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The latest installment of Call of Duty likely provided a nice boost to Activision Blizzard Inc. during the latest quarter, according to analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. They raised their estimates for the quarter, as well as their price target, to $77 from $72. They see strong indicators of demand for the game in third-party sales data. The analysts, led by Matthew Thornton, are also upbeat on several data points relating to the company’s new Overwatch League, an esports venture. Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch streaming platform reportedly will pay at least $90 million for exclusive third-party media rights to the competitions, over two years. The league also brought on Toyota as a sponsor. Activision splits revenue from media deals and sponsorships with teams in the league and retains half of the money. Publicity for the league may have spurred greater Overwatch engagement from regular players, the analysts added, a potential catalyst. Activision shares are little changed in Wednesday trading, though they’re up 82% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 is up 25% in that time.

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From:: Stock Market News

Alibaba Group Holding Inc. shares are up 3.1% in midday trading Wednesday, to hit a new intraday high on heavy volume. Analysts at Oppenheimer put out a “deep dive” on Alibaba, praising the company’s core business as well as its New Retail initiative, which is intended to bring online and offline shopping together. New Retail “should generate significant revenue for Alibaba’s retail business, providing upselling opportunities,” wrote the analysts, led by Jason Helfstein. He’s also upbeat about the company’s fast-growing Ali Cloud business, which he believes could be the size Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS was in 2014, or the size of Microsoft Corp.’s Azure from 2017. “Growth will be fueled by Alibaba’s improving personalization in e-commerce through data-driven AI and media integration, continued adoption of Alibaba Cloud and greater physical store exposure,” Helfstein wrote. Alibaba shares are up 47% over the past 12 months, compared with a 25% gain for the S&P 500 Index .

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

Oil prices rose Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 19. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a decrease of 1.6 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a rise of 4.8 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles, however, climbed by 3.1 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles rose 600,000 barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a supply rise of 2.1 million barrels for gasoline and a fall of 2.5 million barrels for distillates. March crude added 27 cents, or 0.4%, to $64.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from $64.51 before the supply data.

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

Apple Inc. shares are down 1.1% in Wednesday morning trading after analysts at Instinet cut their estimates for iPhone sales to below the Wall Street consensus. The firm is concerned by some of Verizon Communications Inc.’s comments in its earnings release yesterday, namely the carrier’s upgrade rate of 7.2%, which is meaningfully below what it was following other recent iPhone launches. “Demand indicators dispute hope of above seasonal F2Q iPhone units,” Instinet’s Jeffrey Kvaal wrote, referring to the March quarter. He added that supply-chain gleanings back up the “demand picture.” Meanwhile, analysts at Canaccord Genuity remain upbeat about signs of “strong” demand during the December quarter but said that January trends seem more in line with historical patterns. They boosted their price target to $200 from $195. Apple shares are up 46% over the past 12 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 32% over that time.

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

Lowe’s Cos. said Wednesday that it is hiring more than 53,000 employees, including full-time, part-time and seasonal workers. Seasonal staff usually work between March and September in functions like cashiers and lawn and garden associates. Full-time and part-time positions available include service and support managers and stockers. Lowe’s currently has nearly 250,000 U.S. store employees. Among the locations with openings are Atlanta (1,000), Boston and the surrounding area (1,800), Charlotte (1,200) and New York (1,200). Lowe’s shares are up 45% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 25% for the period.

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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday it had filed federal charges for fraud and misappropriation against two men in relation to a scheme that ran from January 2014 through January 2018 related to the virtual currency known as My Big Coin. The CFTC alleges Randall Crater of East Hampton, New York, Mark Gillespie of Hartland, Michigan, and their firm My Big Coin Pay, Inc., a corporation based in Las Vegas, Nevada stole more than $6 million from customers and used the money for personal expenses and the purchase of a home, antiques, fine art, jewelry, luxury goods, furniture, interior decorating and other home improvement services, travel, and entertainment instead of investment in My Big Coin. The court has ordered the defendants’ assets frozen as well as the assets of six additional relief defendants for allegedly receiving customer funds without providing any legitimate services to clients and without any interest or entitlement to such customer funds.

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

Apple Inc. said in a release Wednesday that its upcoming iOS 11.3 mobile software update will allow users to more easily import medical records from healthcare providers and then store this information on their iPhones. “Patients from participating medical institutions will have information from various institutions organized into one view and receive regular notifications for their lab results, medications, conditions and more,” the company said. The information will be encrypted and require a passcode to view. Apple will also introduce Business Chat, which gives users the ability to message corporate support teams, make appointments, or buy things via the iMessage app. Facebook Inc. is also making a big push into messaging for businesses. Finally, the update will feature new Animoji, animated emoji that are exclusively available to iPhone X users. New characters include a bear, skull, lion, and dragon. The iOS update is presently available to developers and will come out to all users in the spring. Apple shares are down 0.7% in Wednesday trading and up 48% over the past 12 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 32% over that time.

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

U.S. stock indexes opened higher on Tuesday, setting intraday records, amid a rush of corporate earnings, including results from General Electric Co. and United Technologies . The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 85 points, or 0.3%, to 26,296. The S&P 500 rose 6 points, or 0.2%, to 2,845. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 14 points, or 0.2%, to 7,474. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite set all-time closing highs, even as the Dow edged away from its record close.

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