Category: Stock Market News

Apple Inc.’s stock slumped 3.1% late in Thursday’s regular session, putting it on track for a sixth-straight decline. That would be the longest such stretch since the seven-session losing streak ending Feb. 21, 2013. The 10th-time is the charm for Apple bears, as the stock has suffered nine five-session losing streaks since the last streak of at least six sessions. The stock has dropped $12.31, or 11%, during the current loss streak, to shave off about 84 points off the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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Shares of Apple Inc. fell 2% on Thursday afternoon after activist investor Carl Icahn said he sold his stake in the company following the iPhone maker’s dismal second quarter. In an on-air interview with CNBC, Icahn, whose investment firm owned 45.8 million shares of Apple as of Dec. 31, according to FactSet, spoke about concerns he had regarding Apple’s growth, including sales in China, which plummeted 26% during the quarter.

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Gold and silver futures rallied on Thursday, with gold settling at its highest level in seven weeks and silver again finishing at its best level since May. Decisions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan to stand pat on interest rates put pressure on the dollar, providing support for the dollar-denominated precious metals. June gold added $16, or 1.3%, to settle at $1,266.40 an ounce and July silver settled at $17.588 an ounce, up 25.3 cents, or 1.5%.

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Facebook Inc. is now the sixth most valuable company by market capitalization in the S&P 500, moving up one notch in the wake of blowout first-quarter results. The stock soared $10.47, or 9.6%, in morning trade Thursday, to boost Facebook’s market cap by $29.07 billion to $339.81 billion. That takes it above Johnson & Johnson ; the consumer product giant’s stock is shedding 0.5% Thursday, to knock the market cap down to $309.60 billion from $311.06 billion on Wednesday. The next hurdle for Facebook is Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , with a market cap of about $362.50 billion. Above that is Exxon Mobil Corp. , Microsoft Corp. , Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc. .

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Consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson said Thursday it is raising its quarterly dividend to 80 cents from 75 cents. The new payment will be made June 7 to shareholders of record as of close of business May 24. Shares were down 0.4% in early trade, but are up 9% in the year so far, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which is up about 3%.

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Natural-gas futures continued to decline on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity rose 73 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 22. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a climb of 70 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 2.557 trillion cubic feet, up 870 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 832 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. June natural gas fell 7 cents, or 3.3%, to $2.083 per million British thermal units. Prices traded at $2.096 before the report.

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Shares of Global Water Resources , a water resources company, opened at $8.13 Thursday, above the issue price of $6.25. The company sold 1,164,800 shares late Wednesday to raise about $7.3 million. It had previously set a price range of $5.25 to $6.25 a share and had planned to sell 1 million shares. Roth Capital Partners is the sole underwriter of the offering. Shares were trending down shortly after the opening to hover around $6.70.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks opened lower Thursday, tracking declines in European and Asia shares, after the Bank of Japan rattled investors by offering no additional stimulus measures. The S&P 500 shed 3 points, or 0.2%, to 2,091. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 44 points, or 0.2%, to 17,993. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 3 points, or 0.1%, to 4,853. A slightly weaker-than-expected report on U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product also weighed on shares.

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NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast Corp. , said on Thursday it has reached an agreement to acquire DreamWorks Animation in a deal valued at $3.8 billion. Under the terms of the deal, NBCUniversal will pay $41 in cash for each DreamWorks shares outstanding, which is a 27% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. The animation studio will become part of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, which includes Universal Pictures, Fandango and NBCUniversal Brand Development, the company said in a news release. “DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come,” said NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke in a statement. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of 2016, and is subject to antitrust approvals in the U.S. and abroad. DreamWorks chief and co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg will become Chairman of DreamWorks New Media. Shares of DreamWorks were halted premarket, while shares of Comcast were down 1.6%.

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