Cramer: The one word that took Netflix down

The Get Down - "Rule the World" - Netflix [HD]

For the first time ever price mattered for Netflix. It seemed as if the mere fear of the pending price increase is what weakened U.S. numbers, Cramer said.

"I found myself thinking, at least they didn"t lose any," he said.

Before the second-quarter results, price had not mattered for Netflix. Cramer regarded it as part of a holy trinity of memberships that consumers were willing to pay for that also includes Costco and Amazon Prime.

No one knows why the un-grandfathered subscribers decided not to renew the service. Cramer noted that Netflix didn"t get it, either. He read over the comments from the team multiple times, and he still couldn"t figure it out. It did not make sense that subscribers would leave because of a few dollars, especially when compared to the price of a cable bill.

Cramer didn"t get the last miss from Netflix when it pinned most of the blame on Australia, either. He didn"t get it when Netflix also blamed the previous quarter miss on an issue with credit card migrations. But he was willing to overlook each one because he knew that the audience loved Netflix.

"Now, I am not so sure. You just shouldn"t be getting this level of Netflix cutting. And the lack of domestic growth isn"t being made up overseas, like it used to be," Cramer said.

This simply became one of those bad quarters that prompted Cramer to think the stock just can"t be bought because management didn"t give investors a reason to do so. It kept guidance for next year, but that was not enough.

With three straight quarters of misses, he doesn"t think the company will be able to get ahead of it until the "un-grandfathering" is finished at the end of the year.

"Perhaps you were listening to an old call, when the idea that someone wouldn"t pay up for Netflix was inconceivable. Not anymore," Cramer said.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/19/jim-cramer-the-one-word-that-took-netflix-down.html

Continue Reading ..

Wall St. falls after Wal-Mart"s weak forecast; Netflix down after the bell

NETFLIX IS DOWN (PRANK CALL)

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) skidded after issuing a weak profit forecast and as JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) slipped on disappointing results.

The news added to worries about the outlook for U.S. earnings, with Standard & Poor"s 500 profits forecast to have dropped more than 4 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

After the market close, shares of Netflix (NFLX.O) fell 2.4 percent to $107.55 after the company reported U.S. subscriber additions below its own forecast. The shares were down about 12 percent shortly after the news.

Separately, grocery operator Albertsons (ABS.N) postponed the pricing of its initial public offering amid weaker-than-expected demand from investors, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, while First Data Corp (FDC.N) priced the year"s biggest IPO at a discount.

During the regular session, Wal-Mart sank 10 percent to $60.03 in its biggest one-day percentage decline in years and its heaviest trading day since January 2009, after it forecast a drop of up to 12 percent in earnings per share in fiscal 2017.

The decline erased roughly $22 billion off the retailer"s market value, and the stock was the biggest drag on both the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500.

Target Corp (TGT.N) was down 3.5 percent at $76.20, Sears Co Ltd (SHLD.O) fell 3.0 percent to $24.41, while the S&P 500 retail index .SPXRT dropped 1.2 percent.

Data showing U.S. retail sales barely rose in September weighed on sector shares.

JPMorgan shares fell 2.5 percent to $59.99 after the bank reported disappointing third-quarter results late on Tuesday.

"In these next three weeks in the earnings season, we"re going to get some clear guidance not just on earnings for the third quarter but guidance for the fourth quarter and for next year. That"s going to be crucial," said John Canally, investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial in Boston.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 157.14 points, or 0.92 percent, to 16,924.75, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.45 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,994.24 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 13.76 points, or 0.29 percent, to 4,782.85.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) fell 0.7 percent to $51.50, while Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) rose 0.8 percent to $15.64 both following results.

Among other big decliners, shares of Boeing Co (BA.N) dropped 4.3 percent to $134.22. Delta Air Lines Inc"s (DAL.N) chief executive said he expects the market to be "ripe" for the carrier to buy used widebody planes over the next 12 to 36 months, as low interest rates have created a market bubble. Delta shares were up 1.8 percent at $48.59. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,809 to 1,241, for a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the downside. On the Nasdaq, 1,759 issues fell and 1,005 advanced for a 1.75-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and five new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 21 new highs and 57 new lows.

About 6.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, compared with the 7.5 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Editing by Leslie Adler, Meredith Mazzilli and Richard Chang)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/14/us-markets-stocks-idUSKCN0S819D20151014

Continue Reading ..