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Dow Jones: 17,128.45 (-0.8%)
NASDAQ: 4923.08 (-0.2%)
S&P 500: 2005.52 (-0.3%)
Gold: 1065.40 (-1.2%)
Copper: 210.80 (-0.5%)
Coffee: 118.45 (+0.3%)
FedEx (NASDAQ: FDX) reported a revenue increase of 4.3% while net income increased 4.2% YoY. Diluted earnings per share for Q2 2016 rose 5.6% to $2.44 from $2.31 the same quarter last year. Revenue from the FedEx Ground business segment grew 32% while income from the FedEx Express division declined 6%.
Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) saw its revenue decline 6.3% and net income decreased 12.2% YoY in Q2 of 2016. Diluted EPS fell 8.9% to $0.51 compared from $0.56 YoY. Cloud software and infrastructure revenue grew 26% but was negated by a 2% decline in software updates revenue and a 16% decrease in hardware revenue.
FactSet Research (NYSE: FDS) reported an 11.5% rise in revenue for Q1 2016 driven by a 14% increase in users YoY. Net income rose 7.3% and diluted EPS increased 8.3% to $1.43 from $1.32 YoY. For Q1 2016, the number of buy side clients grew 4.5% while sell side clients increased 49.3% from the same quarter last year.
General Mills' (NYSE: GIS) revenue for Q2 2016 declined 6.1% while net income increased 53%. Diluted earnings per share increased 55.4% to $0.87 from $0.56 the same quarter last year. The increase in net income was highly impacted by a one-time gain from the divestiture of Green Giant. US earnings were down 2.6% while International revenue went up 1.5%.
The Consumer Price Inflation for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) was unchanged for November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Both the food and the energy index fell in November (0.1% and 1.3% respectively) offsetting the 0.2% rise of the all items less food and energy index. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 0.5% but has been weighed down by a 14.7% decline in the energy index.
Crude Oil continues to be volatile; it rose to $37 early in the week, hovered around $35 midweek and then fell to $34.61 at the end of the week—a 2.6% decline. Commercial crude oil inventories (excluding the SPR) increased 0.99% to 490.7 million barrels in the week ending December 11 from 485.9 million the previous week. The national average retail regular gasoline price fell 0.78% to $2.037 from $2.053 per gallon the preceding week.
The FOMC decided to raise the federal funds rate to the range 0.25—0.5% from 0—0.25% marking the end of near-zero interest rates set in 2009. The committee cited improvements in the labor market and moderately expanding economic activity as reasons for liftoff but noted that inflation remains well below its 2% target. The FOMC will raise the policy rate gradually subject to future economic conditions and its objectives of full employment and 2% inflation.
As we are still deep in earnings season, check out next week’s earnings calendar.
