In U.S. corporate activity, retailers remained a focus on Monday, especially online retailers like eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) as today is Cyber Monday - known as a day when shopping websites pull out all the stops to attract holiday consumers.
Almost half of the people polled by Nielsen Co. said they plan to go online to shop on Cyber Monday, up from 30% a year ago.
eBay, operator of the biggest online marketplace, advanced 1.5% as a report showed online spending on Black Friday reached a record high. Online spending grew 15% to $1.2 billion, according to ComScore Inc., as more customers preferred shopping from their couches rather than battling long lines at stores.
Online retailers can expect 131 million shoppers for today’s Cyber Monday promotions, up from 129 million last year, the National Retail Federation said.
In earnings, Krispy Kreme (NYSE:KKD) is one of the only companies of note scheduled to report earnings after the closing bell. It is slated to post a third quarter profit of 15 cents a share.
With the peak earnings weeks now finished, of the 494 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings to date for the quarter, 73% have reported earnings above estimates, equal to the average over the past four years. In terms of revenue, 52% have reported above consensus, well below the 59% average over the same period.
In other news, 3M Co. (NYSE:MMM), the maker of products ranging from Scotch tape to dental brace, slumped 4.3% as Morgan Stanley downgraded the Dow component to "underweight" from "equalweight".
Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN), the online discount-coupon company, slipped 3% as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trimmed its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy."
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