Category: Stock Market News

Oil futures hold onto gains after data from Baker Hughes revealed a weekly climb in the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil–the sixth-weekly climb in seven weeks. The active U.S. oil-rig count rose 6 to 357 as of Friday. The total U.S. rig count climbed by 7 to 447. August crude was at $45.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 17 cents, or 0.4%, from Thursday’s settlement. It’s trading little-changed from the $45.82 level it was at before the data.

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Travel and airline stocks slid in Friday trading after a deadly truck attack in Nice, France on Thursday during a Bastille Day celebration. More than 80 people were killed when a driver plowed into crowds on a promenade in the French Riviera. Travel stocks from airlines to cruise companies to online travel booking services are down for the day so far, including Priceline Group Inc. , Carnival Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. . European travel stocks have also dipped, including U.K. travel agent Thomas Cook Group PLC , Air France-KLM and budget carrier Ryanair Holdings PLC . Discount carriers in the U.S. haven’t been spared either, with JetBlue Airways Corp. and Spirit Airlines Inc. both down as well. The S&P 500 is nearly flat in Friday trading.

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Donald Trump said Friday he has chosen Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to be his running mate. In a tweet, Trump said he’d hold a news conference on Saturday at 11 a.m. Eastern. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee had planned to announce his pick on Friday but postponed it after the attack in Nice, France.

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The FTC settlement with Herbalife Ltd. unveiled earlier Friday is another blow for activist investor William Ackman. While the deal includes fines and obliges Herbalife to restructure its operations, it falls short of deeming it a pyramid scheme as Ackman has long argued, sending its stock up almost 20% in early trade. Ackman bet $1 billion against the stock in 2012, and has waged an aggressive and often bitter campaign to persuade regulators it was a pyramid scheme. Other investors, notably billionaire Carl Icahn, took a stance against Ackman by investing heavily in the stock, further squeezing his position. Ackman’s Pershing Square hedge fund had lost 26% in the year through March 16 and Standard & Poor’s has the company’s BBB rating on review for a possible downgrade. Pershing also owned 21.6 million shares of troubled drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. as of June 9, which has lost 78% of its value in the year so far.

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Shares of Herbalife Ltd. soared more than 9%, nearing a two-year high on Friday, after the company confirmed a ruling by the Federal Trade Commission that it can continue to operate as a direct selling company. The company has agreed to pay a $200 million fine and restructure its business, but the FTC did not directly refer to Herbalife as a pyramid scheme.The ruling, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, ends a two-year investigation by the FTC that started after billionaire investor Bill Ackman revealed a large short stake in the company and claimed it was a pyramid scheme. In light of the ruling, Ackman rival and fellow billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has long supported Herbalife, said the company raised his ownership limit to 34.99% from 25%. Shares of Herbalife were on track to open around $64.62 on Friday, which would put them on track for their highest closing price since July 28, 2014, when the stock closed at $67.48.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Herbalife Ltd. soared more than 18% to a two-and-a-half-year high on Friday after the FTC ended its investigation into the company following a two-year tirade by billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who had a large short position on Herbalife and claimed the company was operating as a pyramid scheme. Herbalife agreed to pay $200 million and to undergo a restructuring as part of the settlement. Its shares traded around $70.30 in morning trade, the highest level since January 22, 2014.

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AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc. shares jumped on their first day of trading, and were quoted at $23.40 in early trade, up 11% from their $21 issue price. The packaged sandwich and foods company sold 11.1 million shares to raise $233 million. The stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol “APFH.”

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French President Francois Hollande warned Friday that his country faces a long battle after the deadly attack in Nice on Thursday evening during a Bastille Day celebration. “The whole world is watching us and expressing its solidarity,” he said, according to the Guardian. “The world is thinking of us.” The president also confirmed that 84 people of a number of nationalities have died and added that a further 50 are “between life and death.” “And there are a number of young children who came to watch fireworks with their families, who have been struck down just to satisfy the cruelty of one individual or possible of a group,” Hollande said, according to media reports. In comparison, 130 people died during the coordinated attacks in Paris in November of last year. The Nice killings happened Thursday night as a man in a truck barreled through Bastille Day revelers who were gathered at the Promenade des Anglais in the seaside city in the south of France.

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U.S. stocks opened higher Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials on track for weekly gains and all-time closing highs. Upbeat data on U.S. retail sales and inflation outweighed initial selling seen after a terror attack in France left more than 80 people dead. Strong gains in oil prices also boosted risk appetite. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 46 points, or 0.2%, to 18,548, the S&P 500 index gained 10 points, or 0.2%, to 2,168, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 10 points, or 0.2%, to 5,044.

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Shares of Harley-Davidson Inc. fell more than 2% in premarket trade Friday after the stock was downgraded to hold from buy at Stifel on Friday. The stock has risen 7% in July, mostly due to buyout speculation, putting it within reach of Stifel’s $50 12-month price target. But analyst Drew Crum said he sees limited upside potential from here, and expects the company to face “ongoing fundamental challenges,” including, potentially, weaker-than-expected second-quarter motorcycle sales. While The Fly reported on July 1 that private equity company KKR & Co. might be interested in buying Harley, Crum said he questions the economic feasibility of such a deal.

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