Consumer Companies Lower as Disney Warns on Earnings -- Consumer Roundup

Shares of retailers and other consumer-services companies fell as a withering hurricane season reduced demand for entertainment and travel issues.

Shares of Walt Disney slid after Chief Executive Robert Iger said 2017 earnings would be more or less in line with those a year earlier, as tough comparisons between Star Wars movies and the effects of hurricanes on its cruises and theme-park bookings took their toll.

Other cruise-line operators such as Carnival saw continued downward pressure on their shares.

Mr. Iger also said a streaming service the company has decided to launch in 2019 rather than continuing its licensing deal with Netflix will offer viewers Star Wars and superhero movies based on Marvel comics.

Services data released Wednesday were better than economists had anticipated, and another positive sign for the U.S. economy, according to one brokerage. "Survey data so far have been consistent with our view that the economy has been growing moderately above trend with healthy domestic demand," analysts at brokerage Nomura Securities said in a note to clients.

Barnes & Noble reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and sales shy of Wall Street targets.

Shares of home-improvement retailers rose in anticipation of rebuilding and restoration efforts in the aftermath of the hurricane season.

Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 07, 2017 17:26 ET (21:26 GMT)