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ER 130319
Williams-Sonoma profit up 9%; hikes dividend 41%(4:51 pm ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Williams-Sonoma Inc. (WSM: news, chart, profile) reported late Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 9% to $133.7 million, or $1.34 a share, from $122.6 million, or $1.17 a share, a year ago. Revenue for the quarter ended Feb. 3 rose 11% to $1.41 billion from $1.27 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had predicted the cooking ware and kitchen furnishings retailer would earn $1.29 a share on $1.4 billion in revenue. The company also announced a 41% dividend hike to 31 cents a share to stockholders of record on April 26, and a three-year $750 million stock buyback plan. Williams-Sonoma shares rose as much as 4.6% in after-hours trade.
Monday, March 18

Lululemon says pant shortage to hurt results(6:27 pm ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Athletic clothing maker Lululemon Athletica (LULU: news, chart, profile) said on Monday that it expected its financial results in the first quarter to be hurt by a shortage of its Luon pants and cropped pants. The company said it was pulling the pants from its store shelves and website because of quality issues in the material. The company said that because of the shortage it expected its first-quarter same-store sales to rise between 5% and 8%, down from a previous estimate of a rise of 11% on a constant dollar basis. The company also said it expected revenue in the range of $333 million and $343 million, down from a previous range of $350 million to $355 million. The company said it was still working to determine the impact of the problem on its first-quarter earnings. Lululemon shares fell 6.5% in after hours trading after it made the announcement.
Thursday, March 14

Hong Kong property stocks drag down market(9:56 pm ET)
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Hong Kong stocks opened higher Friday but quickly turned down as real-estate stocks extended their losses to weigh on the market. In early moves, the Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI: news, chart, profile) lost 0.2% to 22,570.05, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index falling 0.6%. Over on the Chinese mainland, the Shanghai Composite Index (CN:SHCOMP: news, chart, profile) lost 0.7%. Real-estate shares sank, carrying on from losses Thursday, when the market reacted to mortgage-rate hikes in Hong Kong and a report of new home-buying restrictions in Beijing. New World Development Co. (HK:17: news, chart, profile) (NDVLF: news, chart, profile) fell 2.5%, China Resources Land Ltd. (HK:1109: news, chart, profile) (CRBJF: news, chart, profile) lost 2.7%, Sino Land Co. (HK:83: news, chart, profile) (SNLAF: news, chart, profile) gave up 1.8%, and property-focused conglomerate Wharf Holdings Ltd. (HK:4: news, chart, profile) (WARFF: news, chart, profile) lost 2.9%. The mortgage-rate raises came from HSBC Holdings PLC (HK:5: news, chart, profile) (HBC: news, chart, profile) and Standard Chartered PLC (HK:2888: news, chart, profile) (UK:STAN: news, chart, profile) , which rose 1.7% and 2.3%, respectively, in early Friday trade. Earnings also influenced the market. Shares of China Mobile Ltd. (HK:941: news, chart, profile) (CHL: news, chart, profile) added 0.2% after mild post-earnings gains the day before -- the telecom posted a modest 2.7% rise in annual profit and said it would make a massive investment in building out a 4G network. Ping An Insurance Group Co. (HK:2318: news, chart, profile) (PNGAY: news, chart, profile) rose 0.7%, even as its 3% rise in fiscal-year profit missed expectations, but conglomerate Swire Pacific Ltd. (HK:19: news, chart, profile) (SWRAF: news, chart, profile) fell 0.9% as its 2012 net profit fell 46%.
Wednesday, March 13

Facebook leads tech slump; Netflix jumps(9:48 am ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks slipped in early trades on Wednesday, though Netflix Inc. jumped nearly 4% to $189.31 after announcing an integration deal with Facebook Inc. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP: news, chart, profile) fell by 0.2% to 3,235 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 0.5%. Facebook (FB: news, chart, profile) shares slipped by 1.2% to $27.48. Texas Instruments (TXN: news, chart, profile) and Freescale (FSL: news, chart, profile) each slipped more than 1% after Bernstein Research downgraded the two chip makers to neutral ratings. VMware (VMW: news, chart, profile) jumped 2.5% after the enterprise software firm affirmed its first-quarter revenue guidance. Silver Springs Networks (SSNI: news, chart, profile) , a Silicon Valley firm that makes networking technology for electric utilities, jumped more than 30% on its IPO debut.
Tuesday, March 12

Costco Q2 net up 39% on 5% higher comp sales(3:28 am ET)
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Costco Wholesale Corp., (COST: news, chart, profile) the Issaquah, Wash., warehouse retailer, on Tuesday reported that fiscal-second-quarter net income increased 39%, net sales increased 8.2%, net revenue including membership fees rose 8.3% and comparable-store sales rose 5%. For the quarter ended Feb. 17, Costco earned $547 million, or $1.24 share, compared with $394 million, or 90 cents, in the year-earlier quarter. The latest share net included a tax benefit of 14 cents; the company paid a special dividend in December, and the benefit is tied to the amount Costco paid to its 401(k) plan participants. Net sales were $24.34 billion compared with $22.51 billion. Net revenue was $24.87 billion compared with $22.97 billion. A survey of analysts by FactSet produced consensus estimates of profit of $1.05 a share on sales of $24.34 billion.
Friday, March 8

Pandora leads tech gains; Facebook slips(9:47 am ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Pandora Media Inc. led a solid gain for tech stocks Friday morning. Pandora (P: news, chart, profile) jumped more than 24% after the online radio firm issued a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter, and said CEO Joe Kennedy planned to step down once a replacement is found. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP: news, chart, profile) rose by 0.3% to 3,241 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX: news, chart, profile) fell by a fraction. Facebook (FB: news, chart, profile) was among the morning's decliners, falling about 1.5% after s strong gain the previous session that was propelled by changes the company announced for its News Feed tool. Texas Instruments (TXN: news, chart, profile) shares slipped after the chip maker raised the bottom end of its guidance range for the current quarter.

Skullcandy crashes on forecast, downgrades(9:41 am ET)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Skullcandy (SKUL: news, chart, profile) shares crashed more than 16% to $5.59 in early trades on Friday after the headphone maker projected a loss for the first quarter and warned of a sales decline for the full year as it works to revamp its business. The warning caused at least four brokers, including Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, Raymond James and D.A. Davidson, to downgrade Skullcandy to sell ratings while three others lowered their ratings to neutral. Robert Ohmes of BofA cited "a lack of earnings visibility and expected earnings uncertainty over the next two years" as the reason for his downgrade. The disclosures were made as part of Skullcandy's fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday afternoon.