By Joe Woelfel and Connor Smith
Stocks finished mixed Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 marking their best weeks of the year.
These stocks made moves on Friday:
FedEx reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that beat analysts' estimates, as the shipping giant's cost-cutting efforts overshadowed lower sales and reduced demand. FedEx also raised its fiscal 2024 guidance and announced a buyback of $5 billion of stock. Shares of FedEx gained 7.4%, while those of rival United Parcel Service rose 0.6%.
Nike posted fiscal third-quarter revenue that rose slightly from a year earlier, but shares fell 6.9% after the sneaker and apparel company said the first half of fiscal 2025 would be challenging, with sales down by low single-digit percentages year over year. "This reflects near term-headwinds from life cycle management of our key product franchises, " said Chief Financial Officer Matthew Friend on an earnings call with analysts, as well as the "subdued" global macroeconomic outlook.
Foot Locker rose 3.1% to $24.39 after Citi upgraded the stock to Neutral from Sell and raised the price target to $24 from $19.
Apple rose 0.5%. Shares had tumbled 4.1% on Thursday, when the tech giant was sued by the Justice Department, which alleged the iPhone provider violated federal law to preserve its dominant position in the mobile phone market. Apple pushed back on the notion that the iPhone is a monopoly or that it had abused its position. "This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets," Apple said. "If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple -- where hardware, software, and services intersect."
Fourth-quarter earnings at Lululemon Athletica topped expectations, but the stock tumbled 16% after the athleisure company's guidance for the fiscal first quarter and year was short of analysts' expectations.
Tesla fell 1.2% following a report from Bloomberg that said the company has reduced electric-vehicle production at its plant in China. Tesla earlier this month instructed employees at its Shanghai facility to lower production of both the Model Y sport-utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan by working fewer days a week, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Nvidia rose 3.1% to $942.89. UBS analysts raised their price target on the chip maker to $1,100 from $800 and maintained a Buy rating on the stock.
U.S.-listed shares of Baidu rose 0.5% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has held preliminary talks with the Chinese company about using its generative artificial-intelligence technology in its devices in China.
Reddit, the popular news aggregation social media site, fell 8.8% to $46 on Friday. The stock debuted Thursday at $47 a share and closed at $50.44, a jump of 48.4% above the initial public offering price of $34.
Best Buy rose 1.5% to $81.66 after analysts at J.P. Morgan upgraded shares of the electronics retailer to Overweight from Neutral and raised their price target to $101 from $89.
Digital World Acquisition, the so-called blank check company seeking to take Donald Trump's Truth Social public, fell 14% after shareholders approved a merger of the two companies.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2024 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)
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