Duluth ( DLTH -8.33% ) Q3 2024 Earnings Call Dec 05, 2024 , 9:30 a.m. ET Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: Operator Good morning, and welcome to Duluth Trading's third quarter financial results conference call. [Operator instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nitza McKee, senior associate, IR; ICR. Please go ahead. Nitza McKee -- Investor Relations Thank you, and welcome to today's call to discuss Duluth Trading's third quarter financial results. Our earnings release, which was issued this morning, is available on our investor relations website at ir.duluthtrading.com under Press Releases. I'm here today with Sam Sato, president and chief executive officer; and Heena Agrawal, senior vice president and chief financial officer. On today's call, management will provide prepared remarks, and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that the comments on today's call will include forward-looking statements, which can be identified by the use of words such as estimate, anticipate, expect, and similar phrases. Forward-looking statements, by their nature, involve estimates, projections, goals, forecasts, and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those that are described in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other SEC filings, as applicable. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this conference call and should not be relied upon as predictions of future events. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Sam Sato, president and chief executive officer. Sam? Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Nitza, and thank you all for joining today's call. Our third quarter performance did not meet our expectations. We felt the impact of a highly promotional environment and unseasonably warm weather, resulting in a net sales decline for the quarter of 8.1% with our direct and retail channel delivering similar year-over-year top-line results. Despite the macro and weather-related impacts, we are pleased to see growth in our average order value and a double-digit increase in digital tactics. That said, these were not enough to offset the year-over-year contraction in transactions. We ended the quarter with inventory levels higher than planned, driven by a combination of early planned receive for products to ensure we are in stock for the holiday selling season and cold weather goods in which sales were impacted by warmer weather. As a result, we began taking the necessary actions to increase our unit selling velocity beginning in late October, and I'm pleased to report that our top-line trends have meaningfully improved, leading into the all-important Black Friday week and continuing through Cyber Monday. As we enter the final peak selling weeks of the holiday season, we are committed to prudently managing our inventory and ending the fiscal year in a clean, high-quality position. In what remains a highly competitive market, we have an unwavering commitment to delivering value to our customers while also positioning our business for continued success in the future. Looking past fiscal 2024, leveraging our advanced sourcing and product innovation functions and in partnership with our new chief merchant, Eli Getson, we are significantly enhancing our go-forward assortment and inventory management. As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, we are building upon the success of our strategic initiatives, making meaningful progress on structural improvements, and embarking on Enterprise Planning, an end-to-end cross-functional initiative to significantly enhance our operational effectiveness and strategic planning processes. There is much work ahead of us, and we are laser-focused on improving our financial performance while driving operational excellence over both the near and long term. I'd like to provide you with an update on the key initiatives tied to our Big Dam Blueprint, the foundation of our omnichannel consumer strategy, which are on track with expected benefits materializing. First, an update on our sourcing and product innovation efforts, which remain a critical strategic unlock for the business. As a direct result of this initiative, we registered another quarter of gross margin expansion with over 200 basis points of improvement over Q3 last year. We continue to have line of sight to multiple years of significant product cost benefits. In addition to reducing product costs, this initiative enables us to bring to market high-quality, innovative products more frequently with increased speed to market. Regarding our fulfillment center network optimization plan to maximize service, capacity, and cost, we continue to leverage Adairsville's fully operational and highly automated fulfillment center capabilities. It's enabled structural improvements like exiting the Dubuque facility successfully on time and with a smooth transition of the volume into the remaining network. As we enter the peak holiday selling season, we are on track for Adairsville to process the majority of online orders and replenishment volume. In fact, over the Thanksgiving weekend through Tuesday, Adairsville processed 64% more units compared to last year with a significant reduction in our click-to-delivery time. Importantly, in Q3, we registered another quarter of cost per-unit fulfillment benefits with the variable CPU in Adairsville, 73% lower than the legacy facility. With the elimination of fixed costs from the exit of the Dubuque fulfillment center, we continue to anticipate annualized run-rate savings of approximately $5 million with expected benefits starting in the fourth quarter of this year, and we're evaluating further network optimization opportunities. Shifting to our channel strategy to serve a predominantly and growing omnichannel consumer. The mobile device is our No. 1 and most important digital customer touch point and represents a gateway to the brand. We continue to build on our success with our mobile-first strategy, fueling mobile penetration growth as a percentage of total across both visits and sales on our website. In the quarter, 71% of visits and 57% of sales came through a mobile device. We saw 15% growth in visits on mobile, and our conversion remains significantly higher than the industry average. Retail stores play a critical component of our omnichannel strategy. Two-thirds of new consumers prefer shopping in-store. In addition, our omnichannel consumers spend more on average per order and shop at more than twice the frequency of our single-channel consumers. Stores also offer services like returns; buy online, pick up in store; and fulfilling online orders, creating a seamless consumer experience. Combining a digital strategy with a relevant and productive store portfolio is critical to winning in an omnichannel ecosystem. And as part of our structural improvements, we are making great progress to revitalize our store portfolio. We're on track to open two new stores in priority markets in the second half of 2025. We've identified a handful of stores which no longer meet our higher hurdle rate requirements and our potential targets for closure or relocation. And additionally, we've launched local marketing campaigns in priority markets to drive retail traffic. With respect to our go-to-market brand and marketing strategy, we've switched our media marketing partner, and we're thrilled with the new enhancements to our next generation of consumer-centric capabilities they are bringing. We remain focused on upper funnel brand building and driving more traffic and conversion with target consumers. The underpinnings of our brands and sub-brands remain strong, and our level of newness in the quarter increased by 60 basis points over last year. Despite the challenging third quarter results, we registered several merchandising and product innovation wins. While our women's business declined this quarter, we continue to see strength across the first air category up 22% and in AKHG with growth of 6%. Our Heirloom Garden collection continues to perform well. Growth in first layer was driven by our Buck Naked and Amadeo collections, as well as newness offered in our pajama and loungewear business. We expanded our plus-size assortment, including our successful Adjustabust, a bonded zip-front bra with a sleek silhouette and crisscrossed back, offering extra support and security. Coupled with continued popularity of our TeeLUXE bra, our bra business grew by 20% this quarter. Within the women's AKHG business, customers continue to respond well to our signature mid-tops and bottoms, which drove overall AKHG quarter growth of 6%. Growth was driven by strength in several key collections, including Renew Bamboo, Roadless, and Trail Tech. These collections support our ongoing focus on outdoor recreation through performance attributes. Our Heirloom Garden collection continues to be a favorite for her as evidenced by growth over last year of nearly 70%. Bolstered by a variety of new prints, Heirloom Garden was the No. 1 women's apparel collection for every week in Q3. Our strategy of refreshing core colors with the introduction of multiple exciting prints continue to prove successful. Our men's business was more heavily impacted by unseasonably warm weather. However, we did see continued strength in our Dry on the Fly technology as recent expansions into tees and unders continue to resonate. Further, we intentionally extended the summer season with a focus on Dry on the Fly shorts, showcasing one of our key cooling technologies that resonated with warmer temperatures throughout the quarter. We launched our new Souped-Up Sweats collection early in Q3, Duluth's version of your basic sweats set with unbeatable comfort and durability, allowing for easier movement of working and even better for lounging. This fabrication made for both him and her is resonating well with our customers, and fleece will continue to be a major focus for us moving forward. Our new T-shirt flannel, which is the perfect blend of your favorite flannel's warmth and your most comfortable T-shirt's softness performed well this quarter. We saw further positive response in men's woven tops, driven by additional newness with our men's indigo twill and Oxford shirts, both of which are lighter-weight casual offerings in the standard fit. As we move into Q4, we're focused on driving volume with our largest seasonal categories, including flannels, shirt jacks, and line bottoms. We're excited about introducing new innovation in the outerwear category with our men's insulator jackets, which contain revolutionary solar ball insulation that transforms the sun's infrared energy into instantaneous warmth, no battery pack needed. And as the gift-giving season approaches, we will focus on cart builders with unders, socks, and hard goods and lean into cozy loungewear and pajama sets which are performing well, especially for her. As mentioned earlier, we onboarded our new advertising agency this quarter and increased our media spend with an enhanced focus on our target customer. The result was a double-digit increase in website traffic, driven by first-time visitors. We were pleased to see the significant increase and have shifted our focus on optimizing our lower funnel conversion tactics and retargeting efforts to capitalize on this traffic. We're excited about several key branding moments, including a feature gift guide segment that aired last week on Good Morning America, a strong presence in this year's college football playoff gains, and continuing our partnership with Yellowstone. As many of you have likely seen, Duluth Trading returned for a third year in partnership with Yellowstone to accelerate its highly anticipated fifth season, which premiered on November 11. Fan favorite stories from the Bunkhouse offers a behind-the-scenes look at Jefferson White's journey as Jimmy. Jefferson White embraces our belief in taking on life with your own two hands in some of our most innovative Duluth products while sharing candid behind-the-scene stories from life on set. He embodies the authenticity and resilience that define both the brand and Yellowstone iconic characters. Reflecting the hardworking spirit of the American frontier, the Loop products are designed for the can-doer lifestyle, capturing the grit, endurance, and timeless style that resonates with fans everywhere. The partnership spans all Duluth channels, website, paid social, and more, amplifying the shared values of quality and authenticity. In summary, we're realizing benefits from our long-term strategic initiatives, including product development and sourcing, logistics and supply chain, our mobile-first efforts, and go-to-market initiatives. We're delivering a high level of product newness and innovation, which is resonating with both existing and new customers. We are taking swift action on structural initiatives like completing Phase 2 of our fulfillment center network optimization plan and have made great progress on our retail store portfolio strategy. And we're embarking on a significantly enhanced end-to-end cross-functional enterprise planning process to drive operational excellence. Importantly, we remain in a strong financial position with quarter-end liquidity of $165 million. Finally, we're making great strides in our long-term strategic initiatives that will help us unlock the full profit potential of the enterprise, setting us up for future success. I look forward to sharing more on our fourth quarter call and will now turn it over to Heena to provide more details on our third quarter results. Heena? Heena Agrawal -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Thanks, Sam, and good morning. In the third quarter, we expanded our gross margin by 210 basis points. However, top-line sales declined 8.1%. Unusually warm weather impacted fall/winter seasonal sales. And as a result, our inventory levels increased at the end of the quarter. As Sam mentioned, we are taking swift actions to end the year clean on inventories. And as trends have improved, our second half-to-date top line is now tracking at minus 3%. We are pleased with the progress of our strategic initiatives as we saw a second consecutive quarter of gross margin expansion from our sourcing initiatives and reduction in fulfillment and transportation costs from the logistics network. Our structural improvements are on track. In Q3, we successfully completed Phase 2 of our fulfillment network optimization and exited one of our legacy fulfillment centers announced last quarter. As stated on the last two calls, our primary focus is to unlock the full profit potential of the enterprise and to strategically deploy capital to unlock growth opportunities. Realizing savings from Phase 2 of the fulfillment network, revitalizing the store portfolio to increase productivity and profitability, and allocating capital to omnichannel growth are key steps toward making structural changes to drive sustainable, profitable growth. In addition to our strategic initiatives and structural improvements, as Sam mentioned, we have launched Enterprise Planning, an end-to-end cross-functional initiative to significantly enhance our operational and planning processes. Providing a date to Phase 2 of our fulfillment center network, we completed the closure of our Dubuque, Iowa facility at the end of October. This incurred restructuring expenses of $7.7 million, which was spread between two quarters with $1.6 million recognized in Q2 and $6.2 million in Q3. We have begun to realize savings in Q4 for a full-year annualized run-rate savings of $5 million in 2025. Leveraging our most efficient and cost-effective Adairsville fulfillment center, we are now evaluating the next phase to continue to maximize network capacity and cost. We are pleased to share the progress on our retail store portfolio strategy. We have identified priority markets and are on track to open two new sites in the back half of 2025. As it relates to our existing fleet, we have established higher hurdle rate requirements due to new leases to enhance the productivity and profitability of our portfolio. As mentioned previously, almost 25% of our current store portfolio is coming up for renewal by 2026. We have also renewed our store marketing efforts in priority markets, launching local advertising, experiential events, and targeted digital marketing to drive traffic brand awareness and store awareness. Providing more color on the enterprise initiatives Sam mentioned, there are four key areas of focus to impact outcomes on a go-forward basis: first, streamline end-to-end cross-functional processes to drive operational excellence; second, assortments driven by target customer insights with a focus on the largest category opportunities; third, inventory management will be optimized through improved in-stock and productivity metrics that are directly tied to our financial goals; and lastly, activating a holistic go-to-market strategy to launch key product stories. Now speaking to our Q3 results. Today, we reported third quarter 2024 net sales of $127.1 million, down 8.1%, with gross margin expansion of 210 basis points versus last year to 52.3%. Our reported EPS loss is $0.85, and adjusted EPS loss is $0.41. Adjustments to EPS include $6.2 million in restructuring charges related to the exit of one of our legacy fulfillment centers as announced previously and a $10.1 million valuation allowance on our deferred tax asset. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was $6.8 million. Starting with the top line. Our Q3 2024 net sales declined to $127.1 million as fewer transactions were partially offset by higher order value fueled by higher units per transaction. Sales in the first half of the quarter were flat to last year. In the second half, unusually warmer weather impacted sales of our fall/winter goods. Direct channel sales declined 8.3% in the quarter. Mobile penetration of site visits and sales continued to increase over last year. Retail store sales declined 7.8%, driven by traffic decline, partially offset by increased conversion rates. Our women's business declined 4%, impacted by fall/winter seasonal goods. However, we continue to see strength in women's first layer, up 22%, AKHG up 6%, and her all-time favorite Garden Heirloom collection up nearly 70%. The men's business declined 10%, primarily driven by colder weather categories, including flannels, outerwear, and sweaters. However, our Dry on the Fly technology and our new Souped-Up sweats collection resonated well. Moving to gross margin. For the third quarter, our gross margin expanded 210 basis points to 52.3%, driven by improved product cost from our direct-to-factory sourcing initiative. Having sourced through the older, higher-cost inventory, our gross margin year to date is 90 basis points higher than last year. Partially offsetting the improvement in product costs was a lower AUR. Moving to third quarter SG&A expenses. SG&A expenses increased 1.2% to $82.9 million as a percentage of sales at 65.2%. It deleveraged by 600 basis points to last year, driven by a decline in sales. The continued efficiencies across logistics and fulfillment center network were offset by higher fixed costs and depreciation from foundational investments. For the quarter, advertising expenses increased to 15.3% of sales, deleveraging by 240 basis points, driven by lower sales. Variable or selling expenses, which include outbound shipping costs, as well as labor across our customer contact center, fulfillment centers, and store fleet, continued to improve leveraging by 100 basis points. The favorable leverage was driven by optimizing our outbound shipment network, new parcel agreements, and efficiencies across the fulfillment center network, particularly at Adairsville. Fixed expenses or general and administrative expenses increased 6.7%, deleveraging by 460 basis points, primarily from annualizing depreciation and fixed costs from strategic initiatives like the Adairsville investment initiated in Q3 of 2023, partially offset by cost savings initiatives. As mentioned earlier, we recognized $6.2 million in restructuring expenses from the exit of one of our legacy fulfillment centers and a $10.1 million valuation allowance on our deferred tax asset. Our Q3 adjusted net loss was $13.8 million or $0.41 per diluted share, compared to net loss of $10.5 million or $0.32 per diluted share last year. Importantly, adjusted EBITDA year to date is positive $5.7 million. Our inventory balance was up 33% or approximately $57 million. 97% of the inventory is in current products, and clearance inventory improved to 3% versus 4% last year. There were three main drivers of the increase year on year. The first was in transit inventory, which accounted for a third of the increase as we moved from agents to buying directly from factories. Another third of the increase was driven by higher inventory receipts on core year-round products to mitigate low-in-stock post-Black Friday week, a key learning from last year. The final third relates to fall/winter inventory, where sales were impacted due to unusually warmer weather, resulting in higher seasonal inventory levels at the end of the quarter. To reiterate, we are taking necessary and prudent actions to end the year clean on inventories. Our capital expenditures for the quarter were $5 million versus $9.9 million in the prior year, primarily used to invest in strategic digital capabilities as per our technology roadmap. We ended the quarter with $44 million of outstanding debt on our line of credit. We had $9.3 million of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong with liquidity of $165 million. Now turning to our outlook for fiscal year 2024. We are reconfirming our full-year top-line sales guidance of $640 million which includes 60 basis points from the COSCO order and approximately 150 basis points of growth from the 53rd week. We expect to continue to benefit from lower year-over-year product costs. However, driven by higher promotional activity and our commitment to end the year clean on seasonal inventory levels, we are now projecting full-year gross margin reduction of approximately 125 basis points versus prior year. Our product sourcing and innovation efforts are expected to continue to reduce product cost and expand margins for the next several years as we increase the percentage of product sourced direct from factory. This, combined with the enterprise planning initiative, will significantly enhance our assortment and inventory management to not just fully capture the cost benefits of the sourcing initiative but also enable gross margin expansion. We expect SG&A, excluding the sales tax contingency, to deleverage by approximately 80 basis points versus prior year as we partially offset the increase in expenses from strategic investments with additional savings from efficiencies in fixed expenses like services and contracts and benefits from our fulfillment center network optimization initiative beginning in Q4. Advertising expenses are planned to be at approximately 10% of sales as we realize savings from our move to the new ad agency and refocus spend to drive shopper conversion. Variable or selling expenses will continue to leverage by approximately 50 basis points, driven by transportation savings from diversification of outbound carriers and continuing additional efficiencies. Fixed expenses or general and administrative expenses are expected to deleverage by approximately 170 basis points versus last year as higher depreciation and fixed costs associated with strategic initiatives are partially offset with cost savings efforts. With that, to summarize our full-year outlook, net sales of approximately $640 million; full-year gross margin reduction of approximately 125 basis points versus prior year; SG&A expenses, excluding the sales tax contingency, to deleverage by approximately 80 basis points versus prior year. Our capital expenditures are on track to be reduced by more than half to approximately $23 million. Our liquidity remains strong. We expect to end the year with no debt and liquidity of over $200 million. In closing, we are committed to taking actions to end the year clean on inventories, maximizing return from our strategic investments, delivering on structural initiatives to improve our business model, and implementing significantly enhanced enterprise planning processes to unlock growth and profitability. With that, we will open the call for questions. Questions & Answers: Operator [Operator instructions] The first question comes from Dylan Carden with William Blair. Please go ahead. Dylan Carden -- Analyst Thanks. Sorry if I missed this. You mentioned 25% of the fleet comes due by '26. Do you have a sense of what falls under your new threshold as far as sort of the -- even if it's a range, the magnitude of closures from here? Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Hey, Dylan. Yes. So as we said, we've got about 25% that come due. We have, through our process that Heena has been working on, recalibrated our hurdle rates for profitability, and we're really assessing those store by store as we get into the time frame to renew or renegotiate. So we continue to have our eyes on those 25%. And as we get closer to renewal dates, we're vetting those much deeper in anticipation of either renewing, closing, or relocating. Dylan Carden -- Analyst Got it. And if I'm looking at the model -- as far -- I appreciate everything you've done on production and distribution efficiencies from a gross margin standpoint. What's sort of the primary driver to get you back above the line from an SG&A perspective? Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes. I think -- well, a couple of things I'll say. One is I'm really pleased with the progress and traction our teams are making on those key initiatives tied to our Big Dam Blueprint. And as you know, some of it is timing in terms of when we start to realize those benefits clearly around our product development and sourcing initiative. We're starting to see that -- the logistics strategy with Adairsville. I'll take a moment just to celebrate. We're now lapping on about a year since Adairsville came online. It has processed something like 64% more units than a year ago at this time over the Black Friday weekend. And at CPU -- variable CPU costs are actually exceeding what we initially targeted. It's 73% lower than the legacy fulfillment center, so a lot of those things we're starting to see come into play now. It's enabled us to rationalize our fulfillment center network, and we were able to close Dubuque, and that on an annual run rate is about $5 million in savings. So I think over the next -- candidly, over the next handful of years, you'll continue to see the benefits of that work, in addition to some of the other structural things that Heena has been charged with. And over the next handful of years, I think you'll see our SG&A come closer into line where we expect it to be, and importantly, allow the benefits of these other initiatives like the product development and sourcing initiatives to really flow through to the bottom line. Heena Agrawal -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer And I would add, in addition to the structural changes, which is around fulfillment center optimization, as well as improving overall store portfolio profitability. We are -- our capex this year was half of what -- less than half of what was last year, and that's kind of the growing run rate you are looking at, which will also improve the depreciation cost that flow into SG&A. So in addition to the structural, the equilibrium of capex to depreciation will help with the overall SG&A costs. Dylan Carden -- Analyst Got it. And also, it also feels like it's a store productivity issue. I think you kind of just blessed that there in your comments. I mean, where productivity is if you start closing stores, presumably, you get some of the productivity overall fleet productivity to improve, and I would think that should help a not a significant amount, given where kind of sales per square foot are at present. Heena Agrawal -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Yes. Like we said, we've established higher hurdle rates for when we renew, which gives us leverage and negotiating for lease renewals with options to either relocate or close as the case might be. And as we do that, it improves the overall health of the portfolio with the new sites, meeting much higher hurdle rates, the older sites that are being renewed also being held to those same standards improves our overall productivity, and our focus on omnichannel marketing for those priority markets to improve traffic to those stores. Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yes. And Dylan, I'll add to that because I want to be clear that you all understand. Strategically, retail stores, as we've always said, are an important part of our omnichannel ecosystem, and I think that's really important to understand. Our stores -- since at the end of 2023, all stores were four-wall profitable. This is really about, to your point, exactly as productivity is within our fleet of stores. And as we begin to open new stores, we're holding them to a higher productivity hurdle rate so that we're ensuring that we're getting the returns that we need and that those investments are aligned with our longer-term strategy. So I think in that regard, we're in a really good position because we've got 65 stores today. It's not as though we've got 500 that we've got to rationalize. And we think that we'll make good progress on that front, combined with some of the things I mentioned in my prepared remarks around our go-to-market strategy and localizing some of that. I think that we'll continue to see improvements in our retail store portfolio, both as we kind of renew and/or rationalize some locations, in addition to then adding some new locations with higher hurdle rates. Dylan Carden -- Analyst Great. Last one for me. The cool weather gear that you couldn't sell in September, October, is any of that -- can you pack any of that away? Or do you have to kind of clearance it by year end? Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Yeah. So part of our strategy is exactly that. And again, I want to make sure that we're clear about what led to the current inventory scenario. And as Heena said, it's really three buckets. There's a timing issue relative to the in-transit bucket that we recognize ownership. That's about a third. There's a third that is tied directly to a planned early receipt of core goods because, as you know, we're writing these things further out. And last year, we went into Q4 a little lean and came out essentially out of stock, and that led to depressed inventory levels throughout Q4. And then the third is really based on our receipt of fall and winter goods. We didn't sell it in third quarter. largely because of some weather issues. And so as we look at going through Q4, there's two components that we're focused on. One is ensuring that the seasonal carryover of those receipts don't hurt us into next year, meaning they don't transition into clearance inventory levels. By the way, our clearance inventory levels currently are at about 3% of total, which is 100 bps less than a year ago and sequentially improved from 11% last quarter. But we want to ensure that as we go into next year, this carryover fall-winter doesn't impact our clearance level, which then continues to put further pressure on our margins. And so the seasonal things that are unique to this season, we will mark down, and we'll sell through that this quarter. There is core kind of seasonal products like black down puffer jackets that whatever we don't sell through, we're going to pack those away because we buy them every season, and it's a small amount of inventory but inventory nonetheless that we really don't need to mark down as we move into next year. So long answer to your question, but I think important articulation is, yes, there is goods within fall/winter that we will not have to mark down, and we'll be able to pack away for a short period of time. Dylan Carden -- Analyst Excellent. Thank you. Operator [Operator signoff] Duration: 0 minutes Call participants: Nitza McKee -- Investor Relations Sam Sato -- President and Chief Executive Officer Heena Agrawal -- Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Dylan Carden -- Analyst More DLTH analysis All earnings call transcriptsPhiladelphia 76ers struggle financially as ticket prices plunge after Magic defeat amid Joel Embiid's absence: "This is UNBELIEVABLE"yahoo sports mlb 。

* Synopsys falls after forecasting FY25 revenue below estimates * Focus on Friday's payrolls data * Indexes: Dow down 0.4%, S&P 500 off 0.1%, Nasdaq down 0.01% (Updates to afternoon trading) By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday, with technology shares easing after recent sharp gains and investors bracing for Friday's jobs report, but all three indexes remained close to the previous session's closing high. The S&P 500 technology index was down 0.3% from the record closing high on Wednesday, when both other major U.S. stock indexes also notched closing highs. Shares of UnitedHealth were down 4.7% and the stock the biggest weight on the Dow and S&P 500. On Wednesday , Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit, was killed outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in what police described as a targeted attack. Forecasters believe Friday's employment report will show nonfarm payrolls increased by 200,000 jobs in November, a Reuters survey showed. In October, payrolls rose 12,000, the smallest rise since December 2020. Data earlier in the day showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week. Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, Georgia, said investors are digesting economic data and looking ahead to Friday's employment report. "Obviously the Street is going to be trading on what the Fed is going to do," he said. "Also, there is a new administration coming in that's going to be friendly to the stock market and the economy." On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy is stronger now than the central bank had expected when it started cutting rates in September, and he appeared to signal support for a slower pace of reductions. Markets are pricing in about a 70% chance of a 25-bp rate cut this month, and a 30% chance of a pause. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 174.96 points, or 0.39%, to 44,839.08, the S&P 500 lost 4.55 points, or 0.07%, to 6,081.94 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.93 points, or 0.01%, to 19,733.18. Former U.S. President Donald Trump's win in the Nov. 5 elections helped to lift stocks in November as investors cheered his talk of tax cuts and looser regulation. Shares of Synopsys fell 12.2% after the chip design software firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Wall Street expectations, in part due to a slump in China sales. Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks lost steam after surging earlier in the day when bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, stormed above the $100,000 mark for the first time. MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, was down 3.9%. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 330 new highs and 65 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 1,592 stocks rose and 2,684 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.69-to-1 ratio. (Additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Maju Samuel)Timothée Chalamet thanked Bob Dylan for the shoutout after the legendary singer-songwriter praised his new biopic A Complete Unknown . “Floored. I am so grateful. Thank you Bob,” Chalamet posted on X . The film, set to be released on Dec. 25, stars Chalamet as a young Dylan. “Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me,” Dylan posted on X . Though Dylan didn’t share if he’s seen the film yet, he did recommend the book the biopic is based off of. “The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric – a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport,” he added. “After you’ve seen the movie read the book.” Dylan also gave a nod to the film’s title, A Complete Unknown , which references lyrics from Dylan’s 1965 song “Like a Rolling Stone.” “What a title!” he wrote. The slain UnitedHealthcare CEO had a criminal record for drunk driving and was secretly separated from his wife for years before he was shot dead in Manhattan on Wednesday, according to public records. Minnesota court filings show that in 2017 Brian Thompson was arrested and convicted on charges of fourth-degree driving while impaired, for which he received probation. In addition to legal troubles, the executive, who was gunned down in what NYPD has labeled a “premeditated, pre-planned, targeted attack,” also seems to have faced recent marital issues. Based on property records, voter registration forms, and reports from neighbors, Brian and Paulette Thompson had lived in different homes less than a mile apart in Maple Grove, Minnesota, for the past several years, The Wall Street Journal reported . In 2018, Thompson bought a five-bedroom second house for around $1 million, while his wife’s residence remained in another house nearby, also worth about $1 million, based on Zillow listings and public records. Paulette Thompson told MSNBC her husband had received threats related to his company’s “lack of coverage” and said in a statement to a local Fox affiliate in Minnesota that his killing had left her and their two sons “shattered.” About 12 hours after his killing, someone made a bomb threat at his Minnesota home, but authorities did not find any evidence of explosives, TMZ reported . UnitedHealthcare and the Hennepin County District Court did not immediately respond to a Daily Beast inquiry about Thompson’s DUI. 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Free Shipping If you buy something from this post, we may earn a small commission. A top health insurance provider has scrapped a controversial plan to limit anesthesia coverage for surgical patients in at least one state. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield will no longer try to implement the much-ridiculed cap—which would have required patients to pay out-of-pocket for any anesthesia administered after their surgery went over an arbitrary time limit—on plans in Connecticut, the state’s comptroller, Sean Scanlon, shared Thursday. “After hearing from people across the state about this concerning policy, my office reached out to Anthem,” he said in a statement. “I’m pleased to share this policy will no longer be going into effect here in Connecticut.” The controversial plan was announced last month for customers in Connecticut, New York, and Missouri. The pending policy went viral on Wednesday, however, after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was gunned down in Manhattan in a “targeted attack.” It remains unclear if the cap will still go into place next year for New Yorkers or those in the Show Me State. Anthem is yet to say what drove it to pull its plan in Connecticut. Bill Lawrence, creator of Scrubs , is currently developing a reboot of the widely loved sitcom for ABC, Variety reported. Despite having a deal with Warner Bros. Television, the studio is reportedly carving out space for Lawrence to work on the show. Citing a source familiar with the matter, Variety adds that Lawrence will not be serving as the reboot’s showrunner if it gets fully greenlit. Cast members have also yet to be attached, and no other deals for the reboot are reportedly in place. Running for nine seasons between 2001 and 2008, Scrubs followed the daily hijinks of a hospital staff and starred Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Sarah Chalke, Judy Reyes, Ken Jenkins, John C. McGinley, and Neil Flynn. A reboot of the show has been thrown around for some time, with Lawrence sharing at a 2022 ATX Festival panel , “We’re gonna do it, you guys know. If you ever have an excuse to work with people you want to spend time with anyway, run to it.” Lawrence also famously created or co-created series like Cougar Town , Ted Lasso , and Shrinking . Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission. It’s not every day that you can score a deal on a high-quality printer at a lower cost. Investing in a quality printer for your home or office is a game-changer, and while it’s not the most fun purchase, it’ll pay for itself in a couple of months. Fortunately, you don’t have to pay full price for a solid printer, thanks to HP’s current sale . Right now, you can score the HP Envy Inspire 7955e , the brand’s premium at-home photo printer for $70 off. If you’re looking for a solid holiday gift that they’ll actually use, the deluxe multi-purpose printer is a great choice—especially for photographers and anyone who works from home. The all-in-one printer is also designed with HP’s Wolf Essential Security system to keep your information secure and keep hackers out. Plus, unlike other printers that require you to get your hands dirty to replenish the ink, this one offers a 15-second mess-free ink refill experience with bottles that can be plugged into the tank. Say goodbye to messes and hello to your new printer . Best of all? For a limited time, score three months of Instant Ink with HP+. Adrian “Woj” Wojnarowski has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer months before his shock retirement from ESPN . The NBA insider’s decision to quit his high-paying job in September at the age of 55 to become general manager of his alma mater St. Bonaventure’s basketball program took the sports world by surprise. But in an interview with Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated , Wojnarowski explained why he wrote in his retirement statement: “Time isn’t in endless supply and I want to spend mine in ways that are more personally meaningful.” “That was about the cancer,” he said. He was told he had early-stage cancer in March, minutes before an appearance on NBA Countdown . He added that the cancer didn’t force his hand but gave him more clarity on what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. “I didn’t want to spend one more day of my life waiting on someone’s MRI or hitting an agent at 1 a.m. about an ankle sprain,” he said. Wojnarowski said he now had no symptoms and that the cancer was “pretty limited in scope.” -30- pic.twitter.com/bFeFL61s1c A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Northern California on Thursday morning, briefly triggering a tsunami warning for nearly 5 million people . The earthquake hit at 10:44 a.m. PST west of Petrolia, California in the Pacific Ocean, the US Geological Survey said. A 5.8-magnitude aftershock was recorded minutes later near Cobb, California, and several other apparent aftershocks between 2.5 to 4.2 magnitude followed. A tsunami warning issued for parts of the Northern California and Oregon coastlines, however, was called off by the early afternoon. California officials are responding to earthquake activity Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X . The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is said to be coordinating with local officials in Humboldt and Lake counties, where significant earthquake activity was reported. More than 10,000 Humboldt County customers are reportedly without power. While no damage has been reported in San Francisco, the city’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, announced it is experiencing significant service disruptions due to the earthquake. Actress Amber Heard has announced that she is expecting her second baby. “It is still quite early in the pregnancy, so you will appreciate that we do not want to go into much detail at this stage,” a spokesman for Heard said Thursday to People . “Suffice to say that Amber is delighted both for herself and Oonagh Paige.” Heard welcomed her daughter in 2021. “I wanted to do it on my own terms,” Heard wrote in a post announcing Oonagh’s birth via a surrogate. “I hope we arrive at a point in which it’s normalized to not want a ring in order to have a crib.” Heard has never commented on who the biological father is. The actress relocated to Madrid, Spain after the highly publicized defamation battle with ex-husband Johnny Depp . Heard told NBC News after the trial in 2022 that she was hoping to focus more on her growing family. “I get to be a mom, like, full time, you know? Where I’m not having to juggle calls with lawyers,” she said. Associates of the right-wing firebrand Ric Grenell sought the help of MAGA influencers to secure him Donald Trump ’s nomination for s ecretary of state . Shortly after Trump’s election victory, an ally of Grenell’s approached conservative social media influencers, offering paid contracts up to five figures to post favorable content about Grenell, Politico reported Thursday. Influencers, the contract stipulated, would post pro-Grenell content and do so during “peak posting times,” ensure that “content must appear genuine,” and not “as an overt advertisement or promotional message.” Grenell denied the alleged influencer conspiracy to Politico. However, his desire for the highly coveted Cabinet position was no secret. Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence spent the past three years reportedly telling people in the president-elect’s orbit that it was secretary of state “or bust.” Despite being one of Trump’s most loyal cohorts, Trump ultimately chose Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to lead the State Department . Grenell is said to have been offered other posts, including director of national intelligence, but has turned the offers down. Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission. Apparently, boosting prostate health can actually be pleasurable—at least, that’s what premium sexual wellness brand MysteryVibe says. 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It’s a great sex toy for those new to anal play or who are looking for an ultra-sleek vibrator with possible health-boosting benefits. The prostate vibrator is equipped with 16 vibration settings and eight pre-set vibration patterns, allowing for superior control and customization. Plus, the device comes with access to a catalog of vibration patterns with the free MysteryVibe smartphone app. Best of all? Because the Molto vibrator is an FDA-registered class II medical device, it’s also FSA/HSA eligible. Keira Knightley recalled to the Los Angeles Times how she was subjected to stalkers who told her “you wanted this,” and “this is what you deserve” as a teen, after the success of 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham and 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean made her famous at 18 years old. “It was rape speak,” Knightley said in the new interview. “They very specifically meant I wanted to be stalked by men,” she continued. “Whether that was stalking because somebody was mentally ill, or because people were earning money from it—it felt the same to me. It was a brutal time to be a young woman in the public eye.” Knightley has been promoting her new Netflix series Black Dove s , in which she plays an assassin and mother with a double-life, but took some time to reflect on that five-year period from 17 to 22 when she was at the height of her fame. “I’m never going to have that kind of success again,” she said, but “It totally set me up for life. Did it come at a cost? Yes, it did. It came at a big cost.” Donald Trump turned to one of his friends in high places to see if his son could become a professional cage fighter, according to a new clip sweeping across the internet. The MAGA commander in chief, 78, was seen in a clip from the documentary series Art of the Surge , which chronicles his re-election campaign, speaking to UFC boss Dana White. His 6-foot-7 son Barron waited in the wings, and cordially introduced himself to a woman out of shot, and then to White. Trump Sr. appears surprised the two hadn’t met before, then asked: “Can we make him into a fighter?” The president-elect got big laughs for his tongue-in-cheek comment—but a cursory head shake from the young man. The clip also caused ripples online as it was the first time a lot of people had heard the New York University student speak. “Barron has his Dad’s speech cadence!” one X user said. NEW: Behind the Scenes on Election Night with @realDonaldTrump . Only in Season 2 of #ArtOfTheSurge . Coming soon. pic.twitter.com/b78HZa4ucV

Nigerian music consumption soars 146% in 2024 – Spotify

Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024: When and where to watch the race live in the US

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street at the start of a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% Monday. Several big technology companies helped support the gains, including chip companies Nvidia and Broadcom. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1%. Honda’s U.S.-listed shares rose sharply after the company said it was in talks about a combination with Nissan in a deal that could also include Mitsubishi Motors. Eli Lilly rose after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Treasury yields rose in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Major stock indexes rose on Wall Street in afternoon trading Monday, after a choppy start to a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 rose 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered from an early slide to gain 29 points, or 0.1% as of 3:40 p.m. Eastern time. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.8%. Gains in technology and communications stocks helped outweigh losses in consumer goods companies and elsewhere in the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, rose 3.3%. Broadcom climbed 5.5% to also help support the broader market. Walmart fell 2% and PepsiCo slid 1.2%. Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Nissan said they are talking about combining in a deal that might also include Mitsubishi Motors. U.S.-listed shares in Honda jumped 13.4%, while Nissan slipped 0.2%. Eli Lilly rose 3.5% after announcing that regulators approved Zepbound as the first and only prescription medicine for adults with sleep apnea. Department store Nordstrom fell 1.6% after it agreed to be taken private by Nordstrom family members and a Mexican retail group in a $6.25 billion deal. The Conference Board said that consumer confidence slipped in December. Its consumer confidence index fell back to 104.7 from 112.8 in November. Wall Street was expecting a reading of 113.8. The unexpectedly weak consumer confidence update follows several generally strong economic reports last week. One report showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The latest report on unemployment benefit applications showed that the job market remains solid. A report on Friday said a measure of inflation the Federal Reserve likes to use was slightly lower last month than economists expected. Worries about inflation edging higher again had been weighing on Wall Street and the Fed. The central bank just delivered its third cut to interest rates this year, but inflation has been hovering stubbornly above its target of 2%. It has signaled that it could deliver fewer cuts to interest rates next year than it earlier anticipated because of concerns over inflation. Expectations for more interest rate cuts have helped drive a roughly 25% gain for the S&P 500 in 2024. That drive included 57 all-time highs this year. Inflation concerns have added to uncertainties heading into 2025, which include the labor market's path ahead and shifting economic policies under an incoming President Donald Trump. "Put simply, much of the strong market performance prior to last week was driven by expectations that a best-case scenario was the base case for 2025," said Brent Schutte, chief investment officer at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.59% from 4.53% late Friday. European markets were mostly lower, while markets in Asia gained ground. Wall Street has several other economic reports to look forward to this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. will release its November report for sales of newly constructed homes. A weekly update on unemployment benefits is expected on Thursday. Markets in the U.S. will close at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed on Wednesday for Christmas. Damian J. Troise And Alex Veiga, The Associated PressLongwood secures 89-81 win over UABTrader Revises XRP End-of-Year Target to $3 After Unexpected Rally, Predicts Ethereum-Based Coin at $0.09 Will Hit $12 in 66 DaysPresident-elect Trump wants to again rename North America’s tallest peak

https://arab.news/rnav3 JEDDAH: South Korean actor Park Sung-hoon, who stars in Netflix’s smash hit “Squid Game,” jetted to Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival and spoke to Arab News about his hopes for Saudi-Korean cultural collaboration. The rising South Korean star, who is also known for his roles in dramas such as “The Glory” and “Queen of Tears,” lauded the popularity of Korean entertainment content in the Kingdom. “I am grateful for this, and this really motivated me to try to pay back for this interest, and here I am at the Red Sea International Film Festival enjoying every bit of it,” he said. The rising South Korean star, who is also known for his roles in dramas such as “The Glory” and “Queen of Tears,” lauded the popularity of Korean entertainment content in the Kingdom. (Getty Images) Globally, three South Korean subscription platforms lead in Korean content offerings: Wavve and Watcha, each with over 4,000 titles, and Tving, with over 3,500 titles, according to data science firm BB Media. Excluding local platforms, Amazon Prime Video currently holds the top position among global subscription streaming platforms in terms of Korean titles with 1,394, though Netflix is close behind and boasts more original K-dramas. The actor touched on the role of streaming platforms in popularizing Korean content internationally, saying “Korea has always put an effort to make good quality movies and dramas because it is a way of bringing joy and comfort to people even during hard times, and I think with the advanced changes in technology, streaming networks and platforms provided ways for Korean movies and dramas to be shown to a wider audience.” As the Kingdom’s entertainment scene continues to expand — with the likes of Film AlUla and the Red Sea Film Foundation offering support to rising filmmakers — the actor said he would like to see more cross-cultural collaboration. “I was very impressed with what I have (seen) here in Saudi Arabia, and I am aware that the movie industry in Saudi Arabia is moving rapidly, and I would love to see more collaboration between Saudi Arabia and Korea in the film industry,” he said. On the question of making a film in Saudi Arabia, the young Korean actor, who plays a contestant named Cho Sang-woo in “Squid Game,” said: “I would love definitely to work here. I am very impressed with the beautiful landscape and architecture. Just last night, I was thinking of how wonderful to be in the screen around this amazing landscape.” He also pointed out that he will convey a positive message to friends and colleagues in Korea about Saudi Arabia, which he is visiting for the first time. “I am so amazed (by) the great hospitality and passion that we felt at the festival. So, I hope that I will come back next year and also hope for future collaboration between South Korea and Saudi Arabia film industry,” he said.

An aerial drone photo taken on Nov 23, 2024 shows farmlands developed after wells were dug by Chinese firm ZPEC in the desert of Aswan province, Egypt. – Xinhua photo ASWAN (Dec 8): In early winter, the warm sun bathes the desert hinterland of Kom Ombo, some 60 kilometres north of Aswan Province in Upper Egypt. Against the vast arid landscape, patches of lush green wheat stand in striking contrast. “Before, this place was an arid desert with no vegetation. Now, with the irrigation of well water, crops such as wheat have grown here, full of vitality and hope,” said Ahmed El-Sadani, beaming as he shared his story. Sadani, 30 years old, is the deputy manager of the Aswan water well project of ZPEC (China’s Zhongman Petroleum and Natural Gas Group Co Ltd) branch in Egypt, responsible for managing six water well drilling teams on site. Photo taken on Nov 23, 2024 shows a rig platform from Chinese firm ZPEC working on drilling a well in the desert of Aswan province, Egypt. – Xinhua photo He joined ZPEC in 2018 and has successively served as a mud engineer, water pump test engineer, and field engineer. “During the past six years, I have accumulated more experience by working in several desert well-drilling projects,” Sadani said. “Every time we see clear groundwater gushing out of the wellhead, my colleagues and I are very excited, knowing we’ve successfully drilled a new well.” Workers of Chinese firm ZPEC work on a rig platform to drill a well in the desert of Aswan province, Egypt, on Nov 23, 2024. – Xinhua photo Egypt, home to over 100 million people, grapples with the daunting task of cultivating more land for agriculture, as only 5 per cent of its territory is currently arable. To reduce reliance on food imports, the country has accelerated its desert reclamation initiatives since 2015. In support of these efforts, ZPEC established its Egypt branch in 2016 under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Since then, the team, composed of Chinese and Egyptian workers, has tackled harsh desert conditions, drilling more than 540 wells across Egypt — from the Sinai Peninsula to Minya, Matrouh, and Aswan provinces. Irrigated by underground water, the once barren desert has gradually transformed into fertile land. At the Kom Ombo site, there are six drilling teams, comprising more than 200 Chinese and Egyptian employees, said Zhao Wutao, general manager of the ZPEC branch in Egypt. An aerial drone photo taken on Nov 23, 2024 shows farmlands developed after wells were dug by Chinese firm ZPEC in the desert of Aswan province, Egypt. – Xinhua photo The rigs operate 24 hours a day, with workers rotating in two shifts, he said. Summer temperatures in Aswan often exceed 40 degrees Celsius, and conditions in the desert are even harsher. Yet, the team adheres to strict safety protocols, donning full uniforms and protective gear despite the heat. Amr Mohammed, 28 years old and one of the site engineers, used to work for an Egyptian drilling company and joined ZPEC last year. “ZPEC is one of the best companies in the field of drilling water wells in Egypt,” said Mohammed, who is responsible for managing the team members and drilling technology. “This area is yellow now, and it will turn green soon. Our work brings great benefits to the development of agriculture in Egypt,” Mohammed told Xinhua while pointing to the desert beside him. Drilling wells in the desert is no easy task. Zhao explained that locating well sites required trekking through the trackless desert for hours with GPS devices. Workers of Chinese firm ZPEC work on a rig platform to drill a well in the desert of Aswan province, Egypt, on Nov 23, 2024. – Xinhua photo Transportation of drilling equipment is another challenge. “A piece of large-scale drilling equipment weighs 500 tons and must be dismantled into parts before being transported by 25 vehicles,” Zhao said. “It takes 10 days to transport here from the work area in central and northern Egypt over 1,000 kilometres away,” he added. Zhao (left) chats with Ahmed El-Sadani, deputy manager of the Aswan water well project of ZPEC branch in Egypt. – Xinhua photo “We are engaged in livelihood projects and contribute our modest efforts to the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Egypt. We are happy to see that the locals can benefit from the well water,” Zhao said. Looking ahead, Zhao said ZPEC plans to deepen its involvement in Egypt’s agricultural development, creating more job opportunities and contributing further to the nation’s food security. – Xinhua