American stock markets are closing sharply in the red

Wall Street slipped. Big Teck and corona-sensitive stocks took a hit. Hasbro lost heavily after quarterly results. Procter & Gamble has a bull’s eye with a disinfectant spray. Dunkin Donuts may be de-stocked.

Furthermore, investors are still looking at the negotiations between the Republicans and the Democrats about a new stimulus package. But it is increasingly looking like there will be no stimulus package for the US presidential election.

Big Tech got hit. Microsoft

stumbled 2.8 percent, Facebook fell

2.7 percent and Alphabet slipped 3 percent. Amazon

and Apple

closed almost unchanged.

But it was mainly the corona-sensitive stocks that were hit in the US. The cruise operators Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (-8.5%), Carnival (-8.7%) and Royal Caribbean Group

(-9.7%) were among the biggest losers in the S & P500. Also aircraft shares like United Airlines

(-7%), American Airlines Group

(-6.4%) on Delta Airlines

(-6.1%) plunged sharply lower.

The Dow Jones fell 2.3 percent.

The American toy maker Hasbro

lost more than 9 percent. The company nevertheless saw a strong increase in turnover in the third quarter. Sales climbed 12.7 percent to $ 1.78 billion, beating the analyst forecast of $ 1.75 billion. Investors may now look more at earnings per share, as it was 12.5 percent lower at $ 1.61, two cents below the market consensus.

In addition, investors may look at the ‘partner brands’ segment, which includes toys that are linked to films. Sales in that division fell by 4 percent as a result of the problems in the cinema industry.

The game branch turned out well. Thanks to good sales of the board game Monopoly and the digital card game “Magic: The Gathering,” sales in this division increased 21 percent to $ 543.1 million. “In the third quarter, we saw higher demand for our brands in most markets,” said CEO Brian Goldner. ‘Our broad and innovative product line and our attention to e-commerce and good marketing campaigns resulted in a better performance.’

Goldner also expects the December months to turn out well. ‘Despite the corona crisis, consumers still want to find entertainment with their personal contacts.’

The Dunkin Brands stock went up more than 16 percent. The company above the donut chain Dunkin Donuts could possibly be taken over by Inspire Holding, which falls under the private equity group Roark Capital. The company reports that it has had exploratory talks with Inspire Brands. Neither wants to comment further until a deal is closed.

A takeover deal could possibly be announced on Monday, according to the American newspaper New York Times. According to the newspaper, Inspire Brands would pay $ 106.50 per share under an agreement. That’s a 20 percent premium over Friday’s closing price, which was $ 88.79.

The donut group has 21,000 distribution points in more than 60 countries, according to its own website. This also includes 12,900 Dunkin restaurants and 8,000 Baskin-Robbins stores. Baskin-Robbins calls itself the largest chain of ice cream shops in the world.

Procter & Gamble

(P&G) launched Microban 24 in February after three years of development. The disinfectant spray was not intended to be a top product, but Covid-19 could change that. After all, the spray was approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency on Monday as an effective means of killing the virus that causes Covid-19.

Microban 24 had to offer an alternative to products known (in the US) such as Lysol (from Reckitt Benckiser) and various products from Clorox. This year the spray could already achieve a turnover of 200 million dollars.

Last Tuesday, P&G already reported strong quarterly results. Sales were up 9 percent in the first quarter of its broken fiscal year. Due to the corona pandemic, the demand for household products has risen sharply. P&G raised its revenue and profit forecast for 2020/21.

Despite the good news, the stock lost 0.8 percent.