Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. reported losses for its fiscal-first-quarter, as costs related to goodwill impairment and severance tugged at its bottom line.However, adjusted earnings beat estimates. For the quarter ended June 1, the household-goods retail chain posted a loss of -$371.1 million (or -$2.91 a share), compared to earnings of $43.6 million (or 32 cents) in the year-ago period. However, adjusting for the impairment charge as well as severance and other costs, Bed Bath & Beyond’s earnings came in at 12 cents a share, which surpassed analysts’ estimates of adjusted earnings of 8 cents per share.

Stocks jumped to record highs Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments seemed to strengthen expectations for monetary policy easing. The latest minutes released from Federal Open Market Committee indicate their perception of trade uncertainty posing risks to their economic growth and inflation projections.Powell's comments indicate that trade tensions and concerns about the global economy have challenged the policymakers' outlook on the U.S. economy.

Texas electricity supplier NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) has been lagging the utilities sector and the overall market so far in 2019 and now the stock is running into a couple of different forms of resistance.We see on the daily chart that the $36 area acted as support back in December and then the stock fell below that level in May.

Levi Strauss’ shares tumbled pre-market Wednesday, following the company's  warning of a weakening growth of sales in the second half of the year. The maker of the iconic denim brand reported fiscal second quarter earnings of 7 cents a share, down -65% from the same period last year.Adjusting for some costs, the company earned 17 cents per share, beating the Street consensus estimate of 15 cents per share.  Revenue of $1.312 billion for the quarter also surpassed analysts’ forecasts. However, Levis CFO Harmit Singh mentioned that the second half sales growth would “moderate relative to the first half, particularly in the United States" .The company expects that the lack of a Black Friday in Q4 will hurt revenue by roughly 100 basis points in the second half. As for the ongoing trade war, CFO Singh has indicated that the company is prepared to cushion the effect of tariffs over the near term.

Square shares climbed on Tuesday, following a rating upgrade by Raymond James analysts. Raymond James analysts raised their rating on the financial services/mobile payment company to market perform from underperform.Analyst John Davis said that his short thesis from late January has mostly played out, and he is now optimistic on Square’s business-to-business seller card and believes that it could lead to above-expectations performance in H2 2019. Davis also indicated that while Square's performance has fallen behind peers over the last couple of quarters due to disappointing second-quarter guidance, the headwinds for the company have now receded.  

Networking hardware and telecom equipment company Cisco is planning to acquire  Acacia Communications in a $2.6 billion deal . As announced by the companies on Tuesday, Cisco will pay $70 per share in cash for Acacia - a networking company and already a supplier for Cisco. The acquisition is expected to bolster Cisco’s optical systems business.According to the announcement, the deal is expected to close in the second half of Cisco’s fiscal year 2020. Acacia shares surged more than +38% during premarket trading Tuesday, while Cisco was down -1% .

International Business Machines (IBM) completed its $34 billion acquisition of software firm Red Hat, as announced by the companies on Tuesday. Initiated in October, the deal involves IBM  paying $190 per share in cash for Red Hat, a price representing a 63% premium over the stock's price before the merger was announced.This marks IBM’ s biggest deal ever. Following the acquisition, Red Hat will be a part of IBM’s Hybrid Cloud division, according to the original announcement. IBM had previously indicated that the merger would boost its cloud infrastructure.

3M Co. shares got a rating downgrade by RBC Capital Markets. RBC Capital Markets analyst Deane Dray lowered his rating on 3M to sector perform, from a prior rating of outperform.He also slashed his price target on the stock by 15% to $176 per share. According to Dray, 3M’s reputation of a "defensive, high-quality industrial" is getting eroded. 3M's first quarter earnings had declined -10.8% year-over-year, and its total revenue had fallen -5%.

PepsiCo earnings for the second quarter surpassed analysts’ expectations, on the back of strong sales in snacks and sparkling water. The beverage and snack company reported adjusted earnings of $1.54 per share for the quarter, compared to  $1.50 expected by Wall Street analysts. Pepsi’s revenue of $16.449 billion also edged past analysts’ estimates of $16.426 billion. Its Frito-Lay North America segment was the strongest performer in sales, reporting +5% organic revenue growth.Frito-Lay revenues along with the company's other snacks businesses comprise more than half of the group's total revenue. Pepsi’s North American beverage business organic revenue grew by +2.2%.

We see on the daily chart how a trend channel has formed that defines the overall trend in the past year. Normally I point out when a stock is hitting the upper rail of a downward sloping channel, but in the case of Mylan, it is only at the midpoint of the channel.The daily stochastic readings are in overbought territory and made a bearish crossover on July 8. The Tickeron Trend Prediction Engine generated a bearish signal on Mylan on July 5 with a confidence level of 85%.

Amazon employees in Minnesota are reportedly planning a strike on Prime Day. According to a Bloomberg report, employees at an Amazon fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, are planning to halt work for six hours on July 15, the day when the 48-hour Prime Day extravaganza is scheduled to begin.The news comes even after the company promised to pay all employees at least $15 an hour last year. Bloomberg reported that organizers said that talks between employees and management last fall led to some changes, including relaxing quotas during Ramadan and the designation of a conference room as a prayer space.

NetApp shares declined on Monday, following a rating downgrade from a Citigroup analyst. Citigroup analyst Jim Suva lowered his rating on the cloud data services company’s stock to sell from neutral.He also slashed the price target to $55 from $67. Suva attributed the rating downgrade to rising competition to NetApp from other enterprise storage vendors.

The healthcare sector has been lagging the nine other main sectors since the beginning of 2019.The sector has been in the political spotlight to some degree as politicians on both sides of the aisle have been pointing at drug costs as a problem. One particular exchange-traded fund that caught my eye was the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (Nasdaq: IBB).

Shopify shares traded higher, as KeyBanc Capital analysts raised their price target on the stock. KeyBanc Capital increased its target price on the e-commerce company’s shares to $350 from $300. In a previous report, KeyBanc analyst Josh Beck indicated that concerns about Shopify’s competition from rival e-commerce platform Magento are "overhyped".According to Beck, Shopify can continue to grow, predicting a gain of 2%, even as Magento grows by 9%. Shopify shares climbed more than +3% Monday.

Apple Inc. shares fell Monday, following a downgrade by Rosenblatt Securities. Analysts at Rosenblatt Securities lowered their rating on Apple to "sell" from "neutral", on anticipation of disappointing sales of new iPhones,  along with concerns over a slow down in iPad sales growth in the second half of 2019, and what the analysts perceive as insignificant sales growth contribution from products like the HomePod, AirPod, and iWatch. Rosenblatt Securities maintained its $150 per share price target on Apple shares. Apple shares traded around -2% lower Monday.

The company offers online entertainment via its internet platform and the selections include professionally licensed and produced material as well as self-produced content.It is a subsidiary of Baidu Holdings and is based in Beijing. The stock has not been performing very well over the last few months and has been trending lower.

The Competition and Markets Authority in the U.K. has asked e-commerce giant Amazon to halt its investment into food delivery start-up Deliveroo, as it investigates into the deal. The U.K.’s competition watchdog said it has “reasonable grounds” to suspect that the investment could mean that Amazon and Deliveroo would “cease to be distinct”. In May, Amazon led a $575-million funding round in Deliveroo.While Deliveroo is one of the most popular food delivery firms in Europe, Amazon had shut down its own restaurant delivery service in the U.K. last December.

US job gains bounced back in June, with employers adding 224,000 jobs, according to Labor Department data released Friday. The job additions surpassed economists' forecasts of a gain of about 160,000.This is a clear improvement from last month's report, which showed job gains of 75,000 in May, well below expectations of 165,000. Professional services sector led the way with 51,000 job additions in June, while health-care providers added 35,000 jobs and transportation and warehouse companies added 24,000.  Construction companies hired 21,000 workers and manufacturers added 17,000 jobs. Retail sector, however, shed another 6,000 jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate for June, however, increased slightly to 3.7% from 3.6%.

Deutsche Bank executives are reportedly considering trimming its U.S. equities segment – something that could lead to job cuts of around 20,000. Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNBC reported that the investment bank's supervisory board will meet on Sunday to discuss the restructuring plan, which could reportedly cost as much as 5 billion euros if implemented.They might also ponder the option of even closing the U.S. equities division, as indicated by the report. No official statement regarding a restructuring has come forth from the investment bank, as yet. On Friday, the bank announced that its investment banking chief Garth Ritchie is stepping down.

This rally had a positive impact on a number of ETFs, but one that caught my eye recently was the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF (NYSE: XME).The XME rallied from the $24 area to a recent high of $28.55. Unfortunately, the rally simply brought the XME up to a downward sloped trend line that connects the highs from February and April.