Category: Stock Market News

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges Tuesday with Weatherford International , an oil services company, for allegedly inflating earnings by using deceptive income tax accounting. Two of the company’s former senior accounting executives allegedly made inappropriate adjustments to fill gaps and meet goals for the company’s effective tax rate that were touted to analysts and investors. Weatherford restated its financial statements on three occasions in 2011 and 2012 to correct the misstatements. The company agreed to pay a penalty of $140 million but did not admit or deny the findings. James Hudgins, who served as Weatherford’s vice president of tax, and Darryl Kitay, who was a tax manager, will pay penalties of $334,067 and $30,000, respectively. Hudgins is barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years, and Hudgins and Kitay are suspended from appearing and practicing before the SEC as accountants.

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Shares of Deutsche Bank erased losses to turn higher in Frankfurt after the U.S. Justice Department’s third highest-ranking official said banks can lower penalties by cooperating with authorities, according to a news report. Shares of Deutsche Bank have dropped more than 50% in 2016 and are down nearly 20% since the end of August after a report by The Wall Street Journal said U.S. officials proposed the bank pay $14 billion to settle civil claims related to dealings in mortgage-backed securities. Shares bounced from early losses to rise 0.8% in Frankfurt, while U.S.-listed shares were up 0.4%. Referring to banks that had already settled claims over mortgage dealings, Bill Baer, assistant attorney general for antitrust, said the institutions “paid a lot more” than would have been the case if they “had cooperated early on,” according to Bloomberg. “Whether to cooperate with the government in these matters is a choice companies need to make,” said Baer, in a speech in Chicago. Deutsche Bank has said it has no intention of paying $14 billion to settle the claims.

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U.S. stocks on Tuesday opened lower, weighed by falling oil prices and worries over troubled Deutsche Bank . Crude-oil prices dropped nearly 3% after both Iran and Saudi Arabia played down expectations for a deal to freeze or cut oil production at the closely watched informal OPEC meeting on Wednesday. Futures had rallied overnight after the closely watched U.S. presidential debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican contender Donald Trump late Monday. The S&P 500 opened down 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2.143. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 33 points, or 0.2%, to 18,059. And the Nasdaq Composite fell 3 points, or 0.1%, to 5,254.

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Shares of American Express Co. rose 1.6% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the financial services company raised its dividend and set a new stock buyback program. The new quarterly dividend of 32 cents a share, up 10% from 29 cents a share, will be payable Nov. 10 to shareholders of record on Oct. 7. The new buyback program of 150 million shares replaces the previous 150 million-share program, which had about 50 million shares remaining. At Monday’s stock closing price of $63.42, the buyback program would be valued at $9.51 billion, and the new annual dividend would imply a dividend yield of 2.02%, compared with the aggregate yield for the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 2.48%, according to FactSet. The stock has dropped 8.8% year to date through Monday, while the Dow has gained 3.8%.

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Walt Disney Co. is the most likely acquirer of Twitter Inc. , closely followed by Microsoft Inc. , according to James Cakmak of Monness, Crespi, Hardt. Disney is reportedly considering a bid, according to reports Monday. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, sits on the Disney board and Cakmak said Disney needs distribution and has the ability to make more content deals. Twitter would complement Microsoft’s personal assistant Cortana, he said, but Microsoft may be limited in funds because of its LinkedIn acquisition. Salesforce.com doesn’t have a direct reason to buy Twitter and Google ranks near the bottom because of antitrust concerns with the company, he said. Shares of Twitter were down less than 1% in premarket trade Tuesday.

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WebMD Health Corp. said Tuesday that its chief financial officer, Peter Anevski, is leaving the company. The health information services company named Senior Vice President of Finance Blake DeSimone as CFO. DeSimone joined WebMD in June 2015 from consumer electronics company D+M Holdings where he was CFO. Separately, WebMD said it expects third-quarter and 2016 financial results to be around the high end of its previously-provided guidance. On Aug. 8, WebMD said it expects third-quarter revenue of $168 million to $171 million, compared with the FactSet consensus of $170 million, and 2016 revenue of $695 million to $708 million, compared with expectations of $705.6 million. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has tacked on 4.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Tupperware Brands Corp. said Tuesday that Patricia Stitzel has been named president and chief operating officer, effective Oct. 1. She has been with the company for 20 years, serving as group president of the Americas since 2014. Simon Hemus, the current president and COO, has been named vice chairman of the company, leading the company’s geographic and market expansion projects. Hemus joined Tupperware in 2005 as part of the Sara Lee Corp. direct-selling business acquisition and has been COO since 2007. Tupperware shares are inactive in premarket trading, but up 26.3% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 11.1% for the last 12 months.

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SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. said Tuesday it will spend $175 million to open new theme park attractions in 2017, including a new orca presentation in San Diego, a virtual reality experience in Orlando and new thrill rides at three theme parks. The new orca presentations are aimed at educational encounters rather than theatrical shows, and will launch in San Diego next year and expand to Orlando and San Antonio by 2019. “In developing new experiences we want guests to have fun, but also be inspired, and our parks are uniquely suited to create meaningful and fun vacations,” said Chief Executive Joel Manby. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has plunged 32% year to date while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Goldman Sachs on Tuesday dramatically slashed its oil forecast for the rest of 2016, warning that supplies will continue to outstrip demand regardless of what happens at an oil-producers meeting in Algiers this week. The analysts, led by Damien Courvalin and Jeffrey Currie, lowered their crude oil forecast for the fourth quarter to $43 a barrel from $50 previously. The downgrade comes as major oil producers are gathering for an informal meeting, with all eyes on whether OPEC and non-OPEC members will agree on a production deal. “While a potential deal could support prices in the short term, we find that the potential for less disruptions and still relatively high net long speculative positioning leave risks skewed to the downside into year-end,” the analysts said. Goldman Sachs expects a ramp up in production from countries such as Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada. “With our demand outlook unchanged, with year-on-year growth of 1.4 mb/d, this leaves us now forecasting that inventories will build in 4Q16 by 400 kb/d vs. our prior expectation for a 300 kb/d draw during the quarter,” GS said.

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Clarcor Inc. said late Monday its board of directors increased the company’s dividend by 14% to 25 cents a share. The dividend is payable Nov. 4 to shareholders of record Oct. 17. Shares of Clarcor, a maker and marketer of filtration products, were flat in late trading after ending the regular Monday session down 0.5%.

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