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The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded off its lows on Friday but the blue-chip gauge was being weighed by a sharp drop in shares of McDonald’s Corp. . Shares of the fast-food giant were exacting a roughly 56-point toll on the price-weighted Dow , with its shares off 5.2% or $8.10. A $1 move in any one of the Dow’s 30 components equates to a 6.89-point swing in the average. McDonald’s decline put the company on pace to book its sharpest percentage decline since October of 2008, according to FactSet data. Its shares were down following a research note from RBC Capital Markets, which cut its U.S. same-store expectations after a slow start to the $1 $2 $3 menu. The Dow had been down by as much as 391 points or 1.6% intraday on the back of worries about a trade war following President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

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From:: Stock Market News

The European Union could impose a 25% levy on U.S. imports worth as much as $3.5 billion, according to a Reuters report citing EU sources. The retaliatory tariffs would come in response to President Trump’s global steel and aluminum tariffs, which are due to be announced officially next week. Trump’s metals tariffs, which he revealed on Thursday, would amount to 25% on steel imports and 10% on aluminum imports. The EU would join other countries in challenging Trump’s action before the World Trade Organization, and could implement safeguard measures to avoid steel imports intended for the U.S. to come to Europe. There could be further measures to target a rebalancing of U.S.-EU trade in the future, the Reuters report said.

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From:: Stock Market News

Snap Inc. shares rallied in mid-morning trading Friday and are up 4.1%, after being down as much as 2.8% earlier in the session. According to a report from Cheddar, Snap is working on two new versions of its Spectacles glasses, including one that will focus on “performance improvements” and another that will feature two cameras. The company is reportedly also interested in licensing its cameras to traditional glasses companies, including Luxottica Group . Snap’s first-generation Spectacles are considered to have been a flop, with the company saying in November that it had to write down almost $40 million in relation to the Spectacles, mostly due to ” excess inventory and purchase commitment cancellations.” Snap shares are down 27% over the past 12 months, with Friday marking the anniversary of the company’s first trading day. The S&P 500 Index is up 12% over the last year.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization shares turned positive in midday trading on Friday, as concerns over the impact of a potential trade war on the index faded. The Russell rose 0.3%, easily outpacing the moves seen in other major indexes. The index is seen as having less sensitivity to the prospect of increased trade protectionism, something that served as a larger headwind for the Dow and the S&P 500, as the components of the Russell are seen as having a higher concentration of domestic revenue, and less international exposure. On Thursday, when the Dow fell 1.7% and the S&P lost 1.3%, the Russell ended down a comparatively minor 0.3% on the day. The moves on Friday came after President Donald Trump declared that “trade wars are good” a day after announcing that the U.S. would impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% on Friday while the S&P 500 was off 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite Index was flat on the day.

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From:: Stock Market News

Trading volume in the U.S. stock market spiked over the month of February, with average daily activity hitting a two-year high as volatility returned to Wall Street in a big way. According to the WSJ Market Data Group, an average of 8.19 billion shares were traded in each session of February, the highest daily average for a month since February 2016. The spike came as the Cboe Volatility Index jumped 46.6% over the month, its biggest one-month percentage jump since August 2015. The return of volatility meant big moves in both directions for the major indexes; over the course of February, the S&P 500 saw both its best weekly performance since 2013, and its worst week in two years. The swings follow an atypically quiet market throughout 2017, which was bereft of volatility as the VIX hit two all-time closing lows. As a result, daily trading volumes over 2017 came in at a three-year low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3% on Friday, on track for its fourth straight day with a 1% decline. The S&P 500 was down 0.6% while the Nasdaq Composite Index was off 0.3%.

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Two people were shot and killed on the campus of Central Michigan University early Friday. The university, in Mount Pleasant, Mich., said via Twitter that the people killed were nonstudents and that the university’s police department believed the shooting was linked to a “domestic situation.” The suspect remained at large as of approximately 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the campus remained on lockdown, according to a statement from the university’s communications department.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is set to mark is third weekly decline of 1,000 points since February. On Friday, the Dow was off 277 points, or 1.1%, at 24,339, falling below its 100-day moving average at 24,447.63, according to FactSet. At its current pace, the Dow is set to shed about 1,000 points or more for the week, after recording back-to-back 1,000-point drops from Feb.9 to Feb. 16. The blue-chip gauge had been mounting a modest recovery since the main benchmarks, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell into correction territory on Feb. 8, typically defined as a drop of 10% from a recent peak. However, worries about trade wars sparked by President Donald Trump’s threat on Thursday to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, fear of rising inflation and bond yields competing for investor attention against equities, and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s path under newly minted chief Jerome Powell has made for a bearish cocktail for Wall Street stocks.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed securities fraud charges on Friday against a U.K.-based broker-dealer, one of its investment managers and several others for alleged manipulative trading in the securities of HD View 360 Inc., a U.S.-based microcap issuer and several other securities. DOJ’s multi-count indictment for conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering conspiracy was made public Thursday against Peter Kyriacou as well as Beaufort Securities Ltd and a host of other individuals and corporate entitites. The SEC also charged HD View’s CEO, Dennis Mancino. The charges arise in part from an undercover operation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation where the agent described his business to the defendants as manipulating U.S. stocks through pump-and-dump schemes. Several companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM also had to suspend trading or change brokers as a result of the allegations.

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From:: Stock Market News

The largest exchange-traded fund to track the metals and mining sector fell on Friday, retreating from a sharp rally in the previous session that came after President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced tariffs on steel and aluminum would be institute next week. The SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF fell 1.3%, giving back some of the 2.5% gain it had on Thursday. Despite that rally, however, the fund remains down 2.2% on the week. Among its most notable components, United States Steel Corp. fell 4.3%, following a spike of nearly 6% on Thursday. Separately, Nucor Corp. was down 2% and Century Aluminum Co. shed 2.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4% while the S&P 500 was off 0.9% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was off 0.8%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Four members of the board of Wells Fargo will depart at the company’s annual meeting in April, the bank announced Thursday. John S. Chen, Lloyd H. Dean, and Enrique Hernandez, Jr., the board’s longest serving directors, and Federico F. Peña, will all retire at that point. What Wells calls a board “refreshment” comes in response to mounting political and regulatory pressure over ongoing misdeeds by the bank. In February, the Federal Reserve said the bank would not be allowed to grow its assets, and required that it replace three board members by April and a fourth by the end of the year. California State Treasurer John Chiang, who serves several public pensions in the state, also demanded board changes at the bank. Over the past 12 months, a period in which most big bank stocks have gained double digits, Wells shares are down about 3%.

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From:: Stock Market News