Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Boeing Co. shot up 3.1% in afternoon trade, to provide the biggest boost to the Dow Jones industrial Average’s price, after European rival Airbus SE reported upbeat results. The aerospace giant’s price gain of $10.56 was adding about 73 points to the Dow, which was up 211 points. The Dow’s biggest percentage gainer was Cisco Systems Inc.’s shares , which rallied 4.4% after better-than-expected quarterly results, but the price gain of $1870 only added 13 points to the Dow. Apple Inc.’s stock was up 3.2% to be the second-biggest percentage gainer, with its $5.28 price gain adding 36 points to the Dow. Earlier Wednesday, Airbus’s France-listed shares shot up 10.3% Thursday, after the company said it “overachieved on its 2017 guidance for all key performance indicators” amid record deliveries. Boeing’s stock had soared 35.2% over the past three months, while Airbus shares have climbed 8.6% and the Dow has rallied 7.9%.

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Gold prices on Thursday ended slightly lower, retreating from the highest finish in nearly three weeks, despite a weakening dollar as stock benchmarks looked set to rise for a fifth straight session, pointing to an increase in appetite for asset perceived as risky. April gold closed down $2.70, or 0.2%, at $1,355.30 an ounce. The dollar extended its stretch of weakness, with the U.S. ICE Dollar Index off 0.4% and set for a 1.9% weekly slump, at 88.74. A weaker dollar should provide a lift to assets pegged to greenback, making them more attractive to buyers using other currencies. However, gold appeared to take its cues from a rally in equities, which had slipped about 10% from a recent peak in late January. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set to mark its longest string of gains in about 9 weeks, while the S&P 500 index also was set to notch a fifth straight advance, suggesting that some calm had returned to the market following a stretch of losses. The metals market also digested economic reports, notably the producer price index, which pointed to stronger inflation trends in the U.S., an economic picture that could push the Federal Reserve to be more aggressive with interest-rate hikes, a negative for metals that don’t offer a yield.

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Shares of Apple Inc. surged 3.1% in midday trade Thursday, putting it on track for a fifth-straight gain, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a larger stake in the technology giant, and after an upbeat research note on smartphone marketshare. The stock has now run up 11.2% since it closed at a four-month low on Feb. 7. Late Wednesday, Berkshire disclosed that it owned 165.3 million shares of Apple, or about 3.3% of the shares outstanding, as of Dec. 31, up 23.3% from what it owned on Sept. 30. Separately, famed billionaire David Tepper’s hedge fund Appaloosa LP more than tripled its Apple bet to 4.6 million shares. Separately, Strategy Analytics said Apple captured a record 51% of global smartphone revenue share during fourth quarter. Apple generated $61 billion in smartphone revenue during the quarter, Strategy Analytics said, more than triple the $19 billion generated by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. . Apple shares have gained 2.1% over the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.7%.

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Shares of AbbVie Inc. rose 1.0% in midday trade Thursday, after the biopharmaceutical company said it raised its dividend by 35% and set a new $10 billion share repurchase program. The new quarterly dividend of 96 cents a share, up from 71 cents a share, will be payable May 15 to shareholders of record on April 13. Based on current share prices, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 3.36%, above the SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF’s payout yield of 0.68% and the S&P 500’s implied yield of 1.88%, according to FactSet. The company said its new share buyback program supersedes any existing programs. At current share prices, the program would allow the company to buy back about 87.6 million shares, or 5.5% of the shares outstanding. AbbVie’s stock has run up 21.8% over the past three months, while the pharmaceutical ETF has gained 4.6% and the S&P 500 has advanced 5.8%.

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The price of a single bitcoin hit $10,000 for the first time since the beginning of the month, underscoring a rally in the world’s No. 1 cryptocurrency since touching a recent low. Bitcoin has risen about 68% since touching a low below $6,000, according to news and research site CoinDesk. Bitcoin hit an intraday high of $10,064.98, representing a 5.6% increase on the day, dragging other major digital currencies along for the uptrend. That said, the virtual currency is still below its late-December peak at around $20,000.

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CFRA upgraded the stock of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. to hold from sell on Thursday, and raised its 12-month price target by $7 to $34.”We raise our opinion given recent positive sales trends reported by some footwear and apparel brands sold at DKS,” analyst Victor Ahluwalia wrote in a note. “Longer term, we remain concerned around margin pressure given Dick’s price match guarantee, e-commerce currently being margin dilutive and the viability of private label.” Earlier, Dick’s said it is raising its quarterly dividend by 32% to 22.5 cents a share from 17 cents a share. The new dividend will be payable on March 30 to shareholders of record as of March 9. Shares were trading down 0.9%, and are down 33% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Shares of Alaska Air Group Inc. slumped 2.2% in midday trade Thursday, after the air carrier reported January operational results, and after a downgrade at UBS. The Seattle-based carrier earlier that January load factor declined to 75.8% from 78.1% a year ago, as the 6.6% growth in capacity outpaced the 3.5% increase in traffic. For its mainline operations, which are operated by Alaska Airlines Inc. and Virgin America Inc., load factor fell 2.1 percentage points to 76.4%. For its regional operations, operated by Horizon Air Industries Inc., load factor declined 4.1 percentage points to 70.1%. Separately, UBS analyst Darryl Genovesi cut his rating to neutral from buy, and his stock price target to $70 from $77, citing concerns over competition for Seattle as a hub. The stock has gained 1.4% over the past three months, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has gained 3.9%, the Dow Jones Transportation Average has run up 10.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.3%.

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Shares of Moleculin Biotech Inc. rocketed 54% in active morning trade Thursday, enough to make them the biggest percentage gainer on major U.S. exchanges, after the company announced a “breakthrough discovery” of a new molecule for cancer treatment. Volume was 20.9 million shares, compared with the full-day average of about 215,000 shares. Based on preclinical testing, the company said in a statement that, pursuant to its continued collaboration with the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center, it has developed and licensed what it believes “is a major breakthrough in its effort to develop a new cancer treatment that selectively kills highly resistant tumors.” The stock has now more than doubled over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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The S&P energy sector fell on Thursday, bucking the advance of the broader market as crude-oil prices fell. The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF , the most widely used exchange-traded fund to track the sector, fell 0.8%, extending its recent decline. The ETF is down 9.3% thus far this month, the biggest loser among SPDR sector funds. Over the past 12 month, the sector is down 7.4%, which also stands as the worst 12-month performance among the primary S&P 500 sectors. Crude oil prices were down 0.7%, while Brent crude lost 1.7%. Among specific sub-sectors of the energy industry, oil and gas equipment companies led the decline. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF fell 1.9%, with nearly all the fund’s components in lower territory. Among the most notable decliners, Helmerich & Payne Inc. fell 2.3% while Nabors Industries Ltd. was down 4.1% and Halliburton Co. was down 2.1%. Separately, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF fell 1.4%. Marathon Oil Corp. fell 6.7% while Newfield Exploration Co. slid 5.1%.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday called the shooting in the Florida high school a “tragedy” and urged Congress to “look at these issues.” In testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, Mnuchin said he had no proposals to make, saying gun violence was “out of my lane.” He told Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, that he would speak to President Donald Trump and other cabinet members about concerns expressed by committee Democrats about gun violence.

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