NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks traded mixed on Thursday as disappointing holiday sales and revenue guidance from big retail and airline names dragged down major indexes.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 33.16 points, or 0.14 percent, to 23,912.28. The S&P 500 was up 1.05 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,586.01. The Nasdaq Composite Index erased 0.65 point, or 0.01 percent, to 6,956.43.
Shares of Macy's plunged nearly 19 percent to trade at 25.70 U.S. dollars apiece in early trading on Thursday after it reported weak holiday sales for 2018 and cut its earnings outlook for the year.
In a statement released on Thursday, the department store chain said online sales in November and December and sales at stores operating for at least 12 months were up a combined 1.1 percent. The company expected no growth in net sales for fiscal 2018, rather than an increase between 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent that was previously estimated.
Its same-store sales projection for the year was revised down to 2 percent from a range of 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent.
American Airlines cut its profit forecast and said it struggled to grow revenue at the end of 2018.
The airline, the largest in the United States, said its revenue per available seat mile, a key industry metric, rose 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 year on year, compared with a range of 1.5 percent o 3.5 percent it gave investors previously.
The airline said excluding special items, it expects to post earnings per diluted share between 4.40 and 4.60 dollars, down from its estimate in October. Enditem
