Amazon deal slams retailers

NEW YORK: Food and retail stocks floundered Friday on news of Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods Market, but the Dow edged to a fresh record on gains in energy shares. Investors smiled on the two parties in Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods, sending Whole Foods’ stock up 29.1% and Amazon 2.4% higher. But the market punished other retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores, which lost 4.7%, amid expectations the deal would sharpen price competition in the industry, denting profits. But gains of more than 1% by oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron, and commodity-oriented industrial Caterpillar, helped lift the Dow 0.1% to close at 21,384.28, eking out a new record. The broad-based S&P 500 rose slightly to end at 2,433.15, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.2% to 6,151.76.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2017.

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