Align Technology rockets higher after earnings

Align Technology Inc. shot more than 7% higher in late trading Tuesday after announcing earnings, sending one of the best-performing stock of 2017 toward yet more record highs. The maker of Invisalign orthodontics reported fourth-quarter earnings of $10.3 million, or 13 cents a share, down from $1.01 a share a year ago due to charges related to the new tax law. Without the tax charge, Align said it would have reported earnings of $1.19 a share, easily beating average analyst estimates of 96 cents a share, according to FactSet. Revenue was $421.3 million, up from $385.3 million a year ago and well higher than analysts’ average estimate of $396 million. Align’s first-quarter forecast also handily beat analyst estimates, as the company said it expects to report earnings of 94 cents to 98 cents a share on revenue of $400 million to $410 million. Analysts on average expected first-quarter earnings of 88 cents a share on revenue of $396 million, according to FactSet. Shares topped $290 in after-hours action following the report, after closing with a 2.4% decline at $270.08; Align’s record intraday high in regular trading is $287.32.

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

Dow ends 360 points lower, marks worst 2-session drop in more than a year

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday fell sharply adding to its losses to start the week and marking its worst two-session skid in about 16 months, according to WSJ Market Data Group. The Dow closed off about 362 points, or 1.4% at 26,076, marking its steepest daily percentage drop since Aug. 18 and its worst two-session percentage slump since Sept. 9, 2016. The S&P 500 index closed down 1.1% at roughly 2,822, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended the day off 0.9% at around 7,400. The blue-chip Dow industrials registered the worst performance of the three main benchmarks, with shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc. cutting 72 points from the price-weighted gauge. The move lower for stocks comes as borrowing costs, by virtue of the 10-year Treasury yield , climbed to its highest level in more than three years on Monday. Despite the downturn for stocks that had mostly been in an uptrend, Wall Street strategists mostly see the updraft for stocks as intact. Looking ahead, investors are awaiting the State of the Union address from President Donald Trump later Tuesday as well as the Federal Reserve’s latest policy update on Wednesday.

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From:: Stock Market News

AMD shares fall even as results, outlook top Street view

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shares fell in the extended session Tuesday even after the chip maker’s quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street views. AMD shares dropped 5% to $12.25 after hours, and were up 25% year to date at Tuesday’s close. The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $61 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a loss of $51 million, or 6 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 8 cents a share. Revenue rose to $1.48 billion from $1.11 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 5 cents a share on revenue of $1.41 billion. For the first quarter, AMD estimates revenue of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion. Analysts expect revenue of $1.25 billion.

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

The Truth About Technology and the Role of a Real Estate Agent

By Susanne Dwyer

RPR-techtruthNARPulse@2x

NAR PULSE—In the last 15 years, the “golden age of consumerism” has ushered in unprecedented access to real estate data, yet the perceived value of working with a REALTOR® has skyrocketed. Why and how? Find out here!

2018 NAR Member Orientation Video and Materials Available Online
NAR’s 2018 New Member Orientation Materials are now available online for use by brokerages. Use these resources and tools to welcome new agents into the REALTOR® family. Share the updated 2018 New Member Orientation video and welcome message from CEO Bob Goldberg at new agent orientations. The member orientation materials are available here.

Effortless Social Media for Brokerages
Back At You Media, the newest partner in the REALTOR Benefits® Program, provides powerful automated marketing tools for REALTORS®. Multiple plan options are available for members with varying levels of social media savvy, including an enterprise plan for broker/owners. Learn more.

For the latest real estate news and trends, bookmark RISMedia.com.

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From:: Real Estate News

Ford’s outlook changed to negative at Moody’s

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday changed its outlook on Ford Motor Co. to negative from stable, keeping its rating on the car maker’s debt Baa2, the next-to-last rung of investment grade. The company’s rating reflects its “competitive position” in the North American and Chinese markets as well as “sound” liquidity position, but Ford faces challenges such as rising incentives, softening demand in North America, higher commodity costs, and increased spending to expand its portfolio of electric vehicles. “These factors have contributed to weaker operating performance and an erosion in credit metrics which are now weak for the Baa2 rating level,” Moody’s said. Shares of Ford fell 0.3% as the close of the regular trading day approached, which would be their second straight day of losses.

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From:: Stock Market News

Facebook bans cryptocurrencies, ICO ads

Facebook Inc. has banned ads for cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and binary options, the company said Tuesday. Facebook stock is up less than 1% to $187.11 in late afternoon trading. In a blog, Facebook product management director Rob Leathern wrote the company believes that ads should be safe and “misleading and deceptive ads have no place on Facebook.” Leathern described the ban as “intentionally broad” and the company plans to begin enforcement on its core app, as well as the Audience Network and Instagram. Facebook stock has gained 43% in the past 12 months, as the S%P 500 index rose 25%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil ends sharply lower as production concerns dog

Crude-oil prices settled in negative territory on Tuesday, posting back-to-back session declines on renewed concerns about mounting U.S. crude production. March West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange finished off $1.06, or 1.5%, at $64.50 a barrel. The International Energy Agency said earlier this month that it expects U.S. production to surpass that of Saudi Arabia, climbing above 10 million barrels a day in 2018-topping a high last seen in 1970.

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From:: Stock Market News

Apple subject of DoJ, SEC inquires regarding battery disclosures: report

The Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into whether Apple Inc.’s comments about battery slowdowns to see whether the company violated any disclosure rules, according to a report from Bloomberg. The story cites “people familiar with the matter” who said that it was too early to know whether there would be any “enforcement” as a result of the probe. The company admitted in December that its latest software updates slowed down older devices to preserve their batteries and slashed the price of replacement batteries. Apple shares are down 1.4% in midday trading Tuesday. The company has had a rough month, as it dealt with fallout from the battery issue and as numerous analysts wrote of production slowdowns for the flagship iPhone X model. The stock is up 36% over the past 12 months, compared with a 31% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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From:: Stock Market News

Home Prices Continue to Rise, Seattle Leads

National home values continued to appreciate, with some home price indices continuing to set new records. While Seattle continued to lead the price gains, the nation’s capitol hasn’t fared so well.

In November 2017, the Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index was reported to be 204.21. That was just over 1 percent short of its July 2006 record high and 52 percent above its March 2012 low.

The index, which is a value-weighted average of 20 metropolitan area indices, ascended 0.2 percent from the prior month. Compared to the same month in 2016, the 20-city index has escalated 6.4 percent.


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From:: Financing

Hawaii worker who sent false missile alarm thought the threat was real, FCC says

The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that the Hawaii public employee who sent a message to everyone in the state warning of a ballistic missile threat believed there was a credible threat. “Because we’ve not been able to interview the day shift warning officer who transmitted the false alert, we’re not in a position to fully evaluate the credibility of their assertion that they believed there was an actual missile threat and intentionally sent the live alert. But it is worth noting that they accurately recalled after the event that the announcement did say ‘This is not a drill’,” said James Wiley, the FCC attorney advisor for cybersecurity and communications reliability. Wiley said the worker said they did not hear the standard recording used by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency say that it was an exercise. The initial belief was that the worker had simply pressed the wrong button. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked for an investigation following the event. On Tuesday he issued a statement on the preliminary findings of the report. “In my view, here are the two most troubling things that our investigation has found so far: (1) Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency didn’t have reasonable safeguards in place to prevent human error from resulting in the transmission of a false alert; and (2) Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency didn’t have a plan for what to do if a false alert was transmitted,” Pai said in his statement. The worker who sent the threat warning was reassigned after the false alarm.

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