Diamonds and Dogs

11/16/17

Walmart (WMT) coming after Amazon. The big box retailer is up 8% to new highs as the company is transforming more into the Amazon business model. Walmart bought out Jet.com for more than $3 billion last year, adding online services and acquiring brands like Bonobos and ModCloth. E-commerce sales grew 50 percent, though Walmart has a long way to get even close to Amazon's dominance online. Walmart said in October that U.S. e-commerce sales should be about $11.5 billion this year and it expects global e-commerce to be $17.5 billion. That's still less than 4 percent of overall sales well behind Amazon's $94.66 billion in the last calendar year.

Viacom (VIAB) not acting well. The owner of MTV and Comedy Central, said it expects lower revenue from cable and satellite companies in 2018, a forecast that sent its shares down 3% in morning trading. The largest U.S. cable and satellite companies have shed more than a million subscribers so far this year, a situation that has left them less willing to pay for Viacom's programs. Viacom said it expects high single-digit declines in U.S. affiliate sales in the first half of 2018. For the year, it expects affiliate sales to be down in the mid-single digits with positive sales returning in 2019.