Category: Stock Market News

Oil futures pared some of their losses on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies declined by 2.3 million barrels for the week ended July 15. That matched the decline reported by the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday, according to sources. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected a fall of 1.25 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose by 900,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles edged down by 200,000 barrels last week, according to the EIA. August crude , which expires on Wednesday’s settlement, fell 17 cents, or 0.4%, from Tuesday’s settlement to $44.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $44.16 before the data.

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Microsoft Corp.’s stock shot up 5.3% to a three-month high in morning trade Wednesday, more than enough to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average into positive territory. The price gain of $2.81 was adding about 19 points to the price of the Dow, which was up just 8 points. Microsoft’s stock rallied to the highest level since April 21, after the technology giant reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.

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An HSBC foreign-exchange executive was arrested at JFK airport and charged with front-running customer orders, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Story is developing. Check back for updates.

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Six Flags Entertainment Corp. said Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement to open a second theme park and a water park in the Bishan district of China, an area with a population of about 120 million people. The agreement is “subject to negotiation of definitive documents,” according to a statement. Six Flags is working with an existing partner, Riverside Investment Group Co. Ltd., to develop the parks. The first Six Flags park is slated to open in 2019 near Shanghai. Six Flags shares are up 28.8% for the past year, while the S&P 500 is up 1.8% for the same period.

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Stocks opened higher Wednesday, putting the Dow industrials on track to log its seventh record closing high in a row, fueled by better-than-feared quarterly results. Notably, Morgan Stanley reported second-quarter results thatbeat Wall Street’s expectations. lifting the investment bank’s shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 18,601, the S&P 500 index climbed 0.2% at 2,167. while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4% to 5,056. On Tuesday, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished lower as the broader market retreated after disappointing quarterly results from Netflix Inc. . Meanwhile, crude-oil prices were trading 1.6% lower at $44.74 a barrel, ahead of data on inventories.

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The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF dropped 2.4% in active premarket trade Wednesday toward a two-week low, tracking the selloff in gold futures . Volume 1.8 million shares was enough to make the ETF the most-active stock in the premarket session. The ETF has plateaued within a relatively narrow range over the past couple weeks, with several intraday lows between $29.35 to $29.43 and several highs between $30.63 and a more than three-year high of $30.73. The ETF appears to have broken through chart support with its slide below $29 ahead of the open.

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The Estee Lauder Cos. Inc. said Wednesday it has named Jean-Guillaume Trottier global brand president of luxury fragrance brand Jo Malone London. Trottier has been global general manager of the brand since 2012 and led its expansion into a range of markets, including Brazil, Korea, China, Israel and the Philippines. Estee Lauder shares were not yet active premarket, but are up 6% in the year so far, roughly matching the S&P 500’s gain.

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Shares of Tupperware Brands Corp. slid nearly 1% after the company reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that fell from the year earlier but still beat expectations. Tupperware reported net income of $52.4 million, or $1.03 per share, compared with $62.0 million, or $1.23 per share during the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings for the second quarter were $1.16 per share, above the $1.10 per share FactSet consensus. Sales for the quarter hit $564.7 million, which was down compared with the $588.9 million during the same quarter a year ago. The FactSet consensus on sales was $560.0 million. Tupperware Chief Executive Rick Goings said the company’s declining sales were due mainly to negative impacts from exchange rates, but said sales grew 3% in local currency, with “significant” contributions from Brazil, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Tupperware Mexico. Shares of Tupperware are up more than 4% in the year to date, just lagging behind the S&P 500 Index , which is up nearly 6%.

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Halliburton Co. reported Wednesday that it swung to a second-quarter loss of $3.21 billion, or $3.73 a share, from a profit of $54 million, or 6 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as a $3.5 billion termination fee for terminating the merger agreement with Baker Hughes Inc. , the adjusted per-share loss came in at 14 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus loss of 19 cents. Revenue fell to $3.84 billion from $5.92 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $3.76 billion. North America revenue declined 15%, while the average rig count was down 23%. “After falling 78% from the November 2014 peak, the US rig count reached a landing point during the second quarter, as we predicted during our last earnings call,” said Chief Executive Dave Lesar. “”We believe the North America market has turned.” The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has climbed 32% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 5.9%.

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U.K. banks are poised to see their revenues and profits drop and bad loans rise as the fallout from the Brexit vote starts to take a toll on the economy, Moody’s Investors Service warned in a report on Wednesday. The ratings agency said weaker economic growth in Britain is likely to hamper the banks’ asset quality as well as weaken credit demand on the back of heightened uncertainty following the vote. “Increased uncertainty about the U.K.’s future trade relationship with the EU will likely lead to reduced confidence and lower investment and consumer spending in the U.K.,” said Carlos Suarez Duarte, senior vice president at Moody’s. “This will, in turn, pressure revenues, asset quality and profitability metrics for all banks in the U.K., though some are more resilient to these pressures than others,” he added. Moody’s on June 28 changed its outlook on the U.K. banking system to negative from stable.

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