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Abercrombie & Fitch has been upgraded to sector perform from underperform at RBC Capital Markets based on improvement at the company’s teen-targeted Hollister brand. The underperform rating had been based on the long-term need for an Abercrombie turnaround, RBC said in a note. The firm already sees a turnaround happening at Hollister. “We are upgrading Hollister, essentially,” said the note. RBC is adjusting its 2015 earnings per share estimate to 68 cents from 65 cents.

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From:: Stock Market News

Noel Biderman, the 44-year-old Avid Life Media chief executive officer who runs the controversial extramarital dating site Ashley Madison, has stepped down, effective immediately. The company will be led by its existing senior management team until a replacement is found, according to a statement. This follows a major hack on the website that led to the leaking of millions of previously anonymous usernames and emails, the company said. The company, which has faced fierce backlash since the leak and a mounting number of lawsuits, said it is “actively adjusting to the attack” and cooperating with international law enforcement in the matter. Prior to the data breach, Avid Media had been planning to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering.

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From:: Stock Market News

The final read of consumer sentiment was revised lower for August, to 91.9 from a preliminary tally of 92.9 and a July reading of 93.1. That was the first reading since the market turmoil.

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Google Inc. Co-Founder Sergey Brin disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that he sold 33,332 shares of the Internet giant’s Class A common stock as prices fell to near six-week lows. Brin sold 16,666 shares on Monday in multiple transactions, at prices ranging from $619.39 down to $593.95, and another 16,666 shares on Monday, at prices ranging from $615.15 to $646.55, according to the filings. The Class A shares fell as much as 7.9% to an intraday low of $593.09 on Monday before bouncing to close down 4% at $618.11. On Tuesday, the stock rose as much as 4.7% on Aug. 25 to an intraday high of $647 before reversing course to close down 0.9% at a 5 1/2-week low of $612.47. A filing shows Brin also sold 13,907 Class C shares on Monday and 16,666 shares on Tuesday. Prior to the sales, the filings show Brin received a total of 240,000 Class A and Class C shares, coded by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a “bona fide gift,” between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20. Class A shares carry one vote, while Class C have no voting rights. Class B shares carry 10 votes, and are not publicly traded. Brin’s holdings of Class B shares was not disclosed.

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Shares of GameStop Corp. tumbled more than 8.5% Friday morning following a very bearish analyst note and downgrade on the company’s stock by Benchmark. Analysts at Benchmark cut their rating to sell from hold following GameStop’s quarterly earnings report. They said the company’s core business model, which includes the physical distribution of hardware, software and used products through retail stores, will be “increasingly displaced” from growing consumer adoption of digital, streaming and subscriptions content service channels. “We believe the console will complete the turn to digital within the next 5 years, which would effectively dislocate the company’s performance foundation,” the analysts said. However in a separate note to clients, Sterne Agee CRT touted GameStop’s diversification efforts and said that it thinks by 2019, as much as 33% of GameStop’s operating profits could come from non-gaming areas. Sterne Agee raised its price target to $52 from $47. Shares of GameStop fell to $42.21 in recent trade. They are up about 3% in the last three months, compared with a 6.5% decline for the broader S&P 500.

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From:: Stock Market News

Retail brokerage giant Charles Schwab was experiencing outages on its site early Friday morning. The broker was responding to frustrated customers on Twitter, directing them to a toll-free number: “We are experiencing system issues, please call 800-435-4000 for urgent matters. We’ll let you know when we know more,” read one tweet. A Schwab spokesman, Greg Gable, confirmed the outages via email and said the company had resolved the issue, which he said was “unrelated to volume.” However, Schwab’s tech glitch comes during a string of outages at retail brokerages this week as stock markets have seen some of their most dramatic swings in trading. That includes TD Ameritrade which saw customers on Monday report trouble accessing their accounts as stocks suffered a stunning 1,000-point drop at the open.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday, taking a pause after two straight days of big gains. The main indexes swung violently during the week, with the Dow plunging 1,000 points in early trade Monday. They are on track to finish the week modestly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 73 points, or 0.3%, to 16,606 at the open. The S&P 500 opened 6 points, or 0.2% lower at 1,982. The Nasdaq Composite began the day down 17 points, or 0.4% at 4,797.

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Carnival Corporation & plc expects to receive a record 400,000 passengers from the Port of New Orleans this year on Carnival Cruise Line. The company also forecasts that it will welcome aboard its three millionth passenger from the port since New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Carnival is the port’s largest cruise operator. The cruise line resumed service in October 2006. By next year, it expects to carry 450,000 passengers. The cruise industry contributes 8,000 jobs and $400 million to the Louisiana economy, according to numbers cited in a study by the Cruise Lines International Association.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The US trade deficit in goods narrowed in July to $59.1 billion from $62.2 billion a month earlier, according to data issued by the Commerce Department on Friday. This is the smallest trade gap since February. This is the second release of the advance trade data. It was designed to allow the government to include three months of trade data in its first estimate of gross domestic product. A more comprehensive report on the deficit for goods and services in July will be released on September 3.

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Narayana Kocherlakota, the Minneapolis Fed president, stuck to his outlier view that not only should interest rates not be hiked but further easing should be considered. the situation Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the Jackson Hole conference, Kocherlakota said the market volatility represents a signal of concerns over the global economic outlook. “It’s another argument for not being hasty in removing accommodation,” said Kocherlakota, the retiring official who doesn’t have a vote this year.

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From:: Stock Market News