Diamonds and Dogs

1/17/19

Cars.com (CARS) zooming higher. The web company that connects consumers to car dealers is up 7% after saying it may explore a sale of the company, just weeks after activist investor Starboard Value pressed management to improve performance. Starboard Value, which owns around 9% of the Chicago-based group, told management in a letter published on December 10 that Cars.com had been losing customers for the past two years, leading to a decline in organic revenue.

Morgan Stanley (MS) trading the wrong bonds. Morgan Stanley is down 6% after missing estimates on the top and bottom line for the first time since the third quarter of 2015. The bond-trading department saw revenue tumbled 30 percent to $564 million as they succumbed to the same downturn that afflicted the rest of Wall Street in the fourth quarter. The drop was the biggest of the five largest U.S. investment banks and well below the $823 million average estimate of analysts. A couple regional banks aren't faring much better. KeyCorp is down 4% following earnings.