Shares of retailers and other consumer companies were lower as traders await fresh data on inflation due Thursday morning.
The National Retail Federation said Wednesday it expects retail sales to jump between 10.5% and 13.5% to more than $4.44 trillion this year compared with last. That is nearly double the forecast the trade group gave in February.
Shares of Campbell Soup Co. fell 7% after the soups and snacks maker reported fiscal third-quarter profit and sales that fell more than expected and cut its full-year outlook. The company said inflation and rising supply chain costs weighed on results.
"We expected this to be a challenging quarter, but it was made even tougher as these pressures in some cases were more significant than anticipated," Chief Executive Officer Mark Clouse said on a conference call.
GameStop said late Wednesday it has appointed two Amazon.com executives as its new top leaders, shortly after Chewy co-founder and private-equity investor Ryan Cohen was voted the videogame retailer's chairman of the board.
GameStop said it appointed Matt Furlong as chief executive and Mike Recupero as chief financial officer. Both join from Amazon.com, where they oversaw growth initiatives, the company said.
Former Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn and other executives will pay the company a total of $351 million to settle lawsuits for their alleged roles in a decadelong emissions fraud that continues to cast a shadow over the car maker six years after it was disclosed by U.S. authorities, the company said.
Ferrari NV hired a top executive from the semiconductor industry as its new CEO, as car makers focus on microchips and digital technologies that increasingly control everything from brakes to entertainment systems. Benedetto Vigna, 52, will take over at Ferrari on Sept. 1.
Write to Amy Pessetto at amy.pessetto@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-09-21 1705ET
