Author: FX_Trdr

Trulia, operator of the real estate website Trulia. om, on Friday filed for an initial public offering that could raise up to $75 million.

Fedex Corporation (FDX) maintained its quarterly dividend of 14 cents per share. Shares of FedEx have a .62% dividend yield, based on yesterday’s closing stock price of $89.74.

Ross Stores saw earnings rise 23% in the second quarter thanks to a double digit rise in revenue. Ross, the discount retailer, raised its outlook for the year, now saying that it expects to earn $3.36 to $3.44 per share instead of the previously announced $3.26 to $3.27. Ross reported a profit of $182 million, or 81 cents a share for the second quarter. This is up from $148.3 million, or 64 cents a share, the year before. This rise in earnings was enough to combat an 11% increase in costs and expenses, which rose to $2.04 billion. On the news, Ross is trading up .47%. For more on the latest business news, follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline, or check out our website at fnno.com

In trading on Friday, music & electronics stores shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 1.4%. Leading the group were shares of Hhgregg (HGG), up about 3.2% and shares of Gamestop Holding (GME) up about 2.7% on the day.

Discount retailer Dollar Tree announced its second quarter earnings, and forecast a tepid third quarter. The chain, which has actually benefitted from the shaky economy over the past few years because of its low prices, reported a profit of $119.2 million, or 51 cents a share, for the quarter ending July 28th. That’s up from $94.9 million, or 39 cents a share, a year ago. Those quarterly earnings met analyst expectations.But Dollar Tree forecast a third quarter below analyst predictions, saying that it expected profits of 47 cents to 51 cents a share on revenue of $1.71 to $1.75 billion. Analysts had been forecasting earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $1.77 billion. On the news, Dollar Tree stock is currently trading down over 8%, and only continuing to drop. According to Reuters, Dollar Tree’s cautious predictions may be a sign that the low income families who frequent the store are feeling increasing economic pressure. For more on the latest business news, follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline, or check out our website at fnno.com

Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD) feeling economic pressure after announcing a profit loss for the second quarter. The retailer posted a loss of 86 cents per share which was in line with analyst expectations. Revenue, however, fell 6.6% to $9.47 billion, below the street’s estimate of $9.63 billion. So even though it was expected Sears would lose money in the quarter, its sales were still weaker than what analysts predicted. Despite this news, Sears is trying its best to mitigate its losses by closing stores, selling real estate, and spinning off various parts of its business. Just recently, the company said it will split its Hometown and Outlet stores as well as some hardware stores into a separate publicly traded company. Sears hopes to raise $246.5 million through a rights offering

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) seeing gains in its second quarter profit but misses on revenue. The world’s largest retailer posted an EPS of $1.18 per share, just edging out the street’s estimate of $1.17. Revenue for the quarter rose 4.5% to $114.3 billion, missing the $115.75 billion analysts were expecting. Even though Wal-Mart had a successful quarter, expectations were high for its sales. And with the slowing U.S. economy and troubles overseas, the retailer was not able to exceed estimates. Despite these troubles though, Wal-Mart also raised and narrowed its full-year earnings estimate to between $4.83 and $4.93. This is now more in line with analyst estimates of $4.93 per share.

Today, Ecuador granted political asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of controversial website Wikileaks. Assange lost a legal battle weeks ago to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about sexual assault charges from two women. Since losing the legal battle, Assange has holed up in London’s Ecuadorean embassy, and he has now been there for eight weeks. Assange sought asylum because of his worry that he will be sent to the United States, where influential people are furious about the hundreds of thousands of secret US documents he leaked. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, who announced the asylum decision, said Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States, and could possibly face the death penalty if tried there. Just yesterday, the British government threatened to storm the Ecuadorean embassy and arrest Assange. Now, even though Ecuador has granted asylum, Britain still intends to follow through on its legal obligation to extradite him. Assange’s protection ends the moment he steps foot outside the embassy, and only begins again when he is on Ecuadorean territory. So in between, he is vulnerable to arrest. No one yet knows how Assange will attempt to leave the embassy, where he has been sleeping on an air mattress and continuing to oversee Wikileaks, but he can’t stay in there forever.

Facebook’s stock has plunged to a new low today, now that one of the bans preventing insiders and early investors from selling their shares has expired. So far today, Facebook’s stock has plunged down to a low of $19.69, although it’s currently bounced back a bit and is trading at just over $20. This is close to 6% down from Wednesday’s close, and close to 50% below the price of its initial public offering, which was $38. This means that the stock has lost nearly half of its value since its IPO, which was one of the most anticipated in history. Some of the investors eligible to sell today are firms like Goldman Sachs and Microsoft, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, and various Facebook board members. It’s unclear whether stock prices are declining because the marketplace is now flooded with their shares, or because other investors anticipated such an event. This is only the first of multiple lock-ups, which are meant to prevent volatility. 271 shares were freed up today, but another 247 million shares will be freed up on October 16th, and November 15th will see the unlocking of 1.2 billion shares.

Groupon (NYSE:GRPN) showing signs the online deal market is dwindling. The company posted a 45% rise in second quarter revenue to $568.3 million, a positive number for the online deal site but a negative one for Wall Street. Analysts were expecting revenue to be $575.3 million. Groupon said they missed estimates because of weakness in Europe which resulted in poor sales internationally. The company added it hopes to boost its business in that region for the coming quarter.Looking ahead, the company sees revenue between $580 million to $620 million, more or less in line with the average analyst estimate of $607.4 million.