The share price of Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) was weaker than a milky coffee in after-hours trading after a disappointing trading update.
The spin from the company was that the 13 weeks to the end of December was a record for the first quarter of the company's fiscal year.
Net revenues rose 6% from a year earlier to a record US$6.1bn versus market forecasts of US$6.2bn while like-for-like (LFL) or same store sales growth was on the insipid side.
Globally, LFL sales rose 2%, driven by increases in the already ludicrously high prices the company charges for its product. The market had been expecting growth of 3%.
The all-important Chinese market saw LFL growth of 6%, driven by a 6% increase in transactions.
Adjusted earnings per share came in at 58 cents, a penny higher than analysts had been expecting.
The shares were off 5% at US$57.40 in screen-based trading.
Elsewhere in the retail sector, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) woke up a few years too late to smell the coffee and the threat posed to it by Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), but it is doing its best to fight back.
On Thursday night it announced it is to start selling e-books and audio books online later this year.
The move is related to the world's biggest bricks-and-mortar retailer's alliance with Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, maker of the popular Kobo e-reader device.
Wal-Mart has more than 10 years of catching up to do on Amazon, however, which launched its Kindle device more than 10 years ago and which has an estimated 80% share of the e-book market in the US.
Traders were getting on board American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) in after-hours trading on Thursday night as the airline reported solid earnings,
The shares edged 0.4% higher to US$53.25 as revenue rose to US$10.6bn in the fourth quarter, up from US$9.8bn the year before and in line with expectations.
Earnings per share, excluding one-off costs, topped analysts' estimates of 92 cents a share by three cents.
The airline expects adjusted earnings for 2018 of $5.50 to $6.50 a share.
Earlier in the day United Airlines raised fears of a price war as it pledged to add capacity to the market over the next three years.
In a conference call with analysts Doug Parker, the chairman and chief executive officer of American Airlines, promised that American would also grow but largely by adding destinations from its own major hubs rather than trying to compete in its competitors' heartlands.
“We think it is smart, efficient growth where we have competitive advantage," he said, attempting to allay fears of fare wars.
The shares edged 15 cents to US$53.20 in after-hours' trading.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) surged 5.9% to US$47.96 in screen-based trading after a positive reception to its fourth quarter earnings.
READ Intel stock surges on better-than-expected results, addresses ‘meltdown’ security issues
“Chipzilla's” earnings per shares, adjusted to exclude certain items, came in at US$1.08 versus Wall Street expectations for 86 cents.
Fourth quarter revenue, meanwhile, amounted to US$17.05bn up from US$16.35bn in the preceding year’s comparative, which was in line with market expectations.
The computer chip-maker also attempted to reassure the market that it is working on ‘silicon updates’ designed to protect against the ‘meltdown and spectre’ security flaws that were recently uncovered earlier this month.