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President Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has been interviewed several times in the past week by the special counsel looking into Russian influence on the 2016 election, NBC News reported. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is also probing whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians. Bannon left the White House last year and fell out of favor with Trump after critical remarks he made about the president and his family in the book “Fire and Fury.” Bannon reportedly had been questioned by Mueller’s team for 20 hours. Bannon previously denied the White House colluded with Russia, but he blamed Donald Trump Jr. for meeting with a Russian lawyer claiming to have negative information on Hillary Clinton.

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The Senate rejected a bipartisan immigration bill that didn’t include money for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. The measure needed 60 votes to advance and got only 52. The bill from Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, would provide a path to citizenship for more than 1.8 million Dreamers. The Senate is debating four different immigration proposals on Thursday.

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Oil futures settled higher Thursday, reversing earlier losses, as dollar weakness continued. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 74 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $61.34 a barrel. A weaker dollar can be positive for commodities priced in the currency, making them cheaper to users of other currencies.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Boeing Co. shot up 3.1% in afternoon trade, to provide the biggest boost to the Dow Jones industrial Average’s price, after European rival Airbus SE reported upbeat results. The aerospace giant’s price gain of $10.56 was adding about 73 points to the Dow, which was up 211 points. The Dow’s biggest percentage gainer was Cisco Systems Inc.’s shares , which rallied 4.4% after better-than-expected quarterly results, but the price gain of $1870 only added 13 points to the Dow. Apple Inc.’s stock was up 3.2% to be the second-biggest percentage gainer, with its $5.28 price gain adding 36 points to the Dow. Earlier Wednesday, Airbus’s France-listed shares shot up 10.3% Thursday, after the company said it “overachieved on its 2017 guidance for all key performance indicators” amid record deliveries. Boeing’s stock had soared 35.2% over the past three months, while Airbus shares have climbed 8.6% and the Dow has rallied 7.9%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold prices on Thursday ended slightly lower, retreating from the highest finish in nearly three weeks, despite a weakening dollar as stock benchmarks looked set to rise for a fifth straight session, pointing to an increase in appetite for asset perceived as risky. April gold closed down $2.70, or 0.2%, at $1,355.30 an ounce. The dollar extended its stretch of weakness, with the U.S. ICE Dollar Index off 0.4% and set for a 1.9% weekly slump, at 88.74. A weaker dollar should provide a lift to assets pegged to greenback, making them more attractive to buyers using other currencies. However, gold appeared to take its cues from a rally in equities, which had slipped about 10% from a recent peak in late January. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to mark its longest string of gains in about 9 weeks, while the S&P 500 index also was set to notch a fifth straight advance, suggesting that some calm had returned to the market following a stretch of losses. The metals market also digested economic reports, notably the producer price index, which pointed to stronger inflation trends in the U.S., an economic picture that could push the Federal Reserve to be more aggressive with interest-rate hikes, a negative for metals that don’t offer a yield.

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Shares of Apple Inc. surged 3.1% in midday trade Thursday, putting it on track for a fifth-straight gain, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a larger stake in the technology giant, and after an upbeat research note on smartphone marketshare. The stock has now run up 11.2% since it closed at a four-month low on Feb. 7. Late Wednesday, Berkshire disclosed that it owned 165.3 million shares of Apple, or about 3.3% of the shares outstanding, as of Dec. 31, up 23.3% from what it owned on Sept. 30. Separately, famed billionaire David Tepper’s hedge fund Appaloosa LP more than tripled its Apple bet to 4.6 million shares. Separately, Strategy Analytics said Apple captured a record 51% of global smartphone revenue share during fourth quarter. Apple generated $61 billion in smartphone revenue during the quarter, Strategy Analytics said, more than triple the $19 billion generated by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. . Apple shares have gained 2.1% over the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.7%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of AbbVie Inc. rose 1.0% in midday trade Thursday, after the biopharmaceutical company said it raised its dividend by 35% and set a new $10 billion share repurchase program. The new quarterly dividend of 96 cents a share, up from 71 cents a share, will be payable May 15 to shareholders of record on April 13. Based on current share prices, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 3.36%, above the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF’s payout yield of 0.68% and the S&P 500’s implied yield of 1.88%, according to FactSet. The company said its new share buyback program supersedes any existing programs. At current share prices, the program would allow the company to buy back about 87.6 million shares, or 5.5% of the shares outstanding. AbbVie’s stock has run up 21.8% over the past three months, while the pharmaceutical ETF has gained 4.6% and the S&P 500 has advanced 5.8%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The price of a single bitcoin hit $10,000 for the first time since the beginning of the month, underscoring a rally in the world’s No. 1 cryptocurrency since touching a recent low. Bitcoin has risen about 68% since touching a low below $6,000, according to news and research site CoinDesk. Bitcoin hit an intraday high of $10,064.98, representing a 5.6% increase on the day, dragging other major digital currencies along for the uptrend. That said, the virtual currency is still below its late-December peak at around $20,000.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News