Category: Stock Market News

Five people have been arrested in Birmingham and at Gatwick Airport on suspicion of being involved in terror activities, the West Midlands Police said on Friday. Three men — aged 26, 40 and 59 — and a 29-year-old woman were detained in Birmingham Thursday night, while a 26-year old man was arrested at Gatwick, a major London airport, early Friday. “There was no risk to the public at any time, and there is no information to suggest an attack in the U.K. was being planned,” said Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale in a statement. The detentions came after cooperation with international partners, including Belgium and France.

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Oil prices erased earlier gains and moved firmly lower in Friday morning trade, after a report the Iranian oil minister won’t attend a highly anticipated meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday.Crude oil lost 1.3% to $40.99 a barrel, while Brent oil dropped 0.9% to $43.46. Oil prices have been volatile this week in the run-up to the Sunday meeting when major oil producers will discuss whether to freeze oil production. Reports across Twitter citing Bloomberg said on Friday Iran would send its OPEC governor instead of its oil minister, which triggered a slump in prices. Iran has rejected calls for an output freeze, arguing it wants to return to pre-sanction levels before reining in production. The world’s largest oil producer Saudi Arabia has signaled it won’t agree to any deal in Doha unless Iran also signs. “We are running out of news to support a further appreciation ahead of the meeting on Sunday. Following a strong rally this past couple of weeks it makes sense to take some chips of the table ahead a meeting which has been high on promises but could end up being low on delivery,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, in emailed comments.

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Super Micro Computer Inc. divulged Thursday afternoon that its quarterly earnings will come in well below its earlier projections. The computer-server company said that it now expects revenues of $530 million to $533 million, after previously providing a range of $530 million to $580 million, and said adjusted profit would be 33 cents a share to 35 cents a share, much lower than the company’s previous estimate of 43 cents a share to 53 cents a share. “Results for this quarter were weaker than forecasted due to weaker demand with some large customers and the channel than we anticipated,” Chief Executive Charles Liang said in the company’s news release. Analysts had expected the company to report adjusted profit of 49 cents a share on sales of $557 million, according to a FactSet survey. Super Micro shares were stopped in after-hours trading ahead of the announcement, and fell 5.9% once the halt was lifted.

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Costco Wholesale Corp. said late Thursday its board hiked the company’s dividend by nearly 13%. The board raised the quarterly dividend to 45 cents a share from 40 cents a share. The new dividend is payable May 13 to shareholders of record as of April 29. Costco shares advanced 0.2% to $151.68 after hours.

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Shuddle, a ride-hailing service for unaccompanied minors, is shutting down after failing to raise more venture funding. The Silicon Valley startup, which offered services similar to Uber Technologies Inc. or Lyft Inc. but meant for children, was hampered by news of impending doom for so-called unicorns, the chief executive told the San Francisco Chronicle, which exclusively reported the news Thursday. “My world has been colored by on-demand apocalypse headlines that littered the news over the past six to eight weeks when we were trying to raise rounds,” CEO Doug Aley told the newspaper.

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. shares ticked higher in the extended session Thursday following a report that the company may be considering selling off parts of its business. Valeant shares advanced 1.7% to $32.93 after hours. The drugmaker has turned to investment banks such as Goldman Sachs to review its strategic options given interest from buyout firms and other companies, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. Valeant has recently fallen under pressure to trim its billions of debt following a potential default to its creditors on the grounds it has yet to file its annual report.

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Bats Global Markets Inc. priced its initial public offering at $19, raising about $253 million, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal. The price was at the top of the range for the Kansas-based stock exchange operator, which had sought to become public in 2012 but canceled the deal after a software glitch. Bats focuses on stocks and exchange-traded funds in the U.S. and Europe, stock options in the U.S., and the cash currency market globally. The company will trade on one of its own platforms, the BZX Exchange.

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Ensco PLC shares fell in the extended session Thursday after the offshore drilling company announced a secondary offering of its shares, but pared those losses following a revenue outlook. Ensco shares, which initially dropped below $9.80 a share after hours, declined 5.6% to $10 in the extended session. The company plans to offer 50 million shares, with an option for another 7.5 million shares to cover overallotments, to finance general corporate purposes. Ensco currently has about 235 million shares outstanding, according to FactSet data. In a separate filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ensco forecast first-quarter operating revenue of $812 million to $817 million, while analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated $791.5 million.

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U.S. stocks squeaked out gains to close fractionally higher on Thursday as subdued corporate earnings weighed on investors’ sentiment. The S&P 500 edged up less than a point to close at 2,082.78 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18.15 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 17,926.43. The Nasdaq shed 1.53 points to close at 4,945.89. Morgan Stanley analysts said expectations for first-quarter earnings are fairly modest with nine out of 10 sectors in the S&P 500 recording a drop in consensus estimate.

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