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The London Ambulance Service said Friday it’s treated 26 people at London City Airport, and taken two people to the hospital, for difficulty breathing. The London Fire Brigade reported that 500 members of the public and staff were evacuated over reports of an unspecified chemical incident.
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Oil futures traded little changed Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 11 to 443 rigs this week. That marks an eighth-straight weekly rise for the oil-rig count. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 14 to 553, Baker Hughes said. December crude rose 2 cents to $50.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading close to the same level it was at before the rig data.
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Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. turned sharply lower Friday, as upbeat analyst comments about the oil and gas company’s analyst day weren’t enough support the early gains. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Doug Leggate said the worst for the company appears to have passed, so he raised his rating to neutral from underperform. “Chesapeake’s first analyst day in two years closes a period of retrenchment and repair that clears the way for a return to growth,” Leggate wrote in a note to clients. Analyst Lloyd Byrne at Nomura upgraded Chesapeake to neutral from reduce, saying the company’s management “deserve a lot of credit for a substantive repositioning.” Meanwhile, UBS analyst William Featherston kept his rating at sell but raised this stock price target to $6.00–11% below current levels–from $4.25, after the company highlighted “improved liquidity” and the steps it plans to take to cut its debt by up to $3 billion. Wunderlich’s Jason Wrangler reiterated his buy rating, saying an improved balance sheet allows the company to “shift into growth mode.” The stock was up as much as 2.9% within minutes of the open, but was recently down 2.3% in active trade. It has soared 50% year to date, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has run up 16% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.6%.
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The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a lawyer serving on the board of directors of Nashville-based bank holding company Pinnacle Financial Partners with insider trading. The SEC alleges he placed his first order to purchase shares in the potential acquisition target while a board meeting to discuss the transaction was still in progress and then placed four more orders within an hour after the meeting ended. Cope purchased a total of 10,179 shares of the common stock of Avenue Financial Holdings, Inc. , another Nashville, Tennessee-based bank holding company over a seven day period in January 2016 while in possession of the material, non-public information that about a potential merger of the two banks, according to the SEC. The SEC alleges that Cope made more than $56,000 in illegal profits for the trades. Cope resigned from the Pinnacle’s board in April. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee also filed a parallel criminal case against Cope on Friday.
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U.S. stocks opened firmly lower Friday, with the Dow industrials trading around 100 points lower, as a steadily rising dollar and earnings grabbed investors’ attention. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 109 points, or 0.6%, at 18,057, while the S&P 500 index was down 9 points, or 0.4%, at 2,131. The Nasdaq Composite Index gave up about 8 points, or less than 0.2%, to stand at 5,237 — its decline limited by a 5.1% rise in tech giant Microsoft Corp. . Over the week, the S&P 500 is on track for a 0.4% gain, while the Dow is on pace for a 0.1% rise, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is tracking toward a 0.5% weekly climb. That would end two weekly declines in a row for the three main indexes. The dollar is up 0.4%, as gauged by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index , as the British pound and the euro have been under pressure. The greenback is on track for a 0.6% weekly return and a 3.4% advance for October, according to FactSet data. A stronger buck can weigh on quarterly results for multinational companies. Meanwhile, Microsoft opened at a record level after late Thursday reporting better-than-expected results.
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The U.S. dollar strengthened Friday against the Canadian dollar, rising to a seven-month high after sales at Canadian retailers fell in October for a third straight month. Meanwhile, consumer-price index climbed 1.3%, leaving inflation well below the Bank of Canada’s 2% target. The dollar rose to C$1.3334, up 0.6% from C$1.3229, putting it on track for its largest daily drop against the dollar in just under a month. Canadian yields fell, with the 10-year down 3.3 basis points at 1.136%. Earlier in the week, the Bank of Canada revised down its growth and inflation forecasts, and pushed back its expectations for the closing of the country’s productivity gap. The BOC’s downbeat tone bolstered expectations that the central bank could cut its benchmark interest rate in the near future. “They’ve already been talking about a soft economy this week, and the low CPI means they have the ability to do so without worrying about inflation,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC markets. “That’s why the loonie is plunging today.”
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Shares of Twilio Inc. plunged 7% in premarket trade Friday, the morning after it priced its follow-on offering. Twilio said late Thursday that the offering would encompass 7 million shares of Class A common stock at $40 a share, which is 9.4% below Thursday’s closing price. Twilio will offer 641,222 shares and selling stockholders will sell 6.36 million. Twilio will not receive proceeds from the shares sold by stockholders. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to 1.05 million additional shares at the public offering price.
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Coach Inc.’s stock rose 3.5% in premarket action, while Burberry Group PLC’s shares gained 7.7% in London trading, following a report Friday that the two luxury fashion companies could merge in a $20 billion deal. Coach is working with Evercore on a possible Burberry merger, said a report by Betaville citing sources. Betaville is a news website focused on deals and dealmakers.
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McDonald’s Corp. shares are up 3.5% in Friday premarket trading after the fast-food giant reported third-quarter results that beat estimates. The company had net income of $1.28 billion, or $1.50 per share, compared with $1.31 billion, or $1.40 per share, for the same period last year. The FactSet consensus was $1.48 per share. Revenue totaled $6.42 billion, down from $6.62 billion, but exceeding the $6.28 billion FactSet estimate. Global same-restaurant sales increased 3.5%, and same-restaurant sales in the U.S. grew 1.3%. McDonald’s reported negative same-restaurant sales in China due to protests surrounding issues in the South China sea, and year-over-year strong comparisons. McDonald’s stock is down 6.4% for the year to date, while the S&P 500 Index is up 4.8% for the same period.
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Shares of Stone Energy Corp. lost half their value in premarket trade Friday, after the oil and gas company announced a restructuring support agreement (RSA) with certain convertible note holders as the company prepares for a bankruptcy filing. The RSA contemplates the company will file for chapter 11 on or before Dec. 9, the company said in a statement issued late Thursday. “The execution of the RSA is the culmination of months of hard work to right-size our balance sheet in response to a sustained period of low oil and natural gas commodity prices,” said Chief Executive David Welch.
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