Category: Stock Market News

HBO confirmed on Thursday that its most popular series “Game of Thrones” won’t return for its eighth and final season until 2019. The Time Warner Inc.-owned premium cable network did not say when exactly in 2019 the next season might air, but the show began production back in October, and it’s expected to run until the middle of 2018. The final episode of the show’s most recent seventh season pulled in 12.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode in the series’s history. HBO has been trying to find a replacement for the massive hole the end of “Game of Thrones” will leave at the network. While creators and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will try their hand at a controversial alternate history drama “Confederate” once “Game of Thrones” ends, HBO has five potential spinoffs of the show in development. Shares of Time Warner have declined nearly 5% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up 20% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 25%

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Gold prices settled higher Thursday, overcoming earlier weakness to expand its run of gains into a 10th-consecutive session. It’s the longest such streak of gains since July 2011, according to FactSet data, as support from the dollar’s decline back to three-month lows helped offset pressure from a strong monthly report on U.S. private-sector jobs. February gold added $3.10, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,321.60 an ounce. That was the highest finish for a most-active futures contract since Sept. 15.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Intel Corp. said Thursday that by the end of the week it will have issued updates to security exploits made public Tuesday for 90% the chips introduced in the past five years. Intel stock is down 2.6% to $44.10 in early afternoon trading. The company said it had already introduced patches for the “majority” of its chips introduced within the past five years. “Intel continues to believe that the performance impact of these updates is highly workload-dependent and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time,” the company said in a statement. “While on some discrete workloads the performance impact from the software updates may initially be higher, additional post-deployment identification, testing and improvement of the software updates should mitigate that impact.” The company also said that operating system makers, cloud computing providers, and device makers are among the companies that have updated products and services already. The two securities vulnerabilities made public Tuesday affect most chip designs around the world and Intel has acknowledged that the vulnerabilities could affect systems designed in the past decade or more. Executives on a Wednesday call with investors said that they did not expect the vulnerabilities to have a material impact on the company and that they were unaware of the threat being actually exploited. Intel stock is up 21.5% in the past 12 months, as the S&P 500 index has gained 20%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which Intel is a component, has gained 25% in the past 12 months.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Williams-Sonoma Inc. said Thursday that it has partnered with SleepScore Labs to launch the Robin Sleep System, which combines the Robin Pocket Spring Mattress Set and SleepScore Max, which measures the quality and quantity of sleep without requiring the user to wear a special device or place anything in bed with them. The Robin Sleep System will be available online and in select stores among the Williams-Sonoma portfolio, including the Pottery Barn, West Elm and Williams Sonoma Home. The system is available starting at $629 for a twin size. The SleepScore Max is available separately for about $150, and the Robin Pocket Spring Mattress set is available starting at $519 for the twin size. Williams-Sonoma announced an expansion to their partnership with Leesa Sleep last month to sell that company’s mattresses. Williams-Sonoma shares are up 4.3% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 20.1% for the period.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Exchange-traded funds tied to emerging-market equities rose on Thursday, extending a rally that has taken the group to their highest level in more than six years. The Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF rose 0.8% on Thursday, on track for its fifth straight daily gain, as well as its ninth of the past 10 sessions. The fund is trading at its highest level since August 2011. Thus far this week, the fund is up 3.5%, putting it on track for its biggest weekly gain since July. The fund is also set for its fifth straight weekly advance, its longest such streak since one ended August 2016. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF has seen similar strength of late, and it is also trading at its highest level since 2011. The move in emerging-market equities was apace with the move in the U.S. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% on Thursday while the S&P 500 was up 0.5% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2%. All three were poised for their third straight daily gain.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested that the next milestone for the closely watched Dow Jones Industrial Average after it broke above 25,000 is about 20% higher. Offering comments to media, the Republican president said breaking through the milestone was a “big barrier” because critics didn’t think that it could be achieved soon. On Thursday, the Dow broke through 25,000, and if it ends at that level, it would represent the fastest 1,000-point climb to the round number, 23 days, in the benchmark’s history. Trump, however, intimated that further moves ahead may be his administration’s goal, by way of promoting a raft of fiscal stimulus measures that include corporate tax cuts and increases to spending. “I guess our new number is 30,000,” he told reporters. Trump has more directly, than other presidents, gauged his overall performance in terms of the Dow and jobs. Most recently, the Dow was up 140 points, or 0.6%, at 25,060, the S&P 500 index was up 0.4% at 2,724, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was climbing by 0.2% at 7,076. All three benchmarks, and the Russell 2000 and Dow Jones Transportation Average are trading at or near all-time highs, extending a recent run of repeated records for equity benchmarks that took hold in 2017.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

President Donald Trump said Thursday his former chief strategist Steve Bannon has “changed his tune” after his reported comments in a forthcoming book were made public. Trump was referring to a comment Bannon made Wednesday night on the Breitbart News Tonight radio show, in which he said “the president of the United States is a great man.” In the book “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff, Bannon reportedly calls a meeting between Trump’s son Donald Jr. and a group of Russians “treasonous.” In brief remarks to reporters at the White House, Trump said he doesn’t talk to Bannon. “He called me a great man last night, so he obviously changed his tune pretty quick,” Trump said.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Gates Industrial Corp. Plc. said Thursday it has filed for an initial public offering. the manufacturer of products used in industrial and consumer markets said it has applied to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GTES”. The number of shares to be offered and pricing have yet to be determined. Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and UBS Investment Bank are joint book-running managers for the offering, with Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and RBC Capital Markets acting as joint bookrunners. Blackstone Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Wells Fargo Securities, Current Capital Securities LLC, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Siebert Cisneros Shank & Co., L.L.C., SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Academy Securities, BTIG and Guggenheim Securities are acting as co-managers.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Shares of a number of tech giants touched fresh 52-week highs on Thursday, including Facebook, Netflix and Amazon, as stocks jumped to records in the third trading session of 2018. Facebook Inc. hit a fresh 52-week peak at $186.21, with a gain of nearly 10% so far this week, Amazon.com Inc.’s shares rose to a peak at $1,215.87, up 3.5% on the week, while shares of Netflix Inc. carved out a new top at $207.05, with a gain of 6.6% so far this year, though prices pulled back somewhat. Google-parent Alphabet class A shares also hit a 52-week top at $1,104.08, while C shares also notched a peak at $1,093.57. Both share classes are up about 4% this week. Those companies represent the components of the so-called FAANG stocks, which have helped to lead the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index to a psychologically significant move above 7,000 for the first time ever on Tuesday. The Nasdaq was recently up 0.2% at 7,075. Absent from the FAANG cadre hitting fresh highs were Apple Inc. shares , which were up seeing a muted gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.7%, but last hit a 52-week high on Dec. 18 at 177.20. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average , where Apple is a component, was up 160 points, or 0.6%, at 25,074, breaking above 25,000 for its first time ever, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.4% at 2,724, notching a record peak of its own in intraday trade, and highlighting a firm start to the year for equity benchmarks that have enjoyed a relentless run-up last year.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Republican David Yancey won a hotly contested Virginia House of Delegates race after his name was drawn from a bowl on Thursday. Last month, a recount put Democrat Shelly Simonds ahead of Yancey by just one vote, but the contest was later ruled a tie. With Yancey’s victory, Republicans retain their majority in the chamber. Simonds has indicated she may challenge the result.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News