Extended hours: The soon-to-be-shuttered JCPenney location at Cortana Mall will remain open a bit longer than expected. CNBC reports the retailer has granted a temporary reprieve to the 138 stores it plans to shutter later this year after customers turned out in droves following last month’s announcement of the closures. As a result, the retailer has postponed the stores’ liquidation sales, which will now begin May 22 instead of April 17 as originally scheduled. The stores will close on July 31, about six weeks later than the company originally planned. Read the full story.
Lifeline: Shreveport animation studio Moonbot Studios will live on. The Shreveport Times reports founder and author William “Bill” Joyce plans to revive the Oscar-winning studio in Shreveport and plans to announce the studio’s newest animated feature in early summer. The announcement comes after Moonbot went through a round of layoffs in October. A dozen of its artists and animators also left to work for virtual reality headset developer Magic Leap, which decided to hire the animators and artists in lieu of purchasing the company outright. In a statement, Joyce says he decision to revive the company is partially based on advice from Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter. Read the full story.
Ups and downs: U.S. homebuilders are feeling slightly less optimistic about their sales prospects, even as their overall outlook remains favorable, The Associated Press reports. The National Association of HomeBuilders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released this morning slipped to 68 this month. That’s down three points from March, when it jumped to the highest level since June 2005. Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good rather than poor. The index has been above 60 since September. Still, the April reading fell short of analyst predictions, which expected the index to dip to 70, according to FactSet. Readings gauging builders’ view of sales now and over the next six months also edged lower, as did a measure of traffic by prospective buyers.
