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The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday traded near its highs of the day after reports suggested that there was sufficient votes to clear the way to end of a government shutdown that has entered its third day. The Dow climbed 75 points, or 0.3%, at 26,147. The blue-chip gauge had been under pressure in the early part of the session but broke higher on the news that the end of the multiday session, at least temporarily, may be near. The S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index also climbed to their highs of the day, carving out fresh intraday records. The S&P 500 was up 0.5% at 2,823, while the technology-laden Nasdaq was 0.7% higher at 7,387. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq has set all-time intraday peaks near the start of trade on modest gains. According to reports, Democrats agreed to a short-term pause in their standoff with Republicans over immigration policy.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced charges on Monday against six certified public accountants – five former KPMG partners and one former staffer at the audit regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. They allegedly misappropriated and used confidential information relating to the PCAOB’s planned inspections of KPMG audits. The SEC alleges that the misconduct allegedly began in 2015 when former PCAOB officials made unauthorized downloads of the regulator’s plans for inspections of KPMG audits, enabling the former KPMG partners to revise audit workpapers to mimimize negative inspection results. Soon after the conduct was discovered in early 2017, the six respondents were terminated, resigned or placed on leave before separating from KPMG and the PCAOB, respectively. SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in a statement said that the alleged conduct is “disturbing” but he does not currently believe that this will adversely affect the ability of companies to continue to use audit reports issued by KPMG or for investors to rely upon those reports.

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From:: Stock Market News

As the U.S. government shutdown continues into a third day, a spokesman for the Energy Information Administration told MarketWatch Monday that the agency is “continuing normal data collection and publications schedules until further notice.” The EIA will be “able to operate for a short period of time during the lapse in appropriations,” said spokesman Jonathan Cogan. Its website will continue to be updated and publications will continue to be released as scheduled, he said. That would include the weekly U.S. petroleum status report due out Wednesday. Following the shutdown in 2013, the EIA halted operations and delayed the release of weekly reports on energy supplies and production. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, February West Texas Intermediate oil rose 5 cents to $63.42 a barrel.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Juniper Networks Inc. rose 1.7% in Monday morning trading after analysts at Oppenheimer upgraded the stock to outperform from perform. The analysts, led by Ittai Kidron, wrote in a note to clients that Amazon.com Inc. weakness appears “temporary.” He added: “Industry checks suggest that recent Amazon weakness isn’t due to a competitive displacement,” Kidron wrote, but rather due to a number of factors such as construction delays at an Amazon data center and a change to the number of switch layers. “While it could take a few more quarters to fully digest, we see improvement” in the second half of 2018, Kidron wrote. He sees tax changes potentially resulting in an additional $100 million in annual free cash flow for the company, which could prompt share buybacks. Juniper shares are up 1.6% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 24% in that time.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of electronics manufacturing services companies were broadly lower Monday, after Sanmina Corp. reported preliminary fourth-quarter earnings and provided an outlook that were below analyst expectations. Sanmina’s stock plummeted 24% to top the Nasdaq’s losers list, to trade at a three-month low. Among Sanmina’s peers, shares of Flex Ltd. shed 2.1%, Celestica Inc. slid 1.5%, Jabil Inc. dropped 4.2%, Benchmark Electronics Inc. fell 2.4% and TTM Technologies Inc. gave up 1.8%. Sanmina had reported after Friday’s close fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of 64 cents, which was below the FactSet consensus of 76 cents. For the first quarter, Sanmina expects EPS of 68 cents to 72 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 78 cents. Sanmina’s stock has not shed 24% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has climbed 24%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The largest exchange-traded fund to track the biotechnology sector rallied on Monday, supported by a pair of multibillion-dollar deals. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF jumped 1.8%. At current levels, the fund is trading at its highest level since October. However, if it ends the day at its current price, that would represent its highest close since December 2015. The ETF is up 6.8% thus far this year, above the 5.1% advance of the S&P 500 . In the day’s deal news, Juno Therapeutics Inc. jumped 27% after Celgene Corp. agreed to buy the company for $9 billion. Bioverativ Inc. soared 63% after Sanofi SA said it would buy it for $12 billion.

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From:: Stock Market News

FirstEnergy Corp. shares surged 8% Monday, after the company said it is getting a $2.5 billion equity investment from a group led by Elliott Management Corp. The investment includes $1.62 billion of mandatory convertible preferred equity and $850 million of common equity. The preferred equity has an initial conversion price of $27.42 per shares and will receive dividends payable on FirstEnergy common stock on an as-converted basis and be mostly non-voting. The common equity was priced at $28.22 a share. The proceeds of the deal will be used to reduce debt, for the pension fund and general corporate purposes. FirstEnergy had said it would issue at least $1.5 billion of common equity through 2019, but no longer needs to do so. The company will form a restructuring working group to work to transform the company into a fully regulated utility. Shares have gained 6.5% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 24%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Xerox Corp.’s stock rallied 3.1% in morning trade Monday, after the Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, two of the document and communication services company’s three largest shareholders, called for the company to explore strategic alternatives and for the immediate removal of Chief Executive Jeff Jacobson. Icahn disclosed Monday that he owned 24.76 million shares of Xerox, or 9.7% of the shares outstanding, while Deason disclosed ownership of 15.32 million, or 6.0%, of Xerox shares. Regarding the report in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend that Xerox and Fujifilm are discussing a range of potential deals, Icahn and Deason implored the company to not allow Jacobson to lead the negotiations, saying in a joint statement that Jacobson is “neither qualified nor capable of successfully running this company, let alone negotiating a major strategic transaction that will do more more than save his own job.” Last week, Icahn has urged Xerox to revise or terminate its Fuji Xerox joint venture in the wake of an accounting scandal. Xerox’s stock has lost 2.7% over the past three months but has rallied 17% the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 9.1% the past three months and run up 24% the past year.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks fell modestly at the open on Monday, as investors found few reasons to keep pushing shares higher following a push to repeated records, and as the government shutdown provided another element of uncertainty to markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 72 points, or 0.2%, to 26,011. The S&P 500 declined 1 point to 2,809, a drop of less than 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite Index was unchanged at 7,336. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq are coming off closing records, while the Dow is close to its own peak. While government shutdowns have historically not been big selling catalysts, uncertainty over when the government would reopened appeared to dampen buying enthusiasm. The Senate was expected to hold a procedural vote at noon Eastern Time on a measure that would keep the government funded through Feb. 8, but it wasn’t clear if it would have enough support to advance. In company news, Juno Therapeutics Inc. jumped 27% after Celgene Corp. agreed to buy the company for $9 billion. Bioverativ Inc. soared 63% after Sanofi SA said it would buy it for $12 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