Category: Stock Market News

Mutual-fund manager Bill Miller said on Tuesday to sell Treasury bonds and and go long on the S&P 500 Index given the higher dividend yield. At CNBC’s and Institutional Investor’s Delivering Alpha conference, Miller said bond yields double-bottomed in 2012 and bottomed again this summer, prompting him to advise shorting Treasurys. Regarding individual stocks, Miller said he prefers Amazon.com Inc. to Facebook Inc. or Google Inc. because of the retailer’s growth rate and strong margins. Shares of Amazon were down 1%, while Facebook shares shed 1.2% and Google shares declined 1.3%. Miller recently reached a deal to buy out Legg Mason Inc.’s stake in the entity that houses his funds.

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Ray Dalio, founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates, said Tuesday that central-bank easing is pushing investors into ever more riskier assets but disagreed with a call for the Federal Reserve to start raising rates. “We are in a situation where [central banks] want to drive you out of cash and out of bonds,” Dalio said at CNBC’s and Institutional Investor’s Delivering Alpha conference. Responding to a call from J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon that the Fed should just start raising rates already, Dalio said this was risky because of ultralow or even negative interest rates globally, and because it wasn’t priced into the Treasury yield curve.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Atlanta Fed said Dennis Lockhart will step down as its president on Feb. 28. The regional bank said it will conduct a nationwide search, seeking a diverse slate of candidates to replace Lockhart, who had the role for nearly a decade. Thomas Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company and chair of the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors, will lead the search. Lockhart is seen as in the middle of the dove-hawk divide at the central bank. The Atlanta Fed president won’t be a voting Federal Open Market Committee member until 2018.

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U.S. stocks opened lower on Monday as oil prices fell and enthusiasm over dovish comments from Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard dissipated. The S&P 500 fell 14 points, or 0.7%, to 2,144. The Dow industrials retreated 110 points, or 0.6%%, to 18,186. The Nasdaq Composite slid 31 points, or 0.6%, to 5,180.

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From:: Stock Market News

Apple Inc.’s stock surged 1.8% in premarket trade, and was the only Dow Jones Industrial Average component trading higher ahead of the open, after wireless carriers reported strong preorders for the iPhone 7. Dow futures slumped 135 points ahead of the open. Among other more-active Dow members, shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. shed 1%, Intel Corp. lost 0.8%, Exxon Mobil Corp. declined 0.7% and General Electric Co. gave up 0.7%. DuPont & Co.’s stock was the only Dow component that was still inactive. T-Mobile U.S. Inc. said it recorded record preorders for the iPhone 7 over the weekend, while Sprint Corp. said iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sales were up mroe than 375% over last year’s iPhone preorders.

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From:: Stock Market News

Sprint Corp. said on Tuesday preorders of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, in the first three days, were up more than 375% over last year. Apple has said it will not give preorder numbers for its newest iPhone, but shares of the Cupertino-based technology company were up more than 1% in pre-market trade after T-Mobile U.S. Inc. said preorders for Apple’s iPhone 7 were the highest in the wireless carrier’s history. Shares of Sprint were down less than 1% premarket, while T-Mobile shares edged up just 0.1%.

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Time Inc. said Tuesday it named Rich Battista as its chief executive officer, effective immediately. Battista replaces Joe Ripp, who will continue as executive chairman. Battista was most recently CEO of Mandalay Sports Media, and previously held management roles at Fox Television and and was CEO of Gemstar-TV Guide. Time’s stock, which was inactive in premarket trade, had lost 13% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 3.9%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Apple Inc. surged 1.1% in premarket trade Tuesday, after T-Mobile U.S. Inc. said preorders for Apple’s iPhone 7 were the highest in the wireless carrier’s history. T-Mobile said from Friday through Monday, preorders were nearly four times the preorders for the previous most popular iPhone. Apple said last week that it would no longer release first-weekend preorder sales data, so T-Mobile’s data gives investors a first look into demand. “Strength in T-Mobile’s iPhone 7 preorders can be extrapolated to all the carriers world wide,” said analyst Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research. T-Mobile shares were indicated more than 1% higher in premarket trade. Through Monday, Apple’s stock had tacked on 0.2% year to date, while T-Mobile shares had soared 17% and the S&P 500 had gained 5.6%.

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Pandora Media Inc. said Tuesday it has signed direct licensing agreements with Merlin Network, Sony Music and Universal Music Group, as well as The Orchard and 30 other independent labels and distributors. The newly signed companies join more than 2,700 publisher who have also partnered with Pandora to license their catalogs for use on its new products. Pandora’s ad-supported and subscription offerings have more than 78 million users listening to more than 24 hours of music every month. The company will host a conference call at 5:15 a.m. Pacific time to discuss the news. The stock was upgraded Monday by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, on expectations of coming licensing deals among other catalysts. Shares rose 2.5% premarket, and are up 27% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5.6%.

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Wells Fargo & Co. said Tuesday it will eliminate all product sales goals in its retail banking business starting in 2017, in an effort to regain customer confidence following the recent sales scandal. “The elimination of product sales goals represents another step to reinforce our service culture, helps ensure that nothing gets in the way of our ability to achieve our mission, and is consistent with our commitment to providing a great place to work,” said Chief Executive John Stumpf. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had announced this week that it was fining Wells Fargo $185 million for illegal sales practices. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has dropped 11% year to date, while the SPDR Financial ETF has gained 2% and the S&P 500 has advanced 5.6%.

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From:: Stock Market News