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Standard & Poor’s downgraded Macy’s Inc.’s ratings to the last level of investment grade Wednesday, after the department store chain’s weak fourth-quarter earnings. S&P lowered the rating to BBB-minus from BBB, and removed its from CreditWatch negative, where it had placed the issuer’s rating on Jan. 5. The downgrade “reflects our view of the company’s weakened operating performance and competitive standing given the ongoing industry challenges, such as sustained low customer traffic, increased price transparency, and unrelenting competition from online, fast-fashion, and off-price retailers,” S&P said in a statement. The outlook is negative, meaning the agency could lower the rating again in the medium term. “We believe the apparel retail market will remain difficult and operating performance will continue to be pressured for Macy’s, which could further weaken the company’s competitive standing and/or its credit metrics, with a likely need for further debt reduction in 2018,” said the agency. Macy’s most active bonds, the 1.875% notes due to mature in January of 2022, were last trading at 99 cents on the dollar, according to MarketAxess.

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Shares of Philip Morris International Inc. got just a brief boost in afternoon trade Wednesday, after the tobacco company provided a new 2017 “currency only” profit outlook. The company said it now expects 2017 earnings per share of $4.80 to $4.95 at prevailing exchange rates, compared with the guidance of $4.70 to $4.85 it provided in its fourth-quarter report released on three weeks ago. Although the company said it raised its EPS guidance “for currency only,” the new outlook excludes an unfavorable currency impact of 8 cents a share, compared with an unfavorable currency impact of 18 cents a share for the previous outlook. The stock was down about 0.3%, then jumped to a gain of as much as 0.3% after the new profit outlook was released, before pulling back to a decline of 0.1% in recent trade. Philip Morris’s stock has gained 13% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has climbed 21%.

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Crude-oil prices on Wednesday logged their first loss in four sessions, giving the previous day’s gain and then some as concerns about growing output from producers outside of a pact to curtail global oversupply plagued investors. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for April delivery finished off 74 cents, or 1.4%, at $53.59 a barrel. Comments from Qatar’s oil minister, Mohammed al-Sada, kicked off the downbeat sentiment. Speaking at an energy meeting in London, al-Sada said major oil producers outside of OPEC weren’t cutting production, as much as they had pledged. The crude market has been anxious about rising production, namely from U.S. shale-oil producers and Russia, who has a history of non-compliance to production limits. Looking ahead, investors are awaiting inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday.

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Gold prices jumped in electronic trading Wednesday following the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent policy meeting. Gold for April delivery traded at $1,238.30 an ounce, up $5.00, or 0.4% higher than the $1,233.30 an ounce settlement on Wednesday. Gold settled lower Wednesday for a third drop in a row.

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The U.S. dollar weakened against its major rivals on Wednesday, turning negative against both the yen and the euro after the Federal Reserve said there was considerable uncertainty surrounding fiscal policy, something investors have been looking to boost the dollar and stoke inflation. The U.S. dollar index fell slightly on the day, after having risen by about 0.2%. The comments, which were released as part of minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting, said that uncertainty over the Trump administration’s fiscal policies were a major stumbling block. The minutes also revealed that “many” Fed officials had expressed support in raising interest rates “fairly soon,” adding to the growing consensus that a rate hike could be announced at the March meeting, something that had been considered unlikely a few weeks ago. Among specific currencies, the dollar fell 0.4% against the yen, erasing an early advance. The euro traded at $1.0567 from $1.0546 late Tuesday, a gain of 0.2%. It had previously dropped by roughly the same amount.

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The Trump administration will release a budget proposal in mid-March, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday. Spicer did not provide details but said the administration wants to make sure the government spends more responsibly. President Donald Trump held meetings on the budget Wednesday with officials including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33 points in afternoon trade, putting it on track for a ninth-straight record close, but market internals suggested the overall stock market was in decline. The number of declining stocks outnumbered advancers by a 1,725-to-1,108 margin on the NYSE, and by a score of 1,613 to 963 on the Nasdaq exchange. Volume in advancing stocks represented 35.1% of total NYSE volume and 42.5% of total Nasdaq volume. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was down 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%. Within the Dow, 15 of 30 components traded higher, but all the Dow’s gains are in effect coming from two stocks. The $3.20-gain in DuPont & Co.’s stock and the $1.86-rise in 3M Co. shares are adding a combined 35 points to the Dow’s price. The Dow has now rallied 723 points, or 3.6%, over the past nine session.

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DuPont & Co.’s stock surged $3.04, or 3.9%, in midday trade Wednesday, enough to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory, after The Wall Street Journal reported that European regulators were set to clear the chemical company’s merger with Dow Chemical Co. . The stock’s price gain was adding about 21 points to the Dow, which was up 9 points. That compares to the S&P 500’s 0.2% decline and the Dow Jones Transportation Average’s 1.3% drop. Dow Chemical’s stock rallied 4.1% in midday trade. The Dow and DuPont merger deal is on track to win regulatory approval from the European Union’s antitrust regulator before the April deadline, after the company offered earlier this month to sell some businesses, according to the WSJ report.

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From:: Stock Market News