Page 24 - ATD 27OCT,2015

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BUSINESSTuesday 27 October 2015
Bridgestone buying Pep Boys for about $835M
NEW YORK (AP) — Tire and
auto service company
Bridgestone Corp. is buy-
ing auto parts and repair
company Pep Boys in for
$835 million in a deal that
will help Bridgestone gain a
more dominant position.
The offer was for $15 per
share in cash, a premium
of almost 23.5 percent over
Pep Boys’ closing price on
Wall Street slips as earnings reports disappoint year to 317 million pieces.
MARLEY JAY
AP Markets Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks
edged lower Monday as in-
vestors began another big
week of company earnings
and looked ahead to a
policy meeting of the Fed-
eral Reserve.
Companies from Apple to
Xerox are reporting earn-
Trader Jonathan Niles, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks edged
lower Monday as investors began another big week of company earnings and looked ahead to
a policy meeting of the Federal Reserve.
ings this week. About one-
third the way through the
quarterly earnings season,
the results so far have been
“nothing spectacular,”
says investment strategist
Kristina Hooper of Allianz
Global Investors.
More troubling than the
middling income reports,
Hooper says, is the fact
that many companies
are failing to meet ana-
lysts’ forecasts for revenue. 2.84 points, less than 0.1
“What we really should be
focusing on is the revenue
picture, and that’s more
negative.”
Friday. The deal is expect-
ed to close in the begin-
ning of 2016 and will add
800 locations to Bridges-
tone’s nationwide network
of 2,200 tire and automo-
tive service centers.
The deal comes months af-
ter Pep Boys-Manny, Moe &
Jack’s president and CEO
resigned as the specula-
tion built over whether the
The Federal Reserve
will meet Tuesday and
Wednesday, and while
the central bank has said
it wants to raise interest
rates soon, few investors
expect that to happen this
year because the global
economy remains weak.
The Fed left interest rates
untouched in September,
which helped set off a rally
that pulled stocks out of the
red for 2015 last week.
The Standard & Poor’s 500
index dipped 3.97 points,
or 0.2 percent, to 2,071.18.
The S&P 500 remains posi-
tive for the year. The Dow
Jones industrial average,
which is still negative for the review of its operations in
year, fell 23.65 points, or 0.1 hopes of boosting value for
percent, to 17,623.05. The
Nasdaq composite rose
percent, to 5,034.70.
Not all the earnings news
was bad. LendingTree
soared $22.98, or 23.5 per-
company was consider- America, which is based in
ing a sale. Tokyo-based Nashville, Tennessee, said
Bridgestone Corp. said the in a statement. Philadel-
move will help accelerate phia-based Pep Boys had
its global growth strategy. been reviewing options to
“Our shared expertise and help boost shareholder val-
commitment to our cus- ue since June. The current
tomers and employees deal helps to achieve that
will help us build an even goal, said CEO Scott Sider.
stronger organization,” Pep Boys shares rose $2.83,
Gary Garfield, CEO and or 23.3 percent, to $14.98 in
President of Bridgestone midday trading Monday.q
cent, to $120.98 after the privately held market data
online mortgage broker re- company Interactive Data
ported better-than-expect- for $5.2 billion.
ed results for the third quar- Duke Energy, the big-
ter. LendingTree also raised gest electric company
its revenue estimate for the in the U.S., said it will buy
year and gave an optimis- Piedmont Natural Gas for
tic forecast for 2016. Medi- about $4.9 billion. Pied-
cal laboratory operator mont surged $15.60, or 37
Laboratory Corporation of percent, to $57.82.
America rose $5.79, or 5.2 Russ Koesterich, global
chief investment strate-
gist for BlackRock, says he
expects the current wave
of company deals to con-
tinue as global economic
(AP Photo/Richard Drew) growth remains gradual
and borrowing costs re-
percent, to $117.74 after its main low.
third-quarter results topped The boost that the stock
estimates. market gets from those
Xerox fell 31 cents, or 3 deals, however, might not
percent, to $10.03 after be as long-lasting, he said.
the business services and Deals have given the mar-
copier company reported ket “a bit of a sugar high,”
disappointing quarterly rev- Koesterich said, driving
enue said it will conduct a stocks higher despite disap-
pointing company results.
In economic news, the gov-
its shareholders. ernment reported an unex-
Companies continued to pected drop in new home
combine. Intercontinen- sales. Sales fell to their slow- during 2013, they greatly
tal Exchange, the owner est pace in 10 months in
of the New York Stock Ex- September, hit by higher
change and other stock home prices and softer
markets, said it will buy the economic growth. That
helped send homebuilder
shares lower. KB Home fell
14 cents, or 1 percent, to
$13.83.
U.S. crude oil lost 62 cents,
or 1.4 percent, to close at
$43.98 a barrel in New York.
Brent Crude, which is used
to price international oils,
fell 45 cents, or 0.9 percent,
to $47.54 a barrel in Lon-
don.
Wholesale gasoline fell 1.6
cents to close at $1.288 a
gallon, heating oil fell 2.9
cents to close at $1.426
a gallon and natural gas
sank 22 cents to close at
$2.062 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The price of gold rose $3.40
to $1,166.20 an ounce. q
FedEx predicts a 12
percent increase in
holiday shipments
DAVID KOENIG
AP Business Writer
With online shopping grow-
ing, FedEx is bracing for a
record volumes this holiday
season.
The delivery company pre-
dicted Monday that ship-
ments from Black Friday
through Christmas Eve will
rise 12.4 percent over last
The company said that to
handle the crush, it is hiring
more than 55,000 seasonal
workers and investing in
automation and expan-
sion.
Rival United Parcel Service
Inc. will release its holiday
forecast on Tuesday, said
spokesman Steve Gaut. He
said that the same trends
leading to FedEx’s forecast
of more shipping will affect
UPS too.
Delivery companies like
UPS and FedEx Corp. have
profited from the continu-
ing shift in shopping from
stores to online. Even still,
the FedEx forecast is a bull-
ish one. The National Retail
Federation, for example,
predicted that online sales
in November and Decem-
ber will rise by between
6 percent and 8 percent
over late 2014.
Planning for holiday de-
mand can be treacherous
for the delivery giants. Af-
ter being caught off-guard
by a late surge in shipping
increased their seasonal
work forces last year. The
heavy spending pulled
down earnings at UPS, al-
though FedEx profit rose.
FedEx and UPS now talk
to retailers throughout the
year to plan for the spike in
holiday shipping. Much of
the surge is driven by retail-
ers that promise free ship-
ping even in the last days
of the gift-sending season.
“We need to make sure
that if they are looking
at moves like that, they
need to understand what
our capacity is,” said Fe-
dEx senior vice president
Patrick Fitzgerald. “We do
limit some delivery commit-
ment to customers where
necessary. That’s not very
common.”q