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Any change in the Federal Reserve policy toolkit may be obvious to Ph.D.’s in economics but not to the public, and the shift will need to be planned carefully, said Chicago Fed President Charles Evans on Friday. In a speech to the Manhattan Institute Shadow Open Market Committee, Evans said that the proposals under consideration to combat the next downturn would require inflation to above 2%, perhaps for some time. In addition, the Fed must pay close attention to financial instability risks, he said. Even the existing policy of trying to achieve a 2% inflation target could be improved to make sure the public knows that is not a ceiling for inflation, the Chicago Fed president said.

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From:: Stock Market News

Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil fell by four to 796 this week. The oil-rig count had climbed in each of the past six weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, however, edged up by three to 984, according to Baker Hughes. April West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.65, or 2.7%, from Thursday, to $61.77 a barrel, up a bit from $61.73 shortly before the rig data.

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The market volatility seen over the past month is a “healthy realization” by investors that the risks are two-sided, said Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren on Friday. “Unsustainably strong growth that leads to excessive inflation or financial imbalances is not as much a risk as growth that falls short,” Rosengren said in a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Springfield, MA. The Boston Fed president was upbeat about the outlook, saying the recent weak consumer spending was likely a temporary pause. Rosengren said he favors a pace of rate hikes “perhaps a bit faster” that the three, one-quarter point increases, that the Fed has forecast for this year.

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One of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s longest-tenured CEOs is set to depart, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The paper said Goldman head Lloyd Blankfein is set to step down as early as the end of 2018, capping a roughly 12-year run at the helm of the world’s most prominent investment bank. The report indicated that Goldman would aim to replace Blankfein with either of the bank’s two co-presidents, Harvey Schwartz (a former CFO of the company) or David Solomon. The 63-year-old Blankfein could also retire in the bank’s 150th anniversary year of 2019. Either way, the bank appears to be laying the groundwork for succession after Blankfein helped guide the bank out of the 2007-08 financial crisis. Shares of Goldman were up 1.5%, along with the rest of the market, amid the news. For the year, Goldman’s shares were up 6.2%, compared with the S&P 500 index , which is up 3.6% so far in 2018. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , of which Goldman is a component, was up 1.3% at midday.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. were rallying on Friday, contributing to the Dow Jones Industrial Average after The Wall Street Journal reported that the bank’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein step down as CEO as early as this year. The Dow was up about 314 points, or 1.3%, at 25,208, with Goldman’s rally contributing more than 30 points to the price-weighted Dow’s gains. Goldman’s shares by virtue of its $200-price tag, presently at $270, is one of the biggest drivers of the blue-chip benchmark. Even before the report, Goldman’s shares were higher, bouncing after the Friday jobs report suggested that the U.S. economy remains healthy but not enough to force the Federal Reserve to act aggressively to tamp down rising prices or inflation. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index was up 1.2%, led by the finacials sector and the Nasdaq composite Index was trading at a new intraday record, washing away all of its decline from its recent 10% pullback, as the broader stock market was recovering.

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Facebook Inc. has secured exclusive streaming rights for 25 regular-season afternoon Major League Baseball games, the MLB announced Friday. The package represents the league’s first digital-only national broadcasts. Games will be available on Facebook Watch and will begin with the April 4 contest between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. “Community and conversation are central to both baseball and Facebook, and MLB Network’s innovative broadcasts will bring these interactive and social elements of the game to life to fans around the world in new ways on our platform,” Facebook’s head of sports partnerships Dan Reed said in a release. Facebook didn’t disclose financial terms of the arrangement. Also on Friday, Warner Music Group and Facebook announced a new licensing agreement. Facebook shares are up 1.6% in Friday trading and 34% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 17% in that time.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Donald Trump may consider exempting other countries from steel and aluminum tariffs in addition to Canada and Mexico. Mnuchin was commenting in a CNBC interview on the tariffs Trump unveiled Thursday, which are 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. Mnuchin also said the government would issue guidelines for product exemptions.

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The Nasdaq Composite Index on Friday retook an all-time high in intraday trade for the first time in about six weeks, highlighting a relatively speedy recover for the technology-laden index following its downturn in early February. The Nasdaq Composite Index touched a level at 7,511.73, according to FactSet data, representing its first intraday record since Jan. 26 when it closed at at record 7,505.77. The U.S. stock market broadly suffered a sharp downturn that saw the Nasdaq, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index slip at least 10% from their recent peaks in late January, registering what most define as a correction. However, stocks have mostly recovered from that nadir, even as Wall Street wrestles with turmoil in the White House over the implementation of tariffs, which some critics fear could spark a global trade war. Friday’s leg higher, however, was aided by a better-than-expected jobs report, with 313,000 jobs created in February and muted signs that wage pressures were building in the system. Fears of rapidly rising inflation or wages cropping up in the January labor-market report sparked the selloff in equities last month.

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Shares of Acacia Communications Inc. are down 4.1% in Friday trading after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight from equal weight. The analysts, led by Meta Marshall, worry about the company’s data communications exposure. “While [data communications] demand remains strong, headwinds include push for lighter weight equipment and architectural alternatives, meaning profit pool for systems vendors likely to only grow modestly if at all,” Marshall wrote. She also initiated coverage of several other optical names, including overweight-rated II-VI Inc. , which she likes for its “exposure to industrial, telecom, and 3D sensing.” Marshall began coverage of Oclaro Inc. and Finisar Corp. with equal weight ratings. Finisar shares are down 9.9% after reporting a weak outlook Thursday afternoon and down 48% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 17%.

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From:: Stock Market News