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Gold futures notched a gain Friday, but posted a weekly drop as a flight to haven assets dissipated and as a weekly gain in the dollar pressured the yellow metal. The U.S. ICE Dollar Index , a gauge of the buck against a basket of six rival currencies, climbed 0.5% this week-its first weekly gain in three weeks, coinciding with weekly moves for gold . June gold settled $8.10, or 0.7%, higher at $1,234.60 an ounce. Gold’s weekly decline was its first in three weeks. Outshining gold was its sister metal, silver , which also climbed Friday, gaining 0.9%, but booking a nearly 6% weekly advance, the gray metal’s best weekly climb in about a month.

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An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has struck in southern Japan, according to the United States Geological Service, triggering a tsunami warning along the coast. The quake shook buildings in Kumamoto, and comes after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit nearby Kyushu Island on Thursday.

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Oil futures pared some of their losses after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 3 to 351 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 3 to 440. May crude futures were at $40.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 92 cents, or 2.2%. It was trading as low as $40.30 before the 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

Oil futures pared some of their losses after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 3 to 351 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 3 to 440. May crude futures were at $40.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 92 cents, or 2.2%. It was trading as low as $40.30 before the 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

Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded Macy’s Inc.’s long-term issuer default rating to BBB from BBB-plus on concerns the department store chain will struggle with a plan to boost sales. The rating is now two notches above speculative-grade, or “junk” status. The outlook is stable, Fitch said in a statement. The action “reflects the lack of visibility into a sales acceleration that would meaningfully improve profitability after a 14% EBITDA decline in 2015,” the agency said. Fitch projects a 5% decline in 2016. Fitch is expecting the weakness in the mid-market clothing sector to continue as sales continue to shift online, weighing on growth. As a result, it expects leverage to remain elevated in the high 2 times range, which compares with the 2.2 times to 2.3 times range maintained between 2012 and 2014. It expects the company to use cash to buy back shares instead of repaying debt to keep its shareholders happy. Macy’s is currently looking into real-estate opportunities, but Fitch expects any change in its capital structure would be credit neutral at best. Shares were last up 1.7% and are up 15% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.8%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Bats Global Markets Inc. shares surged in their first day of trade after the company priced its initial public offering at $19 a share, the high end of its range. Shares opened up 20% at $22.88 and climbed to as high as $23 in the first ten minutes of trading. The exchange operator, which specializes in exchange-traded funds, had attempted to go public two years ago, but was thwarted by an embarrassing software glitch. The stock is trading on the BATS exchange using that acronym as its symbol. The company sold 13.3 million shares to raise $252.7 million late Thursday, after upsizing the deal from an original 11.2 million. Investors are hoping a successful debut could help reopen the IPO market, which has been all but dead since the beginning of the year amid volatile market conditions. Morgan Stanley and Citigroup were the lead underwriters.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks opened little changed on Friday, but the main indexes were still on track to post weekly gains. Investors grappled with lower oil prices, earnings report from Citigroup Inc. and mixed economic data on Friday. The S&P 500 was flat at 2,082. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10 points at 17,936. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was off by 3 points, or less than 0.1% at 4,942 at the open.

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Shares of Ensco PLC tumbled 11% on heavy volume in premarket trade Friday, after the oil services company said it priced an its upsized public share offering 13% below Thursday’s closing price. Volume of 15 million shares five minutes before the open is already above the full-day average of about 11.3 million shares. The company said late Thursday that it was offering 50 million shares for sale to the public, but said Friday that offering increased to 57 million shares. The company also offered the underwriters of the offering an option to buy up to an additional 8.55 million shares. The offering was priced at $9.25, well below Thursday’s closing price of $10.59. Analyst Matthew Marietta at Stephens Inc. said in a research note that he had expected to offering to price at a discount of about 5%, or around $10 a share. The number of shares offered, excluding the option for underwriters, would increase the total shares outstanding, which was about 235.3 million shares according to FactSet, by 24%.

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

Shares of Ensco PLC tumbled 11% on heavy volume in premarket trade Friday, after the oil services company said it priced an its upsized public share offering 13% below Thursday’s closing price. Volume of 15 million shares five minutes before the open is already above the full-day average of about 11.3 million shares. The company said late Thursday that it was offering 50 million shares for sale to the public, but said Friday that offering increased to 57 million shares. The company also offered the underwriters of the offering an option to buy up to an additional 8.55 million shares. The offering was priced at $9.25, well below Thursday’s closing price of $10.59. Analyst Matthew Marietta at Stephens Inc. said in a research note that he had expected to offering to price at a discount of about 5%, or around $10 a share. The number of shares offered, excluding the option for underwriters, would increase the total shares outstanding, which was about 235.3 million shares according to FactSet, by 24%.

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