Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

Friday 14 July 2017 BUSINESS
A24

From Target, some encouraging sales outlook news

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO Target now expects a mod- the high end of its previous Amazon.com. four more exclusive brands
AP Retail Writer est increase in sales at ex- guidance of 95 cents to “Our team is energized and in home and clothing in the
NEW YORK (AP) — Target isting stores, which would $1.15 per share. focused on enhancing and next few months, part of
boosted its outlook for the reverse four consecutive It’s an encouraging sign modernizing the Target bigger plan to offer 12 new
second quarter after its quarters of declines for that that Target’s efforts to in- shopping experience, and exclusive store brands by
campaign to revitalize its measure. crease the range of exclu- our guests are responding,” the end of next year.
brand pushed sales higher The Minneapolis-based sive brands under its roof, CEO Brian Cornell said in a With the new moves, Tar-
and lifted customer traffic. company had said in May push a low-price message company release. get is phasing out longtime
The rosier guidance helped that it expected a decline and improve customers’ Cornell said the May launch store brand Merona, which
beleaguered retail stocks, of a low single-digit per- experience online and of a brand called Cloud Is- offers men’s and women’s
with the indexes that track centage for the quarter. in stores are working. The land, which offers nursery clothing, over the next few
department stores leading It also said it expects sec- company faces stiff com- decor, has been a success. months.q
the S&P 500 on Thursday. ond-quarter profit to be at petition from Walmart and Target is also set to launch

Banks, tech lead US stocks to modest gains, new Dow record

By ALEX VEIGA cent, to $79.19. Goldman
AP Business Writer Sachs Group rose $3.01,
Banks and technology or 1.3 percent, to $230.40.
companies led U.S. stocks Morgan Stanley picked up
to modest gains Thursday, 56 cents, or 1.2 percent, to
pushing the Dow Jones in- $45.52.
dustrial average to its sec- The gains among finan-
ond record close in two cial companies came as
days. investors looked ahead to
Big retail chains and other Friday, when several big
consumer-focused stocks banks, including Citigroup,
were among the gainers. JPMorgan Chase and
Energy companies rose Wells Fargo release their
as the price of crude oil second-quarter results.
increased. Phone compa- “Banks certainly operate
nies and utilities lagged the a bit in their own orbit, but
market. at the same time financials
“We’re continuing to hit globally are a proxy for the
record highs,” said Erik Da- overall economy. Investors
vidson, chief investment of- are definitely looking to
ficer for Wells Fargo Private see how those come out,”
Bank. “It is a resilient mar- Davidson said.
ket, impervious to what- Traders will be focused on
ever comes out of Wash- Traders Michael Casey, right, and Sal Suarino work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, companies’ latest quarter-
ington.” Wednesday, July 12, 2017. Stocks are opening solidly higher on Wall Street, led by gains in tech- ly earnings for the next few
The Standard & Poor’s 500 nology companies. weeks. The market expects
index gained 4.58 points, (AP Photo/Richard Drew) earnings per share growth
or 0.2 percent, to 2,447.83. of about 7 percent from
The Dow rose 20.95 points, cent, to 1,425.66. ment benefits and prices at earnings releases,” said Eric companies in the S&P 500.
or 0.1 percent, to 21,553.09. The major indexes are all on the wholesale level. Wiegand, senior portfolio Delta Air Lines released
The Nasdaq composite pace to end the week with Overall, investors were fo- manager for Private Wealth its earnings Thursday. Its
added 13.27 points, or 0.2 gains. Trading was mostly cused on the coming wave Management at U.S. Bank. shares slid 1.8 percent af-
percent, to 6,274.44. The subdued for much of the of corporate earnings. Banks and other financials ter the company reported
Russell 2000 index of small- day as investors weighed “Markets are really biding stocks posted the largest a smaller profit and less
er-company stocks inched new economic data on their time until we get into gains. T. Rowe Price Group revenue than analysts ex-
up 1.34 points, or 0.1 per- applications for unemploy- tomorrow’s more robust added $3.61, or 4.8 per- pected. q

Fed Chair Yellen calls risks of inflation ‘two-sided’

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER House Financial Services marks as a signal that the tracked a bit in recent 1 percent to 1.25 percent.
AP Economics Writer Committee in an appar- Fed, which has raised inter- months, the economy is still After keeping its key policy
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fed- ent effort to adjust views in est rates three times since operating with tight labor rate at a record low near
eral Reserve Chair Janet financial markets. December, might slow the markets, she said. zero for seven years, the
Yellen on Thursday said In her House comments, pace of future interest rate That is likely to generate central bank began raising
she believed the risks con- Yellen discussed the pos- increases. bigger wage gains in the rates gradually with one
cerning inflation are “two- sibility that a recent slow- But on Thursday, Yellen said future, which would push quarter-point hike in De-
sided,” stressing that price down in inflation could that she believed it would inflation higher. cember 2015, another one
gains could both acceler- persist longer than the Fed be “premature” to con- She noted that after dis- last December and two
ate or slow down. expects. clude that a recent slow- cussing the issue the Fed at more in March and June of
Testifying for the second The comments helped trig- down in price gains meant its last meeting in June had this year. Many economists
day before Congress, Yel- ger a big market rally, with that the Fed would not be decided to go ahead and believe the Fed will raise
len sought to expand on the Dow Jones industrial able to achieve its goal of raise its key policy rate for a rates one more time this
remarks she had made average hitting a record 2 percent annual inflation. third time, pushing the fed- year, in either September
Wednesday before the high. Investors saw the re- While prices have back- eral funds rate to a range of or December. q