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Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s stock slid 0.7% in afternoon trade Friday, putting it on course for a fifth-straight loss to a five-month low. More importantly for chart watchers, the stock is headed for the first close below its 200-day moving average, which many technicians use as a dividing line between longer-term uptrends and downtrends, since May 18. At that time, the stock closed below its 200-day MA for just one day, before surging back above it after the Wal-Mart reported better-than-expected quarterly results on May 19. The last time it closed below the 200-day MA for at least two-straight sessions was Feb. 22. The stock was trading at $68.90, while the 200-day MA extended to $69.18. Friday’s selloff comes a day after Wal-Mart provided a downbeat earnings outlook for fiscal 2017. It has lost 6.3% over the past three months, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has gained 3.9%–the ETF is 1.6% above its 200-day MA– and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has tacked on 2.1%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil futures settled back under $50 a barrel on Friday, but still gained roughly 3.3% for the week with the market wary of potential oil supply and demand disruptions linked to Hurricane Matthew and uncertainty surrounding informal output discussions among major oil producers in the coming days. November West Texas Intermediate crude fell 63 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $49.81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices, which settled at a four-month high of $50.44 Thursday, tallied a third straight week of gains.

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold futures fell on Friday, suffering from a sixth straight session loss to tally a weekly decline of roughly 5% as traders assessed recent U.S. economic data to gauge the likelihood of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase before the end of the year. Monthly nonfarm payrolls data released Friday came in weaker than expected, but still showed a solid gain in employment. December gold fell $1.10, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,251.90 an ounce for the session. Prices settled at their lowest level since June 7, according to FactSet data.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil futures continued to decline Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 3 to 428 rigs this week. They have now posted increases in each of the last six weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 2 to 524, Baker Hughes said. Nov. crude was at $49.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 68 cents, or 1.7%, from Thursday’s settlement. It was trading around $49.68 before the rig data.

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From:: Stock Market News

Deutsche Bank AG’s largest non-institutional shareholder is looking to give the bank a large cash infusion but mostly backed by a margin loan, according to media reports Friday. U.S.-traded shares of Deutsche Bank surged briefly, rising as much as 3% following reports, and were last up 1.2% at $13.69. According to FactSet data, Al Thani Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor, the former prime minister of Qatar, owns a 10% stake in Deutsche Bank. Sheikh Hamad is planning on providing a $2.9 billion cash infusion to Deutche Bank, with about $2 billion of that coming from a $2 billion margin loan from the Qatar National Bank, according to Bloomberg News. The move would back reports that Qatari investors are considering increasing their stake in the bank even as it has potentially lost $1.2 billion on their investment, according to Reuters. The bank has been under pressure lately from reports it could pay as much as a $14 billion fine to the Justice Department, squeezing its balance sheet.

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Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. stock slumped 4.8% in morning trade Friday after Anthem Inc. signaled that it wouldn’t cover the biotech’s $300,000 a year Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, the first approved treatment for the rare degenerative disease. The new drug, eteplirsen, is “investigational and not medically necessary,” Anthem said in a medical policy dated Thursday. In explaining the decision, the health insurer reviewed eteplirsen’s long and controversial path to approval, including a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee’s vote against recommending approval, which the FDA ultimately disregarded, and the small population that the drug was studied in, or 13 boys with DMD. “In summary, the clinical benefit of treatment for DMD with eteplirsen, including improved motor function, has not been demonstrated,” the Anthem policy said. “Establishment of a clinical benefit is warranted in on-going clinical trials,” which the FDA required as part of the drug’s approval. Sarepta shares rose 180.3% over the last three weeks, compared with a 2.8% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares in Sports Direct International PLC traded 12% lower on Friday after the U.K. sporting goods retailer warned about the British pound’s flash crash during Asian trade hurting earnings. “In light of recent downward currency movements, the company entered into a hedging arrangement with respect to the GBP/USD rate,” Sports Direct said in a news release. “Extreme movements overnight resulted in a crystallization of that rate at 1.19, resulting in a negative impact of approximately £15m [$19 million] on the company’s FY17 underlying EBITDA expectation.” EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. “In addition, after taking into account the hedging referred to above, if the GBP/USD rate is 1.20 on average for the remainder of FY17, then the negative impact on the company’s FY17 underlying EBITDA expectation would be in the order of a further £20m,” the company added.

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From:: Stock Market News