Diamonds and Dogs

12/6/19

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) looks pretty today. The cosmetic company is up 12% to a three-month high following better than expected earnings as revenue rose 7.9% to $1.68 billion driven by sales of higher-margin cosmetics products. The near 30-year-old company has capitalized on booming demand for celebrity-led beauty brands, which are usually priced at a premium, and has attributed cosmetics lines from Kylie Jenner and YouTuber James Charles for driving customers to its stores.

Uber Technologies (UBER) has some sobering news. The ride sharing stock is down 2% after issuing an 84-page report that outlined how the company has been working to improve safety conditions. The document includes data on U.S. incident reports in 2017 and 2018, as well as what steps the company has taken to improve conditions for riders and drivers. And though the company tried its best to frame the figures within the context of national averages, the headline numbers, especially for sexual assaults, didn't help. In 2018, nine people were murdered, while 58 died in Uber-related crashes. There were 3,045 reported sexual assaults during rides. The company noted that sexual assault, especially, has the potential to be underreported.