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Shares of Pandora Media Inc. are up 1.9% in Tuesday trading after its CFO, Naveen Chopra, spoke at a Deutsche Bank investor conference. Chopra spoke of the company’s December decision to launch Premium Access, a feature that lets users of Pandora’s free, ad-supported radio product unlock a temporary on-demand listening session in exchange for watching a video ad. Pandora is selling “virtually all the inventory that we have in video,” Chopra said, and Premium Access is helping Pandora up-sell free users to paid subscriptions. That said, Chopra said he believes that audio is “the place to be” given increased interest in smart speakers for which “news flash, display advertising, search advertising, social advertising and video don’t work very well.” Pandora also sees growth opportunities in podcasts. Naveen is part of the streaming pioneer’s new leadership team, which was brought toward the end of last year after Sirius XM Holdings made a strategic investment in the company. Pandora shares are down 62% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 14%.

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Finisar Corp. and Infinera Corp. are among the optical companies whose shares are up Tuesday, after optical networking company Ciena Corp. reported better-than-expected earnings before the open. Finisar shares are up 3.6%, while Infinera shares are up 4.1% and Ciena’s stock is up 9.9%. Others in the optical business, including Oclaro Inc. and Lumentum Corp. have seen their shares rise as well following Ciena’s report. Ciena’s CEO Gary Smith said on the company’s earnings call that increased adoption of mobile apps and streaming video was driving demand for Ciena’s products. Ciena shares are down 0.8% over the past 12 months, while Finisar shares are down 45% and Infinera shares are up 0.6%. The S&P 500 has gained 14% in that time.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned negative for the year on Thursday, as the day’s losses accelerated in midday trading. At its low of the session, the blue-chip average fell 0.6%, or 166 points, a decline that erased the Dow’s year-to-date gains. At its peak of the year, the Dow was up 7.7%. The S&P 500 remains up 1.5% for 2018 while the Nasdaq Composite Index is up 6.1%, supported by gains in large-capitalization technology stocks. All three indexes were lower on Tuesday, erasing an earlier rise as investors continued to debate the potential impact of a trade war in the wake of President Donald Trump announcing a pair of tariffs, a strategy that has received opposition from key Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan. The day’s losses were widespread, with nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors down on the day. Health-care stocks lost 0.5% while the utility sector fell 0.8%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average late-morning Tuesday turned firmly negative, weighed by declines in heavyweights Boeing Co., and UnitedHealth. Shares of Dow components Boeing and health-care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. were producing the biggest drag on the price-weighted index, cutting about 70 points from the average. The Dow was most recently off 142 points, or 0.6%, at 24,741. The swing into negative territory underlined a regime of up-and-down trade for equities following its fall into correction territory, defined as a decline from a recent peak of at least 10% last month. The Dow had been up by as much as 120 points before pivoting lower early Tuesday. Wall Street also was digesting news of easing tensions between North Korea and the U.S. against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s threat of imposing import tariffs on steel and aluminum. At other U.S. benchmarks, the S&P 500 index was off 0.2% at 2,714, while the Nasdaq Composite Index [: COMP] was less than 0.1% lower at 7,324.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Square Inc. are down 4.5% in Tuesday morning trading, after closing at an all-time high in the prior session. Analysts remain bullish on the stock, including Instinet’s Dan Dolev, who reiterated his optimism for Square in a Tuesday note. He argued that gross payment volume could accelerate in 2018 and that a recent deceleration in Square Capital loan volumes shouldn’t be cause for concern. Dolev is upbeat about the fact that most large sellers are onboarding themselves to the platform. He has a buy rating on the stock and a $64 price target, the highest among all analysts, according to FactSet. Square’s stock is up 193% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 14% in that time.

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Shares of Intel Corp. surged 1.8% toward a 17 1/2-year high in morning trade Tuesday, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gainers, amid a broad rally in the semiconductor sector. The rally put Intel’s stock on track to close at the highest level Sept. 21, 2000, while the Dow fell 78 points in morning trade. The PHLX Semiconductor Index hiked up 0.9%, with 20 of 30 components trading higher. The index rose to an all-time intraday high of 1,399.99 earlier in the session before paring gains to be fractionally below the Jan. 23 record close of 1,392.86. J.P. Morgan analyst Harlan Sur said in a note to clients Tuesday that recent monthly industry data was “confirmation” that the chip industry was “still healthy on both a total semi-industry and ex-memory basis.” On Monday, the Semiconductor Industry Association said January chip sales rose 23% from a year ago to $37.6 billion. Intel’s stock has rallied 16.4% over the past three months, while the chip sector index has climbed 12.6% and the Dow has gained 2.7%.

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Qualcomm Inc. shares are off 2.1% in Tuesday morning trading, putting them on track for their sixth straight loss. If the losses hold, this would be the longest streak since the six-session losing streak ending May 31, 2017. Qualcomm filed a form 8-K with the SEC Tuesday, which contained the letter it received from the U.S. Department of Treasury regarding the company’s request to look into Broadcom Ltd.’s bid for board seats. The Department of Treasury broadened the scope of the inquiry to look at Broadcom’s hostile takeover bid as well. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is looking into a number of potential national security issues, according to the letter shared by Qualcomm. These include the rise of Chinese firms as they build out 5G technology and Qualcomm’s relationship with the Department of Defense. Qualcomm shares are up 11% over the past 12 months, while Broadcom shares are up 15%. The S&P 500 has gained 15% in that time and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has risen 43%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries fell by 70,000 barrels a day to 32.39 million barrels in February from a month earlier, according to an S&P Global Platts report released Tuesday. The decline was driven by “continued collapse in Venezuela’s oil industry to a historic nadir” and field maintenance that dropped output from the United Arab Emirates to almost two-year lows. Production from OPEC members that participate in the output-cut agreement was well below the ceiling of 32.73 million barrels a day, the report said. April West Texas Intermediate crude was up 13 cents, or 0.2%, to $62.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump should be “more surgical and more targeted.” Trump has announced his intent to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, angering fellow Republicans. Ryan also said there was a “legitimate problem” with dumping of imports into the U.S. and that abuse should be targeted. He named China as a country that was dumping both products.

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From:: Stock Market News