Barnes & Noble declined by more than 9 percent. The quarterly profit of the bookseller fell short of expectations mainly due to a weak online business and a drop in demand among the e-book readers Nook.
The shares of the media group Walt Disney fell 4 percent following a statement by its CEO Bob Iger, according to whom earnings per share will remain constant this year. Analysts had expected growth.
The shares of General Electric (GE) experienced a fall of 3.61 percent. Keeping in view the coming autumn, the outlook remains bearish for the stock of the conglomerate, wrote analyst Stephen Tusa of the US bank JPMorgan. The business development is difficult to predict and its estimates, which are already well below the general expectations, are likely to fall further.
“We see a core operating performance that is below plan, and, currently, a consensus expectations curve that we think remains too high, FCF [free cash flow] that is the weakest in the sector, and, with that backdrop, a valuation that is expensive, with limited incremental catalysts to change the narrative. … While visibility is low, we see downside risk to our well below consensus estimates,” said the analyst.
Investment began to grow at Fitbit as the provider of fitness bracelets saw its shares climb by almost 10 percent. The reason for this rally was news of cooperation with Dexcom. The companies want to jointly develop a device for the permanent monitoring of the blood glucose level of diabetic patients. The product is expected to be launched as early as possible 2018.
The US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly plans to lay off 3,500 employees as part of a cost cutting program. This represents 8% percent of the global workforce. The job cut is part of a larger plan, which also includes closures of some US offices. The shares reacted to this with a spike of 1.28 percent.
According to CEO David Ricks, the company has an abundance of promising resources in development. Eli Lilly plans to offer early retirement scheme in the United States. Furthermore, some production sites are closed or merged. The company expects to save around $1.2 billion from the job cuts.
