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Shares of McDonald’s Corp. sank sharply lower Friday, registering its worst dollar decline in its history as a publicly traded company and its worst percentage drop since October of 2008, according to FactSet data, which has McDonald’s data going back to 1972. McDonald’s became a publicly traded company in 1965. The decline for shares of the fast-food chain also represented its worst weekly decline since 2008 and the sharpest total dollar decline for a week ever. Shares of the component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 4.8% or $7.43, weighing on the price-weighted blue-chip benchmark. For the week, McDonald’s shares are off 9.2%. Friday’s drop came as RBC Capital Markets cut its price target for the company to $170 from $190. The bank also cut its U.S. same-store expectations after a slow start to the $1 $2 $3 menu. RBC maintained its outperform rating on the fast-food giant’s stock. Analysts say “deteriorating industry conditions” and “disappointing” sales of the new value menu drove the U.S. same-store sales forecast for the first quarter down to 1% from 3.5%.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks closed mostly higher in a wild action on Friday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 snapping a three-session losing streak as President Donald Trump escalated the rhetoric around a potential trade war in the wake of a pledge for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. However, fears ebbed by the end of the session. The Dow closed down about 70 points, or 0.3%, but the average had been down by as many as 390 points. McDonald’s was the biggest drag on the benchmark exacting a toll of about 50 points. The S&P 500 index , however, closed higher, up 0.5% at 2,691, while the Nasdaq Composite Index rang up a gain of 1.1% at 7,257.

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From:: Stock Market News

Stock of Perrigo Co. Plc closed 4.3% higher at $82.99 on Friday, snapping a three-day losing streak for the shares, as Wall Street cheered the pharma company’s earnings. Perrigo Thursday reported adjusted earnings of $1.28 a share on sales of $1.28 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.25 a share on sales of $1.26 billion. Perrigo also said it expects 2018 per-share earnings to be in the range of $2.24 to $2.64, and adjusted EPS guidance to be in the range of $5.05 to $5.45 for the year. The analysts surveyed by FactSet expect adjusted earnings of $5.32 a share for the year.

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The Associated Press reported on Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its inquiry into Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm, late last year after the company had given White House adviser Jared Kushner’s family real estate firm a $180 million loan a month earlier. Apollo reported in its 2018 annual report that the SEC had halted its inquiry into how the firm reported the financial results of its private equity funds and other costs and personnel changes after the Obama administration had subpoenaed it for information related to the issue, according to the AP. There is no evidence that Kushner or any other Trump administration official had a role in the SEC’s decision, according to the AP, but the timing of the end of the inquiry raised potential conflict-of-interest questions about Kushner’s family business and his role as an adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. The AP report came a day after The New York Times reported that Apollo executives had met several times at the White House with Kushner before making the loan.

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

Shares of McDonald’s Corp. were sinking sharply lower on Friday and on pace to register its worst dollar decline in its history as a publicly traded company and its worst percentage drop since October of 2008, according to FactSet data, which has McDonald’s data going back to 1972. McDonald’s become a publicly traded company in 1965. The decline for shares of the fast-food chain also put it in position to book the worst weekly drop since 2008 and the sharpest total dollar decline for a week ever. Shares of the component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average were most recently off 4.9% or $7.67, weighing on the price-weighted blue-chip benchmark. For the week, McDonald’s shares are off 9.4%. Friday’s drop came as RBC Capital Markets cut its price target for the company to $170 from $190. The bank also cut its U.S. same-store expectations after a slow start to the $1 $2 $3 menu. RBC maintained its outperform rating on the fast-food giant’s stock. Analysts say “deteriorating industry conditions” and “disappointing” sales of the new value menu drove the U.S. same-store sales forecast for the first quarter down to 1% from 3.5%.

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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Biogen Inc. and AbbVie Inc. said early Friday that the companies are voluntarily withdrawing their relapsing multiple sclerosis drug, Zinbryta, from global markets. Evaluating the drug’s “complex and evolving benefit/risk profile… will not be possible going forward given the limited number of patients being treated,” the companies said. The withdrawal is in patients’ best interests, said Biogen Chief Medical Officer Alfred Sandrock. Zinbryta, which the companies said is generally used in patients who have tried two or more other multiple sclerosis medications unsuccessfully, is currently sold in the U.S., where it was approved in May 2016, along with Europe, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. Earlier this year, restrictions to minimize risk of serious liver injury with Zinbryta were adopted in Europe. The European Medicines Agency is also investigating reports of inflammatory encephalitis and meningioencephalitis, two kinds of brain inflammation typically caused by infection; those and other safety issues like liver toxicity, hypersensitivity reactions and inflammatory/immune toxicity have limited the drug’s profitability “in the context of a number of better options for the disease,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Brian Abrahams. The decision to pull the drug was made by the companies and not because of any Food and Drug Administration action, according to a FDA spokesperson. The spokesperson also said that the FDA believes the drug will stay on the market while a plan is developed. Patients taking Zinbryta should speak with their doctors, and shouldn’t stop taking the medication without consulting their doctors, the spokesperson said. Zinbryta has been the least profitable of Biogen’s stable of multiple sclerosis drugs, bringing in just $12 million in sales in the fourth quarter, about $53 million in global revenue last year and about $8 million the prior year. AbbVie and Biogen “essentially split profits” on the therapy, according to Abrahams, and Zinbryta revenues aren’t broken out in AbbVie’s financial results, which list only key product revenues. Company shares initially declined in premarket trade but later rebounded. Biogen shares have dropped 10.8% over the last three months and AbbVie shares have surged 19%, compared with a 1.3% rise in the S&P 500 .

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold prices jumped on Friday, settling with a sharp gain as the threat of a global trade war pushed stocks and the dollar lower, underpinning a flight to the perceived safety for assets such as precious metals. April gold finished up $18.20, or 1.4%, at $1,323.40 an ounce, but the metal ended with a weekly decline of about 0.5% based on last Friday’s settlement. Friday’s climb also helped gold futures halt a three-session decline. The yellow metal traded came amid a rout in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index , which have been rattled by the threat of a global trade war, which could result in higher prices and inflation. That is a scenario that may be beneficial for gold. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index was off 0.3% at 90.01. A weaker buck can make dollar-priced gold more appealing those buying using other currencies.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil futures maintained small gains after oilfield services firm Baker Hughes said the number of U.S. oil rigs rose by one this week to a total of 800. West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $61.24 a barrel.

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From:: Stock Market News