Month: September 2015

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of about 14,000 hammock stands sold exclusively at Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. due to a falling hazard. The Z-shaped hooks on hammock stands sold under the Bed Bath & Beyond Destination Summer brand can bend or break. Pride Family Brands Inc. is the distributor of the item. There have been 13 reports of the Z-shaped hooks bending or breaking and causing injury. About 13,000 hammock stands were sold in the U.S. and another 55 were sold in Canada. The item was on sale between March 2014 and July 2015 for about $100. Consumers are asked to stop using the product and call Pride Family Brands for a free set of S-shaped hooks.

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From:: Stock Market News

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday its board has approved an increase to its share buyback authorization of $3.0 billion. Shares rose 0.6% in afternoon trade, and are up 6% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has lost 7%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. said Thursday its board has approved an increase to its share buyback authorization of $3.0 billion. Shares rose 0.6% in afternoon trade, and are up 6% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has lost 7%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – President Barack Obama will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin early next week in New York at Putin’s request, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday. The two leaders last spoke in person last November. Obama will stress that Russia must fulfill the commitments of the agreement to end fighting in Ukraine known as the Minsk accord.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Activision Blizzard Inc. fell after touching a 52-week high of $31.70, the only S&P 500 component to reach the milestone Thursday. The stock recently came off of an eight-session winning streak, bolstered by the popularity of its new game, “Destiny: The Taken King,” which set a record for the most downloaded game in a single day for Sony PlayStation. Activision shares were down 1.1% to $31.26 while the broader S&P 500 retreated 1.1% to 1,917.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of home builders extended their recent selloff, as investors shrugged off data showing that new home sales surged much more than expected to the highest level in over seven years. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF slumped 1.4%, with 34 of its 35 equity components trading lower. The ETF has lost 3.8% so far this week, and 9.6% since it closed at an 8 1/2-year high on Aug. 19. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF was down 1% Thursday, and has dropped 4.3% this week, while the S&P 500 has slipped 2%. KB Home’s stock fell 1.6%, as better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter profit and sales were offset by disappointing deliveries and net orders data. Among other more-active home builders, shares of D.R. Horton Inc. eased 0.4%, Pulte Group Inc. gave up 0.2%, Lennar Corp. fell 0.6% and Toll Brothers Inc. lost 0.9%.

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From:: Stock Market News

A New York-based investment advisor has been fined $275,000 for its involvement in a scheme to profit from the manipulation of Barnes & Noble stock. G Asset Management LLC, a firm run by Michael A. Glickstein, issued a press release on February 21, 2014 with a fake offer to buy a majority stake in the book store that resulted in an illicit $168,000 profit, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged. Immediately after the false offer, Barnes & Noble’s stock rose 11%, to $18.99 a share from $17.05, and forcing the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading. G Asset had recently acquired thousands of Barnes & Noble shares and short-term call options that it sold after the stock surged. Glickstein has a history of making unsolicited proposals to Barnes & Noble and his firm lacked the financial means to make good on the latest offer to buy a majority stake in the company, according to the SEC. Glickstein did not admit or deny the findings in the SEC’s complaint, but he was barred from the securities industry for a minimum of five years.

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From:: Stock Market News

The video division of Time Inc. on Thursday said it has launched “Sports Illustrated Films,” a series of original sports video programming to bolster its content slate. The venture will see six films released in 2015 on its new digital channel SI.com/films, beginning with “Brett Favre: Life After the Game.” “We see amazing potential for Sports Illustrated-branded programming both domestically and internationally, and we are going to pursue those opportunities very aggressively,” said senior vice president of Time Inc. video division J.R. McCabe in a statement. SI’s new platform, which is an investment in digital and over-the-top video content, will house live and original production, along with an archive of 40 other SI production, according to a news release. SI recognizes the changing viewership, Editor Paul Fichtenbaum said in a statement “there are limitless opportunities to offer on independent voice and quality video programming.” As part of the venture, SI is partnering with Mandalay Sports Media and Velocity to create content. Time Inc.’s shares are down 25% in the year, while the S&P is down 7%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Investors were slightly more optimistic about the stock market in the short term but only edged out bearish investors by a small margin, according to a survey by the American Association of Individual Investors published Thursday. Bullish sentiment, measured by the number of respondents who believe the market will rise in the next 6 months, fell to 32.1% in the week ended Sept. 23 from 33.3% in the previous week. Investors who are bearish also declined to 28.7% from 29.1% while neutral investors rose to 39.2% versus 37.6%. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are down sharply, extending losses for a third session in a week that has historically been amongst the worst of the year.

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Several emerging-market currencies were at or near record lows against the dollar Thursday as risk-averse sentiment gripped global financial markets. The record lows included the Turkish lira , which shed 0.9% to 3.07 to the dollar; the Mexican peso , which fell 0.4% to 17.34 to the dollar; and the Brazilian real , which shed 0.7% to 4.24 to the dollar. The South African rand was the day’s biggest decliner, down 1.2% to 14.08 rand to the dollar, its weakest level since Aug. 24, when the rand briefly touched an intraday low of 14.50 rand to the dollar. Elsewhere, the Malaysian ringgit fell to a session low of 4.45 ringgit to the dollar, its weakest level since the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. “There’s a broad negative sentiment in the market. Stocks are down,” said Ilan Solot, vice president of of emerging-market currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. Emerging-market currencies have been weakening since the Federal Reserve opted to leave interest rates unchanged a week ago.

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From:: Stock Market News