Amazon expands pickup Counter service to thousands more stores

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -0.20% said Wednesday that it has expanded its Counter third-party package pickup service to thousands of new stores. Counter was launched in June at more than 100 Rite Aid Corp. RAD, -2.73% stores. Now it has been added to GNC GNC, +4.80%, Health Mart and Stage Stores SSI, +6.70%. Counter allows customers using same-day, next-day, two-day and standard shipping to go to a brick-and-mortar retailer to retrieve an order. Amazon stock is up 17.3% for the year to date while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.28% is up nearly 20%.

Love Your Coast Photography Awards

A selection of some of the entries for the Love Your Coast Photography Awards.

Ethiopia dam dispute: Talks in Khartoum over sharing the water

A new dam in Ethiopia could threaten the water supply to neighbouring countries further downstream.

Water is a precious resource in East Africa with several countries depending on the River Nile.

Now, a new dam in Ethiopia could threaten supply downstream.

Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt are holding an emergency meeting in Khartoum to discuss sharing the water.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reports from Addis Ababa.

HPE raises dividend, issues full-year 2020 earnings guidance

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. HPE, +0.44% said Wednesday that it was raising its dividend to 12 cents and issued full-year 2020 earnings guidance. HPE said it expects full-year 2020 earnings of $1.01 to $1.17 a share and adjusted earnings of $1.78 to $1.94 a share. Previously HPE paid out a dividend of 11.3 cents a share. HPE stock was flat after hours and closed up 0.4% to $16.02.

ServiceNow’s stock up 7% on solid quarter, introduction of new CEO

ServiceNow Inc.’s NOW, -3.65% stock was up 7% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the cloud-services company reported solid third-quarter results and introduced its new chief executive. ServiceNow reported earnings of $1.03 a share. Revenue soared 32% to $885.8 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected earnings of 99 cents a share on revenue of $886 million. Following its results, the company held a conference call with Bill McDermott, the former SAP SE SAP, -0.11% CEO who is joining the company by the end of the year. McDermott succeeds John Donahoe, who was named Nike Inc. NKE, -3.43% CEO on Tuesday. ServiceNow shares are up 24% this year. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.28% has gained 20% this year.

ASGN Q3 Profit Down

ASGN Inc. (ASGN) Wednesday reported third-quarter profit of $57.4 million or $1.08 per share, up from $49.1 million or $0.93 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings were $69.7 million or $1.31 per share, up from $68.7 million or $1.30 per share last year.

Revenues grew 10.6% to $1.0 billion from $906.4 million last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $1.23 per share and revenues of $998.25 million for the quarter.

Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the company expects revenues of $995.0 million to $1,005.0 million and adjusted earnings of $1.20 to $1.26 per share. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $1.24 per share and revenues of $1.01 billion.

Microsoft reports solid quarterly earnings and racks up more cloud customers

REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft on Wednesday reported its latest solid quarterly report card to Wall Street, buoyed by another round of business customers signing up for its cloud computing services.

The company reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $10.68 billion.

The net income of $1.38 per share beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.25 per share.

The software maker posted revenue of $33.1 billion in the July-September period, also beating forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $32.2 billion.

Microsoft shares have risen 35% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen 20%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $137.11, an increase of 27% in the last 12 months.

Major League Baseball investigating umpire Rob Drake’s tweet calling for civil war if Trump is impeached

Major League Baseball is looking into a now-deleted tweet from umpire Rob Drake warning of a civil war if president Donald Trump is impeached.

According to a copy of the tweet obtained by ESPN, Drake tweeted that he planned to buy an assault rifle "because if you impeach MY PRESIDENT this way, YOU WILL HAVE ANOTHER CIVAL WAR!!! #MAGA2020"."

MLB said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports that the league became aware of the tweet Wednesday and is now investigating the matter.

The account was switched to private mode Wednesday night after the ESPN report surfaced but prior to that, USA TODAY Sports reviewed other tweets from the account. 

Messages included a claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and a tweet to Hillary Clinton calling her an "(expletive) liar" and demanding the truth about "#benghazzhi."

HNI Corp. Narrows Full Year Earnings Guidance – Quick Facts

HNI Corp. (HNI) said its estimate of full year non-GAAP earnings per diluted share has narrowed and is expected to be in the range of $2.50 to $2.60 versus the previous guidance range of $2.50 to $2.70. The company expects full year organic sales to be up approximately 1 percent. This compares to the previous organic sales growth expectation of up 1 to 4 percent. The company said the change is primarily driven by lower growth in the contract-driven office furniture business.

For the third-quarter, non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $1.08 compared to $0.90 in the prior year quarter. On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $1.07, for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Consolidated third-quarter net sales increased 2.3 percent from the prior year quarter to $625.4 million. On an organic basis, sales increased 3.1 percent. Analysts expected revenue of $640.3 million for the quarter.