US Markets
U.S. stocks were in the red on Thursday after a record session yesterday. U.S. jobless claims fell by 130,000 to a seasonally adjusted 881,000 in the last week of August, but it is still historically high. The Dow slid 0.08% to 29,063, the S&P 500 index fell 0.75% to 3,554 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 1.74% to 11,847.
Gainers
• NiSource Inc​ (NI, Financial) +2.1%
• FedEx Corp (FDX, Financial) +1.4%
• International Business Machines Corp (IBM, Financial) +0.94%
• NRG Energy Inc (NRG, Financial) +0.85%
• Dominion Energy Inc (D, Financial) +1.1%
Losers
• Juniper Networks, Inc. (JNPR, Financial) -5.3%
• Qorvo, Inc. (QRVO, Financial) -5%
• Baidu, Inc. (BIDU, Financial) -0.8%
• Sealed Air Corp (SEE, Financial) -0.4%
Global Markets
The main European stock markets traded in the green. The UK's FTSE 100 gained 0.27%, France's CAC 40 jumped 1.25%, Germany's Dax was up 0.30% and Spain's Ibex 35 gained 1.67%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.94%, India's BSE Sensex retreated 0.24%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.45% and China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.58%.
Ciena releases earnings report
Shares of Ciena Corporation (CIEN, Financial) fell more than 23% on Thursday morning after the company announced its fiscal third-quarter results. It posted earnings per share of $1.06, beating analysts' estimates by 24 cents. Revenue of $976.7 million grew 1.7% year-over-year and also beat expectations by $2.21 million. However, the orders slowdown pushed the stock to the red.
President and CEO Gary Smith had the following to say:
"We delivered outstanding financial results in the third quarter, reflecting our continued innovation, market leadership and strong competitive position in an uncertain macro environment … Although COVID-related market dynamics have resulted in an orders slowdown and are likely to adversely impact our revenue for a few quarters, we are confident in our ability to continue executing on our strategy and expanding our market leadership."
In the fiscal third quarter, the gross margin was 47.6%, up 340 basis points from the same quarter of 2019. The total networking revenue jumped 0.8% to $802.3 million, higher than consensus estimates of $794.0 million, and total global services revenue was flat at $116.7 million, falling short of expectations of $124.1 million. Software and services revenue totaled $57.7 million, higher than $47.8 million from a year ago but below expectations of $62.8 million.
Revenue by geographic region was $713.3 million in the Americas, $162.5 million in Europe, Middle East and Africa and $100.9 million in Asia Pacific.
The cash and investments reached $1.164 billion, while the cash flow from operations totaled $175.4 million.
Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss cut its investment in the stock by 34% during the quarter to 1,128,250 shares, while Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) sold out of the stock.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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