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 Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. shares fell in the extended session Wednesday after the housewares retailer reported a wider-than-expected loss for the quarter and said it planned on trimming its store locations by about 20%. Bed Bath & Beyond shares fell 6% after hours, following a 1.6% rise in the regular session to close at $10.41. The company said it plans to close about 200 Bed Bath & Beyond stores over the next two years to help save about $250 million to $350 million a year. Bed Bath & Beyond said it has 955 stores in North America. The company reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $302.3 million, or $2.44 a share, compared with a loss of $371.1 million, or $2.91 a share, in the year-ago period. The adjusted loss was $1.96 a share. Revenue declined to $1.31 billion from $2.57 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast a loss of $1.27 a share on revenue of $1.39 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond said it was not providing an outlook for the year because of COVID-19 disruptions while analysts expect a loss of $2.06 a share on revenue of $9.02 billion.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Wednesday's scene was a familiar one: A day of choppy trading that saw the Nasdaq and its host of mega-caap tech stocks outpace the other blue-chip indices.
The U.S. reported another record spike in coronavirus cases yesterday, which appeared to weigh on most of the market early in the day. But stocks firmed up later in the day, led by solid gains for Big Tech.
Pros' Picks: The 15 Best Nasdaq Stocks You Can Buy
Apple (AAPL) advanced by 2.3% after Deutsche Bank analyst Jeriel Ong raised his price target to $400 per share.
"We do have some worry that the stock price has overreacted to the positive data points over the past two months, and the rough mental framework we've articulated certainly gives us some pause," Ong writes. However, "despite our worries, we do reiterate our confidence that AAPL can work from present levels."
Microsoft (MSFT, 2.2%) and Amazon.com (AMZN, 2.7%) were among other notable winners Wednesday.
The Nasdaq shot 1.4% higher to 10,492, closing yet again at all-time highs. The Dow gained 0.7% to 26,067, the S&P 500 closed 0.8% higher to 3,169, and the small-cap Russell 2000 finished with a 0.8% improvement to 1,427.
An Ugly Second Quarter for Dividends
New data out Wednesday delivered some discouraging news on the income investing front, however.
Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for S&P Dow Jones Indices, reports that, during the second quarter, the U.S. equity market saw a net decline of $42.5 billion in dividend payments, the worst
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Nvidia Corp. surpassed Intel Corp. as the largest U.S. chip maker by market cap for the first time on Wednesday. Nvidia shares closed up 3.5% at $408.64, giving it a market cap of $251.31 billion, while Intel shares finished up 0.5% at $58.61, giving it a market cap of $248.16 billion, according to FactSet data. For the year, Nvidia shares have gained 74% while Intel shares have slipped 2%, compared with a 11% gain in the PHLX Semiconductor Index , a 17% gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index , and a 1.9% decline in the S&P 500 index . While it is not the first time a U.S. chip maker has surpassed Intel in market cap, it is the first time for Nvidia. Back in 1999 and 2000, Texas Instruments Inc. surpassed Intel in cap a few times, and between late 2012 and mid-2014 Qualcomm Inc. and Intel often jockeyed for the No. 1 position, according to Dow Jones data.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Facebook Inc. shares rose 1% Wednesday after it announced the digital takedown of pages and accounts linked to President Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone and Proud Boys, a far-right group Facebook has banned under its hate policies. The social-networking giant also said it removed accounts tied to employees of the family of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and two other networks connected to domestic political operations in Ecuador and Ukraine. The material linked to Stone, who is scheduled to report to jail next week for witness tampering and lying to Congress, included 54 Facebook accounts and 50 pages. The pages included hacked materials released by Wikileaks ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Facebook removed the content of the four groups as it faces withering pressure from civil rights advocates and hundreds of advertisers for hateful and divisive messages on its platform.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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The tech stock index led all markets with a gain of 1.44%.
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 U.S. stocks finish higher as tech leads gains; Nasdaq adds 1.4%
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Sharp rally in stock market draws comparisons with 2015 downfall
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 Warren Buffett once said that "diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing." The takeaway: Load up on what you know. Even if it's a tech stock, apparently.
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The U.S. coronavirus case tally topped 3 million on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. counted a record number of new cases of the deadly illness COVID-19 in a single day, in the latest sign that the virus is far from contained. The death toll rose to 131,857, the largest in the world, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. There are now 11.9 million confirmed cases of the illness worldwide, and at least 545,728 people have died. The U.S. counted 60,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Costco Wholesale Corp. said Wednesday its June sales rose 11% to $16.2 billion, from $14.6 billion in June 2019. Same-store sales rose 12%, including an 11% increase in U.S. same-store sales. E-commerce sales increased 86%, the company said. Costco sales in May rose 7.5% and online sales jumped 106% that month. Costco has reported strong e-commerce sales this year but at its last quarterly report in April the company said the online sales hadn't made up for the drop in foot traffic at the stores and other businesses such as optical, food court, and travel due to the stay-at-home orders, social-distancing restrictions and closures related to the coronavirus pandemic. Costco is slated to report fiscal fourth-quarter results sometime in September, with quarterly sales seen around $50 billion, according to FactSet. Shares of Costco rose nearly 1% in the extended session after ending the regular trading day up less than 0.1%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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