Market Minute: FedEx Wins Big Contract Extension with Postal Service
FedEx scores a huge contract, and Apple tries to firm up its sinking stock.
The Dow Industrials jumped 152 points yesterday, the S&P 500 rose 16 and the Nasdaq gained 35 points.
FedEx (FDX) has won a $10.5 billion, 7-year contract extension from the US Postal Service. It will provide domestic air transportation service for Priority and Express mail. UPS (UPS) had also bid for the contract.
After years of rapid growth, Apple (AAPL) posted its first quarterly earnings decline in a decade, but still beat Street expectations. It also plans to return a massive amount of cash to shareholders – $100 billion – in dividend payments and share repurchases. AT&T's (T) net edged up 3 percent, but revenue came in shy of expectations. The company added nearly 300,000 new wireless subscribers, but continues to fall further behind rival Verizon Wireless (VZ).
The Blackberry (BBRY) Q10 – the one with the physical keyboard – will start shipping as soon as this Friday, but only in the U.K. It will be available in Canada on May 1, and in the US shortly after that. The smartphone will be priced at $249 dollars – $50 more than Apple's iPhone 5.
Elsewhere on the earnings scoreboard: Ford's (F) net rose, beating expectations. Strong results in the US offset a widening loss from European operations.
Boeing (BA) flew past expectations. The company is not taking any charges for the grounding of its fleet of 787 Dreamliners.
Procter & Gamble (PG) also topped expectations, but its outlook for the current quarter is weaker than expected.
Yum Brands' (YUM) net fell 27 percent as the company's KFC unit in China was hurt by some bad publicity earlier this year about the safety of its chicken. But the company still plans to open about 7,000 new stores in China this year.
And shares of biotech giant Amgen (AMGN) are set to slide after the company posted disappointing sales, including declines for its two blockbuster anemia drugs.
–Produced by Drew Trachtenberg
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