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Investing Action Plan For Thursday: Alibaba, Mobileye, 3D Systems On Tap

Here’s your Investing Action Plan for Thursday: What you need to know as an investor for the coming day. Alibaba Group ( BABA ), 3D Systems ( DDD ),  Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) supplier Mobileye ( MBLY ), Sprouts Farmers Market ( SFM ) and shale producer EOG Resources ( EOG ) are all due to report earnings Thursday. Alibaba Top Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba is on tap to announce results for its fourth quarter, ended March 31, prior to the market opening on Thursday. Investors will look for a rise in the value of goods sold on its various platforms. The company, sometimes called the Amazon.com ( AMZN ) of China, reported better-than-expected earnings last quarter, but shares fell after it said that growth in gross merchandise volume, a measure of total value of goods sold, shrank from the prior quarter. First-quarter gross merchandise volume will be key in the upcoming report. Consensus is for a 21% increase in earnings to 56 cents a share on a 33% hike in revenue to $3.58 billion. Alibaba fell 0.9% in afternoon trading on the stock market today . Mobileye The advanced driver assistance systems maker, which sells to luxury electric carmaker Tesla Motors and others, also reports early Thursday. Tesla, General Motors ( GM ), Ford Motor ( F ) and other automakers, along with tech giants like Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google and reportedly Apple ( AAPL ), are racing to develop autonomous, self-driving car technology. Mobileye’s backup cameras and other high tech gear are seen as key to such systems. On April 19, Mobileye announced a partnership to expand in China with Chinese e-commerce site Ingdan.com, a unit of Hong Kong-based Cogobuy Group. Under terms of the deal, Ingdan.com will sell Mobileye products on its site. Mobileye was down 4.4% Wednesday. Tesla reports first-quarter results after the market close on Wednesday. Analyst consensus is for per share loss to deepen to 57 cents from 37 cents in Q1 2015 as it boosts spending to expand Model X production and build the Gigafactory battery plant in Nevada. Tesla slid 4.7% ahead of results and amid reports that key production chiefs are leaving. 3D Systems 3D Systems will report first-quarter earnings before the market opens Thursday . 3D printing could be poised to recover from a two-year decline. Leaders 3D Systems and Stratasys ( SSYS ) — which reports May 9 — grew at a rapid pace for years by selling so-called “additive printers,” which create physical objects by layering on materials such as plastic and metal to build a variety of devices. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are looking for 3D Systems’ earnings per share minus one-time items to be flat at 5 cents a share vs. Q1 2015 and are projecting a slight dip in revenue to $156.3 million. Sentiment is positive though after 3D Systems crushed estimates last quarter, reporting a 19-cent profit, more than six times the expected 3 cents, and its $183.4 million revenue easily topped forecasts. 3D Systems tumbled 5% intraday Wednesday, undercutting its 50-day line, after tumbling 7.4% Tuesday and 6.3% Monday. Stratasys fell 3.9%. Sprouts Farmers Market Natural and organic foods grocery Sprouts Farmers Market ( SFM ) reports first-quarter financial results early Thursday. Consensus is for earnings to rise 16% to 29 cents a share and revenue to climb 18% to $1.01 billion.But Sprouts has beaten earnings estimates in the last two quarters. Sprouts hass gotten a series of analyst upgrades recently, including Oppenheimer raising its price target Monday to 30 from 26 with a hold rating. Sprouts rose 0.5%. In contrast, rival Whole Foods Market ( WFM ) has delivered below market performance this year and is scheduled to report after the close Wednesday. Its earnings and revenue growth both shrank the last two quarters in a row. Its stock is down 15% year to date and was down about 1% Wednesday afternoon. EOG Resources Oil and natural gas producer EOG Resources ( EOG ) will report results late Thursday. Gas prices climbed to a six-month high at a national average of $2.22 per gallon as the industry tries to recover from plunging prices. EOG is expected to record an 84 cents loss vs. a 3 cent profit in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue is projected to fall 28.1% to $1.67 billion. EOG shares were down 1.5% Wednesday. On Wednesday, Carrizo Oil & Gas ( CRZO ) and Noble Energy ( NBL ) raised production targets .

Investing Action Plan For Wednesday: Tesla, Fitbit, Priceline, Shale

Here’s your Investing Action plan for Wednesday: What you need to know as an investor for the coming day. Tesla Motors ( TSLA ), Fitbit ( FIT ),  Priceline ( PCLN ), Whole Foods Market ( WFM ) and several shale energy companies report earnings on Wednesday. Investors should also pay attention to U.S. oil inventory and production data as well as economic reports on productivity, service sector activity and jobs. Tesla Motors Luxury electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors will report first-quarter financial results after the market closes Wednesday. The consensus estimate on revenue is $1.59 billion, up 45% year over year. The consensus is for a per-share losses of 58 cents, worse than to loss of 36 cents, as polled by Thomson Reuters. Investors will be looking for management comments on Tesla’s delivery targets, as production of the Model X ramps up. Tesla stock hit a seven-month high of 269.34 earlier this month following upbeat Model 3 preorders. But shares have pulled back, falling 3.9% on the stock market today to 232.32, approaching its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Mobileye ( MBLY ), which provides advanced driver assistance systems for Tesla and several other automakers, reports Thursday morning. Mobileye stock fell 2% Tuesday. Priceline Priceline is expected to report double-digit Q1 sales and earnings growth when it reports before the market open Wednesday. The consensus is for revenue of $2.12 billion, up 15% year over year, and EPS of $9.65, up 19%. A week ago CEO Darren Huston tendered his resignation over an inappropriate-at-work relationship. Priceline stock fell 0.15% to 1354.64. It’s close to a buy point at 1,361.73. Fitbit Fitbit ( FIT ) reports after the close Wednesday. The consensus is for revenue of $443 million , up 32% year over year but the third quarter in a row of deceleration. EPS is pegged at 3 cents, a plunge from a profit of 27 cents a year ago. The maker of wearable fitness devices beat Wall Street’s sales and earnings targets for the holiday quarter, but its guidance for the current quarter fell well short of expectations. Fitbit stock tumbled 6.5% Tuesday to 17.18. Shares have rallied since late February but are still far below their August 2015 peak of 51.90. Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market is expected to report fiscal Q2 revenue of $3.75 billion, up 3%, and EPS of 41 cents, down 5%. The stock fell 1% Tuesday. Meanwhile, natural foods products grocery rival  Sprouts Farmers Market ( SFM ) reports earnings Thursday morning. Sprouts slid 3.4%. Shale Earnings While a few shale companies have already reported, some of the leaders are coming up, as crude prices rebound to the highest levels since November. Results will be grim, but investors will be looking to see if shale producers plan to slash capital spending even further, or announce plans to step up drilling. Continental Resources ( CLR ) on Wednesday is expected to report a per-share loss that widens to 37 cents from a 9-cent-loss a year ago. Revenue is seen falling 24.5% to $440 million, marking a fifth straight decline. Carrizo Oil and Gas ( CRZO ) and Noble Energy ( NBL ) will announce quarterly results before the market opens Wednesday. Oil Inventories The Energy Information Administration at 1:30 p.m. ET will release U.S. petroleum inventories and production levels. Supplies are near record highs, but U.S. crude output has been falling as shale companies slash drilling. Late Tuesday the American Petroleum Institute estimated that weekly crude inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels, while gasoline stockpiles slid 1.2 million barrels. Economic Reports Employment: ADP will release its estimate of private-sector payrolls for April, ahead of the Labor Department’s big employment report on Friday. Economists expect ADP to report a gain of 193,000 jobs. Productivity: The Labor Department releases nonfarm productivity figures for Q1. Economists expect a 1.2% annualized decline after Q4’s 2.2% drop. Trade deficit: The Commerce Department releases U.S. trade figures for March. The trade gap likely shrank to $41.4 billion vs. February’s $47.1 billion. Service sector: ISM releases its nonmanufacturing index for April. Economists expect the service-sector gauge to show a reading of 54.7, little changed from the solid gain of 54.5.  

Amazon.com Launches Pantry In UK, To Battle Grocers

Amazon.com is set to battle grocers in the U.K. with its one-day delivery service called Pantry. The e-commerce leader’s Pantry expansion takes on U.K. grocer heavyweights such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Other rivals are the U.K. units of U.S.-based retailers Wal-Mart (WMT) and Whole Foods (WFM). In the U.S., the war for e-commerce grocery business is intensifying. Amazon.com (AMZN) has been battling Wal-Mart, which has rolled out a