Markets advance Monday morning
U.S. stocks were well in the green on Monday when the market openedon news that the drug maker Moderna is close to a vaccine for Covid-19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 800 points, or 3.39%, to 24,488, while the S&P 500 index rose 3.07% to 2,951and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 2.40% to 9,231.
Gainers:
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCL, Financial) +16.7%
• Host Hotels & Resorts Inc (HST, Financial) +16.5%
• L Brands Inc (LB, Financial) +14.9%
• HollyFrontier Corp (HFC, Financial) +13.5%
• Carnival Corp (CCL, Financial) +13%
• Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC, Financial) +12%
Losers:
• Kroger Co (KR, Financial) -1.7%
• Campbell Soup Co (CPB, Financial) -3%
• Clorox Co (CLX, Financial) -1.6%
• Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB, Financial) -1.3%
• Kellogg Co (K, Financial) -0.9%
Global Markets
The main European stock markets traded in the green at market open on Monday. The UK.'s FTSE 100 gained 4.31%, France's CAC 40 jumped 5.25%, Germany's Dax gained 5.79% and Spain's Ibex 35 was up 4.57%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.48%, India’s BSE Sensex plummeted 3.44%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.58% and China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.24%.
Sea Limited releases earnings report
Shares of Sea Limited (SE, Financial) gained more than 11% on Monday after the company announced its first-quarter results. It posted a loss of 52 cents per share, which fell 8 cents short of analyst estimates. Revenue of $913.92 million represented 57.9% year-over-year growth. CEO Forrest Li commented the following:
“The coronavirus crisis is driving a step change in the growth of the digital economy globally, materially accelerating a shift to online lifestyles that is broad, deep, and, in our view, irreversible. We believe that Sea, as a market leader in some of the key sectors of the digital economy, is gaining and will continue to gain a disproportionate share of the resulting growth in our markets."
By segment, the Digital Entertainment revenue rose 113.2% to $369.7 million from $173.4 million in the first quarter of 2019. The growth was fueled principally by the increase of the active user base. In the E-commerce and other services segment, revenue more than doubled to $266.5 million from $130.7 million in the first quarter of 2019. This was driven by the growth of the e-commerce marketplace.
Total gross profit reached $206.8 million, up more than 400% year-over-year from $39.5 million for the first quarter of 2019.
Research and development expenses were up 126.5% to $ 64.6 million from $28.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, primarily due to the increase in research and development staff force.
Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio) increased his shares of the company by 65% to 23,695,875, while Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio) reduced his holding in the company by 92% to 43,284 shares and Staley Druckenmiller cut his holding by 33% to 1,173,938 shares.
Disclosure:The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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