Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Harley-Davidson Inc.’s soared 18% on heavy volume in afternoon trade Friday, putting it on track for the biggest one-day gain in over seven years, amid reports of buyout speculation. Volume reached 18.9 million shares with 30 minutes left in the regular session, which is nearly nine times the full-day average. The Fly reported earlier that chatter was circulation on trading desks that KKR & Co. could be interested in buying the motorcycle maker. Harley-Davidson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A KKR spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. The stock was the biggest percentage gainer on the NYSE Friday. The one-day jump would be the biggest since it ran up 20% on March 18, 2009.

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Natural-gas futures saw their highest settlement since May 2015 on Friday, buoyed by expectations that warmer weather will help ease U.S. supplies. Oil futures, meanwhile, saw their first weekly gain in three as demand concerns eased. August natural gas rose 6.3 cents, or 2.2%, to settle at $2.987 per million British thermal units–the highest since May 2015. Prices were up about 12.2% for the week. August crude added 66 cents, 1.4%, to settle at $48.99 a barrel, up 2.8% for the week.

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Gold futures settled higher on Friday to tally a fifth weekly gain in a row, buoyed by a weaker U.S. dollar and strong demand for assets considered less risky in the wake of the U.K.’s vote last month to leave the European Union. Silver futures also rallied to see their largest weekly gain in almost 3 years. Gold for August delivery rose $18.40, or 1.4%, to settle at $1,339 an ounce. Futures prices were up 1.3% for the week and marked their highest settlement since July 10, 2014, according to FactSet data. September silver rose 96.5 cents, or 5.2%, to settle at $19.588 an ounce. It was up 10.1% for the week.

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Oil futures moved narrowly lower after Baker Hughes data showed that the weekly number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude rose 11 to 341 as of Friday. The count fell last week, but rose in each of the three weeks before that. The total U.S. rig count climbed by 10 to 431. August crude was at $48.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 2 cents from Thursday’s settlement. It was trading higher at $48.41 before the data.

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Netflix Inc.’s stock surged 5.1% in morning trade Friday, putting it on track for a fourth-straight gain, after Canaccord Genuity said it was bullish on the streaming service’s longer-term prospects. Analyst Michael Graham started coverage of Netflix with a buy rating and a stock price target of $120, which is 25% above current levels. He said recent concerns over sluggish international subscriber growth are temporary, as they could last through the third quarter before strong growth returns in the fourth quarter and through 2018. “With vast potential in the other 179 markets and the potential to move from a top-of-market skim product to more of a mass-market product internationally, we see a long runway for growth,” Graham wrote in a note to clients. “In the U.S., competitive offerings will proliferate, but in a new un-bundled OTT world…, Netflix should move from being a substitute good to a complimentary good relative to cable, and this should foster continued growth domestically.” The stock, which has run up 13% since closing at a 4 1/2-month low on Monday, was still down 16% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 3.1%.

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Shares of Ford Motor Co. rallied 1.9% in morning trade Friday, after the automaker reported June vehicle sales that rose 6.4% above a year ago, boosted by a big jump in truck sales. Sales of truck soared 24.2% to 96,354 vehicles in June, while cars dropped 12.1% and SUVs increased 7.3%. Within Ford trucks, F-Series sales climbed 28.6%, E-Series grew 8.8% and transit jumped 19.0%. For Ford cars, Taurus tumbled 44.0%, Fiesta dropped 49.0%, Mustang fell 16.6% and Focus declined 11.6%, while Fusion increased 4.4%. With 1.35 million vehicles sold during the first half of the year, Ford said it had its best first-half performance since 2006. The stock is down 9.1% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 3%.

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U.S. stocks retreated in early trade Friday after Wall Street erased the worst of its ugly losses over the past three sessions in the aftermath of the U.K.’s surprising vote to leave Europe’s 28-member trade bloc. Lingering concerns about the so-called Brexit, or British exit from the European Union, and anxieties about anemic global growth also pushed government-bond yields, including those for benchmark 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasurys to fresh lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 11 points, or less than 0.1%, to 17,929, the S&P 500 index was little-changed at 2,098 and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3 points, or less than 0.1%, at 4,839. Car sales were in focus early, with Ford Motor reporting a 6.4% rise in vehicle sales in June. Trading could be volatile Friday ahead of the July 4th holiday. U.S. markets will be closed on Monday in observance of the holiday.

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Mobileye NV , Intel Corp. and BMW Group announced a partnership on Friday to bring fully autonomous cars to streets by 2021. The companies said the driverless cars will be able to go on highways as well as be used in clustered urban areas for ridesharing services. Their goal is to make cars completely autonomous, meaning a driver would not only be able to take their eyes off the road, but also focus their attention elsewhere and let the system take over complete control. This announcement comes despite recent criticism that some people have become too reliant on the functionality of semi-autonomous cars, which led to the fatal crash of a Florida man in a Tesla Motors Inc. Model S last month. Shares of Mobileye, which provides technologies that enable autonomous driving, fell 1.4% in premarket trade, though they soared 10% on Thursday when the companies announced the press conference. Shares of Intel ticked 0.3% lower in premarket trade after closing up 3% on Thursday.

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The European Central Bank isn’t debating whether to change the rules governing purchases of government debt under its quantitative-easing plan, Reuters reported Friday. A Bloomberg report on Thursday said officials had discussed moving away from the current rules, which require the ECB to buy government debt in proportion to each country’s size due to worries about a shortage of eligible German debt. The Reuters report, citing unnamed sources, said several other changes would be considered before making such a move due to worries about potential political objections, particularly from Germany. The ECB declined to comment, the report said.

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Yields on 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds fell to all-time lows Friday as investors sought out the safety of U.S. government debt. The yield on the 10-year note fell 11.4 basis points to 1.378%, while the 30-year yield fell 11.1 basis points to 2.187%. Yields have crept higher since reaching their lows earlier this morning, with the 10-year rising to 1.424% in recent trade, and the 30-year rising to 2.215%. On Thursday, yields notched their second straight quarterly decline, as worries about the repercussions of the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union drove up government-bond prices. Bond prices move inversely to yields. Negative-yielding debt in Europe and Japan has also helped stoke demand for Treasurys as foreign investors seek out the relatively high yields in the U.S. Finally, the expectation that the Federal Reserve might wait until next year to raise interest rates again has also helped support Treasurys.

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