Category: Stock Market News

Policy makers at the Bank of Japan are divided over whether to make the central bank’s bond-buying program more flexible, threatening to add to investor jitters over the path of bond yields, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. While seven members of the bank’s nine-person board back easing, they have split over where to go next, the report said, citing people familiar with their thinking. At least three favor sticking with the current program of asset purchases, fearing that tinkering with it could send the yen soaring, the report said. Others, while still in favor of easing, worry the bank is running out of bonds to buy and should adapt a more flexible approach, such as a target for long-term interest rates and a pledge that the bank would buy only the amount of bonds needed to guide rates to that target. The Bank of Japan meets next week and is expected to publish an assessment of its policies.

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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. officially recalled its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in the U.S. on Thursday, adding to its previous replacement offer with an option to refund money for the device. Samsung issued a voluntary global recall for the device earlier this month because of a battery issue that could cause the smartphone to explode. The company had previously offered to replace the devices and issue gift cards through some wireless carriers in the U.S., but the Consumer Product Safety Commission intervened and worked with the company to issue Thursday’s complete recall. Consumers who purchased the smartphone before Sept. 15 can return the device to the retailer that sold it to them for a Note 7 with a replacement battery, a full refund or a replacement device. The CPSC said that there had been 92 U.S. reports of the phones overheating to date, with 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage. Consumers seeking more information on the recall were told to contact their wireless carrier or place of purchase, call Samsung at 844-365-6197, or visit www.samsung.com.

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Oracle Corp. came up slightly short of expectations with its quarterly earnings report Thursday, and shares declined in late trading. The enterprise software giant reported net income of $1.8 billion, or 43 cents a share, on sales of $8.6 billion for its fiscal first quarter; after adjustments for stock-based compensation and other factors, Oracle claimed earnings of 55 cents a share. Analysts on average expected Oracle to report adjusted earnings of 58 cents a share on sales of $8.7 billion, according to FactSet. Oracle also missed its own projection for sales, which called for revenue of $8.62 billion to $8.87 billion. Oracle’s transition to a cloud model of software delivery came up a bit short as well, with total cloud revenue of $969 million trailing the average analyst expectation of $971.4 million, according to FactSet. Oracle has agreed to buy cloud-software company NetSuite Inc. for $9.3 billion to add to that total, but that acquisition is not yet assured. Oracle shares fell to close to $40 after the report was released, after the stock closed with a 1.5% gain at $40.86.

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U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, with major indexes rallying after economic data suggested the Federal Reserve may not be as aggressive in raising interest rates as previously believed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average [S: DJIA] closed up 178.26 points, or 1%, at 18,213.03. All 30 components ended in the green, but Apple Inc. [S: AAPL] led with a gain of 3.4%. The S&P 500 [S: SPX] closed up 21.51 points, or 1%, at 2,147.28, with technology again leading among sectors. The Nasdaq Composite Index [S: COMP] closed up 75.92 points, or 1.5%, at 5,249.69.

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Gasoline futures led crude-oil prices higher Thursday, as the shutdown of a major gasoline pipeline looked set to stretch into a full week. October gasoline climbed 6.9 cents, or 5.1%, to settle at $1.43 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s a more than three-week high. October West Texas Intermediate crude also rose 33 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $43.91 a barrel, though ongoing worries about the glut of supplies kept gains in check.

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Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc.’s stock surged 2.4% in midday trade Thursday, putting it on track for a record close, in the wake Golfsmith’s bankruptcy filing. Deutsche Bank analyst Mike Baker wrote in note to clients Wednesday that a Golfsmith bankruptcy would be “an incremental positive” for Dick’s, as it would be “another step in the industry shakeout which is clearly helping [Dick’s] pick up market share.” The stock has soared 70% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has tacked on 1.5% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%.

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Natural-gas futures pared some of their losses Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity rose 62 billion cubic feet for the week ended Sept. 9. That was in line with the average rise of between 59 billion and 63 billion cubic feet expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 3.499 trillion cubic feet, up 184 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 299 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. October natural gas was down 1.2 cents, or 0.4%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.877 per million British thermal units. It traded at $2.838 before the data.

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Cirrus Logic Inc.’s stock soared 5.8% in morning trade to a record high, amid signs of stronger-than-expected demand for it’s largest customer’s–Apple Inc.–new smartphone. The stock has run up 12% in four sessions, in line with the rally in Apple shares over the same time. Cirrus said in its fiscal first-quarter filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Apple represented 68% of its total sales for the quarter. Cirrus’s stock has soared 83% year to date, while Apple shares have climbed 9.3%, the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF has rallied 10% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.4%.

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Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that it will open its largest wind farm in Texas in late 2017. The Scurry County, Tex. facility will be a 253-megawatt wind farm that can generate 1,000,000 megawatt hours of wind energy each year using 100 turbines. Lincoln Clean Energy has been contracted to construct, own and operate the wind farm, with Amazon purchasing 90% of the power it generates. Amazon has previously announced wind and solar farms in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, which deliver energy that powers current and future Amazon Web Services cloud data centers. Together, all five projects generate enough energy to power 240,000 U.S. homes, the company said. Amazon shares are up 0.1% in Thursday trading, and up nearly 46% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up nearly 8% for the last 12 months.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Business inventories were steady in July, to keep the ratio of sales to inventories at a high 1.39. The Commerce Department said inventories fell most aggressively for general merchandise stories, while they rose for building materials and garden equipment retailers.

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