Category: Stock Market News

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday reaffirmed his pledge to whatever it takes to boost growth and inflation, including taking interest rates further into negative territory, according to media reports. In a speech in Osaka, the central bank boss expressed concerns over the persistently low level of inflation in Japan and said he’d use all necessary tools to get inflation back to the 2% target. That includes cutting interest rates deeper below zero as well as keeping a target for long-term interest rates, reports said. “There can be cases where such powerful monetary easing is needed, depending on developments in economic activity and prices as well as financial market conditions,” Kuroda said according to Japan Times. “The bank stands ready to use every possible policy tool, if it judges that necessary, to achieve its objectives,” he added. The yen was shrugging off the easing comments, with the dollar buying ¥100.50, down from ¥101.02 late Friday in New York.

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Golf legend Arnold Palmer died Sunday at the age of 87 in Pittsburgh, Penn. One of golf’s greatest-ever players, Palmer was hugely popular in his time, and won seven major major championships in a seven-year span between 1958 and 1964. He won 94 tournaments overall, including 62 on the PGA Tour. The charismatic and classy Palmer won fans the world over, known as “Arnie’s Army,” who followed his rounds and backed him against his biggest rivals, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

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KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. , the company formerly majority owned by controversial biotech investor Martin Shkreli, said late Friday it has filed its outstanding 10-Q for the first quarter and the first six months of 2016. The company is “current with its SEC periodic reporting requirements. Achieving this milestone is crucial to the company’s turnaround,” the company said in a statement. The company lost $17,438 in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $15,662 in the year-ago period. KaloBios emerged from bankruptcy on June 30 with a new management team and new pricing strategy. It fired Shkreli from his role of CEO late last year, after he was arrested on charges of securities fraud relating to another company. KaloBios specializes in drugs to treat rare diseases. Shares, which trade over the counter, were flat.

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U.S. stocks closed lower Friday, as a drop in oil prices dragged on energy shares, but finished the week higher, boosted by a lack of a rate hike from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 131.01 points, or 0.7%, at 18,261.45, for a weekly gain of 0.8%. Shares of Apple Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. led the blue-chip average lower. The S&P 500 index finished down 12.49 points, or 0.6%, at 2,164.69, led lower by a 1.1% drag from the energy sector, as oil prices settled down 4%. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 33.78 points, or 0.6%, to close at 5,305.75. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the week up 1.2%.

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Three directors of a startup movie production company, including former New York Democratic Governor David A. Paterson, were charged with violating federal securities laws by failing to timely report their stock transactions while serving on the board. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday also charged three company executives with defrauding investors in a purported project to construct the largest movie studio in North America at a suburban location outside Savannah, Georgia. The directors are not alleged to have participated in the fraud. Paterson was fined $25,000 and neither agreed nor denied the findings. An SEC administrative proceeding was instituted against a third director Matthew T. Mellon II, a businessman and former chairman of the New York Republican Party Finance Committee.

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Oil futures settled lower on Friday, suffering from the biggest dollar and percentage loss since mid-July as traders weighed the latest talk from major oil producers ahead of their meeting next week that’s expected to focus on production levels. November West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.84, or 4%, to settle at $44.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The losses pared oil’s weekly gain down to about 2%.

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Shares of Apple Inc. took a nosedive in afternoon trade Friday, after a report that Japanese regulators are considering taking antitrust action against the technology giant. The stock was trading little changed at a round 1:30 p.m. ET, then tumbled to a 2.3% loss over the next half hour before bouncing slightly. Japan’s antitrust regulators are considering charging Apple for possible violations that may have helped it dominate smartphone sales in the country, Reuters reported, citing senior government sources. Japan isn’t the only country going after Apple. Last last month, European Union ordered Ireland to recover about $14.5 billion in taxers from Apple as it ruled that Apple’s tax arrangement with Ireland breached state-aid rules. Apple’s stock has gained 7.2% year to date, while the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF has run up 11% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has advanced 5%.

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Gold futures settled lower on Friday, but held onto a gain of more than 2% for the week. Traders assessed this week’s policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and U.S. Federal Reserve and their potential impact on demand for the yellow metal. December gold lost $3, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,341.70 an ounce. For the week, prices rose 2.4%, according to FactSet data.

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Oil futures continued to decline Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 2 to 418 rigs this week. They have now posted increases in 12 out of the last 13 weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 5 to 511, Baker Hughes said. Nov. crude was at $44.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.79, or 3.9%, from Thursday’s settlement. It traded around $44.56 before the rig data.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve on Friday moved forward on a plan to make it more difficult for banks to be involved in physical commodities, citing the legal, reputational and financial risks from disasters such as the BP oil spill. Under the proposal, firms would have to hold more capital, not be able to engage in activities involving power plants and not be allowed to own or store copper. Two banks, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , have relied on a grandfather clause to engage in physical commodity business that hasn’t been authorized for other Fed-regulated banks, while 12 banks, including Bank of America , Citi and J.P. Morgan Chase are involved in physical commodity trading, energy management and energy tolling activities to some degree.

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