Chocolate and chips were on today's stock market menu. Hershey's stock price soared on a report of another Mondelez takeover attempt. However, the market was weighed down by Nvidia shares, which fell after China opened an investigation over possible violation of antimonopoly law. There was some profit-taking in Tesla during the day following the huge run-up since Election Day. But the stock closed slightly higher.
Meanwhile, our colleague Joe Abbott reports that Q3's revenues per share and earnings per share rose to new record highs, while the profit margin edged up to 12.6% (chart).
Revenues per share rose 6.9% y/y, well above its 4.5% average over time (chart). That's impressive considering that the global economy is relatively weak and that inflation has moderated significantly.
The growth rate of earnings per share was 8.4%, which is a respectable showing and more than twice as fast as industry analysts expected at the start of the latest earnings reporting season (chart).
