Author: admin

Piedmont Natural Gas Co. said Friday Chief Executive Thomas E. Skains is retiring after Piedmont’s deal with Duke Energy Corp. closes. “I am making this personal decision now to help make sure we move forward with the transition and allow the Duke and Piedmont management teams to make important long-term leadership, organizational and integration decisions” for the company as a subsidiary of Duke Energy, Skains said in an email to employees that was attached to a company’s filing on Friday. Duke Energy announced the $4.9 billion cash deal for Piedmont Natural Gas in October. The companies expect the deal to close by the end of 2016. Shares of Piedmont Natural Gas were flat in late trading Friday after ending the regular session up 0.1%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks ended mixed on Friday, but managed to post their longest period of weekly advances since late last year, on the heels of a stronger-than-expected October jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 46 points, or 0.3%, higher at 17,910, the S&P 500 index ended little changed at 2,099, falling below the 2,100 level considered psychologically important to traders. The Nasdaq Composite closed 19 points, or 0.4%, higher at 5,147. The moves for stocks came after the Labor Department said the economy added 271,000 jobs in October, the biggest gain this year, while the unemployment rate fell to 5%, and hourly wages rose at the fastest year-over-year pace since 2009.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumer credit jumped 10% in September, or by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $28.9 billion, the Federal Reserve reported Friday. That’s the biggest monthly rise since April 2014. Nonrevolving credit, like auto and car loans, jumped 10.5%, and revolving credit, like credit cards, grew 8.7%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

By Rachel Jefferson

The economy is officially recovering from the Great Recession: income is increasing and unemployment is decreasing. More millennials are employed, yet less adults 35 and younger are buying homes. In fact, the homeownership rate among this age range has sunk by 6.3% since 2004. So what is the culprit of decreasing home-ownership rates? Student loans, a massive effective rent increase, and a delay in both marriage and starting a family all contribute to the millennial domination of the rental market. Why are young adults choosing to rent over buying?

Read full story on Axiometrics.

…read more

From:: Property Management

Oil prices slumped on Friday, decling about 4.9% for the week, as better-than-expected monthly data on U.S. employment helped to strengthen the U.S. dollar. Oil futures failed to find support even after Baker Hughes reported a weekly fall in number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs. The market also saw little reaction following news of the U.S. government’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline project. December crude settled at $44.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 91 cents, or 2%, for the session. Based on the most-active contracts, that was the lower settlement since Oct. 27.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Gold futures fell for a seventh session in a row on Friday to tally a weekly loss of nearly 5% as upbeat monthly U.S. jobs data raised the prospect for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in December. December gold settled at $1,087.70 an ounce on Comex, down $16.50, or 1.5%. Prices ended the week about 4.7% lower.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Oil futures continued to trade lower after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs fell by 6 to 572 as of Friday. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes natural-gas rigs, was down 4 at 771. Compared to last year, the total rig count has fallen by 1,154, with the oil rig count down 996. December crude was at $44.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 72 cents, or 1.6%. It was trading at $44.52 just 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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s stock has dropped into bear market territory Friday, as it has lost more than 20% from its Aug. 5 record close of $757.77. The rule of thumb among many on Wall Street is that a bear market is defined as a decline of 20% or more from a significant high. The bear market is thought to remain in place until there is a rise of 20% or more off a bear-market closing low. The stock fell 2.6% in afternoon trade Friday, and has lost more than 15% in the last month, amid growing concerns over an E. coli outbreak that forced the fast casual restaurant chain to close stores in Washington and Oregon. The stock was down 21% from its record. The last time Chipotle’s entered a bear market was on April 28, 2014. The stock bottomed that day, after a 22% decline from an all-time high hit six-weeks earlier, and closed back in bull-market territory in less than two months.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares slid Friday after CNBC reported that famed short-seller Jim Chanos named the Chinese e-commerce company as a possible short at a conference. Yahoo Inc. , which owns 384 million shares of Alibaba, also fell in tandem. CNBC did not make it clear which conference Chanos was speaking at. Chanos of Kynikos Associates has been bearish on China for years and recently warned that the country can be the next Greece. Shares of Alibaba are off 3.8% to $82.13 and Yahoo shares skidded 3.1%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Shares of utility companies are taking a beating Friday, as increasing expectations of an interest rate hike sooner than later has weighed heavily on the high-yielding sector. The SPDR Utilities ETF slumped 3.8%, with 28 of its 29 equity components losing ground. Among the sector tracker’s most active components, shares of Southern Co. shed 4.3%, Xcel Energy Inc. dropped 4.3%, Duke Energy Corp. lost 5.1%, Exelon Corp. slid 2.6% and CenterPoint Energy declined 5.8%. A much stronger-than-expected October jobs report has led investors to believe the Federal Reserve is now likely to raise interest rates in December. Higher rates would make high-yielding stocks like utilities less attractive. The utilities ETF has a dividend yield of 3.7%; the 10-year yield has jumped about 0.09 percentage points to a 3 1/2-month high of 2.333%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News