J.M. Smucker Sees Healthy Profits but Slim Top-Line Growth in Fiscal 2020

J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM) ended its fiscal 2019 year with flattish organic growth and lower profits due to a fourth-quarter goodwill impairment charge. In results released Thursday, the company also issued its fiscal 2020 outlook, which envisions fairly decent profitability following its acquisition of Ainsworth Pet Nutrition and the divestiture of its U.S. baking business in calendar 2018. Note that all comparison numbers in the discussion that follows refer to the prior-year comparable quarter.

J.M. Smucker: The raw numbers

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Asit Sharma has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Dunkin' Brands Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Google finally revealed Stadia pricing, games, and release date

• Google finally releasedmore details about Stadia, its upcoming video-game platform set to launch this November.
• Stadia initial pricing will start at $129 for its “Founder’s Pack,” a bundle that includes a controller, a Chromecast Ultra, one game, and three months of “Stadia Pro” service.
• “Baldur’s Gate 3,” “Destiny 2,” and “Mortal Kombat 11” will be among the games included at launch, with more to come later.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Almost a week before the 2019 E3 video game convention, the Google Stadia Connect event gave consumers a better look at Google’s upcoming video game platform. Set to launch this November, initial pricing will start at $129, which includes a Stadia controller, Chromecast Ultra, and a three month Stadia Pro subscription. Some of the games included at launch will be Baldur’s Gate 3, Destiny 2, and Mortal Kombat 11, with more set to come later. The service will launch in 14 countries at first, with more coming in 2020.

US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Wall St rises on hopes of delayed tariffs on Mexico imports

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher after a choppy session on Thursday, as investors grew more optimistic on trade after media reports the United States is considering a delay in imposing tariffs on Mexican imports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 182.58 points, or 0.71%, to 25,722.15, the S&P 500 gained 17.37 points, or 0.61%, to 2,843.52 and the Nasdaq Composite added 40.08 points, or 0.53%, to 7,615.55. (Reporting by Sinéad Carew;Editing by Tom Brown)

European Economics Preview: Germany’s Inflation Data Due

Inflation and retail sales figures from Germany are due on Friday, headlining a hectic day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, Destatis is slated to publish April retail sales data. Economists forecast Germany’s retail sales to grow 0.1 percent on month after staying flat in March.

At 2.30 am ET, the Federal Statistical Office releases Swiss retail sales for April. Sales are forecast to drop 0.8 percent on year, following a 0.7 percent fall in March.

At 3.00 am ET, GDP from the Czech Republic and Hungary are due. In the meantime, foreign trade data from Turkey is due. The trade deficit is seen widening to TRY 2.83 billion in April from TRY 2.14 billion in March.

At 4.00 am ET, unemployment from Norway and GDP from Poland are due. Norway’s jobless rate is seen falling to 2.1 percent in May from 2.3 percent in April.

Half an hour later, Bank of England is scheduled to issue mortgage approvals for April. Economists forecast mortgage approvals to rise to 63,500 from 62,300 in March.

At 5.00 am ET, preliminary inflation data and final GDP figures are due from Italy. Inflation is seen at 1 percent in May versus 1.1 percent in April. The economy is forecast to expand 0.2 percent in the first quarter, as initially estimated on April 30.

At 8.00 am ET, Destatis is scheduled to issue Germany’s preliminary inflation data. Inflation is forecast to drop to 1.6 percent in May from 2 percent in April.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos interrupted by protester on stage

An on-stage talk by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos in Las Vegas was briefly interrupted Thursday by a protester who rushed on stage and yelled about chicken farms.

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Bezos was attending Amazon’s re:Mars conference at the Aria resort.

He was explaining Amazon plans to send satellites into space when the woman appeared on stage.

She was quickly surrounded and ushered away by security guards.

Direct Action Everywhere spokesman Matt Johnson identified the protester as 30-year-old Priya Sawhney of Berkeley, California.

Johnson says Sawhney was protesting conditions at a California poultry farm that supplies Amazon.

She never got close to Bezos, who turned to the moderator and joked, “Do you have a response to that?”

Las Vegas police did not immediately respond to questions about whether an arrest was made.

At Home shares plummet to record close after earnings miss, stock downgrade

At Home Inc. HOME, -57.17% shares took a 57.2% nosedive in Thursday trading, a one-day percentage decline record, after the home-decor retailer reported an earnings miss and was downgraded at Wells Fargo. "This marks yet another frustrating chapter in the At Home story, which saw comp variability, spotty execution and a CFO transition last year, and already steep margin compression this year from lease accounting (-90 basis points) and a new distribution (-90 basis points)," wrote Wells Fargo analysts. Wells Fargo moved At Home stock to market perform from outperform and slashed the price target to $9 from $27. The company said weather was a challenge, as it was for a number of retailers. "Because of the challenging weather, we have already taken swift markdown actions in order to sell through the necessary product at lower than expected margins and head into the fall in a cleaner inventory position," said Chief Executive Lee Bird in a statement. At Home stock is down nearly 60% for the year to date while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.61% has gained 13.4% for the period.