Jack Nicas, Clifford Krauss, Jack Ewing, Stanley Reed, Kate Conger, Ben Dooley, Nelson D. Schwartz, Alexandra Stevenson, Sapna Maheshwari, David McCabe, Edmund Lee, Mohammed Hadi, Matt Phillips, Ben Casselman, Jason Karaian, Niraj Chokshi, Neal E. Boudette, Steve Lohr and Mike Isaac.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html