Category: Stock Market News

Shares of steel companies rallied Wednesday, after the U.S. Commerce Department announced a preliminary ruling that certain steel products imported from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam made from substrate originating in China are subject to duties. U.S. Steel Corp.’s stock surged 7.3% in midday trade toward an eight-month high, while AK Steel Holding Corp. shares rose 5.9%. Elsewhere, shares of Nucor Corp. gained 1.6% and Steel Dynamics Inc. advanced 1.9%. As a result of the ruling late Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection will collect antidumping cash deposits on corrosion-resistant steel and cold-rolled steel produced in Vietnam using Chinese-origin substrate at rates of 199.43% and 265.79%, respectively. “The Commerce Department’s finding of circumvention represents a critical step to shutting down one of the many paths used to flood the U.S. with dumped and subsidized steel,” U.S. Steel said Wednesday in a statement. “This decision presents an encouraging sign for the steel industry and should put other countries and companies on notice that their cheating will no longer be tolerated.” U.S. Steel’s stock has lost 3.2% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

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Shares of Digital Power Corp. soared again on heavy volume Wednesday toward a 17-year high, boosted by the company’s announcement this week that its Coolisys Technologies subsidiary launched a line of power systems for use in the mining of crytpocurrencies. The stock shot up 19% to pace the gainers on the NYSE American exchange. Volume swelled to 22 million shares, already more than triple the full-day average, and enough to make the stock the day’s most actively traded on major U.S. exchanges. The stock has rocketed 139% since the Coolysis product announcement before Monday’s open. It has climbed more than five-fold after the company announced on Nov. 27 that it will provide a “progress report” on Coolysis’s cryptocurrency initiative, when it makes its presentation at the LD Micro Investor Conference in Los Angeles on Dec. 7. On Nov. 21, the company said it had received a warning letter from NYSE Regulation regarding Digital Power’s failure to provide the public with timely notification of certain material changes to its affairs. The stock was on track to close at the highest level since Oct. 23, 2000. It has now run up over six-fold year to date, while bitcoin has soared 1,219% and the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed that domestic crude supplies fell 5.6 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 1. That was bigger than the forecast for a decline of 4.1 million barrels from analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday had reported a drop of 5.5 million barrels, according to sources. Gasoline stockpiles jumped by 6.8 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles added 1.7 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a supply rise of 2.7 million barrels for gasoline and an increase of 1.5 million barrels for distillates. January crude fell 75 cents, or 1.3%, from Tuesday to $56.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, from $56.83 before the supply data. January gasoline lost 2.9 cents, or 1.7%, to $1.689 a gallon.

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The Canadian dollar turned lower after the Bank of Canada’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged, which was in line with expectations. Traders looking for hawkish language in the central bank’s announcement were disappointed with words of caution. While the BOC statement mentioned moderate Canadian growth and slightly higher than anticipated inflation, it also said that while higher interest rates will be necessary at some point, the BOC will remains cautious for now. “Based on the outlook for inflation and the evolution of the risks and uncertainties identified in October’s Monetary Policy Report, Governing Council judges that the current stance of monetary policy remains appropriate” it said. The U.S. dollar rallied against its Canadian counterpart to buy C$1.2755, up from C$1.2687 late Tuesday in New York.

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Alibaba Group Holding shares gained 0.9% in Wednesday morning trade after analysts at Susquehanna initiated coverage of the stock with a positive rating and a $220 price target. Analysts led by Shyam Patil see room for Alibaba to grow its Tmall and Taobao advertising business. They estimate that just 15% of merchants on those platforms actively use marketing features, “pointing to the potential for material upside.” Susquehanna is also upbeat on the company’s efforts to grow its e-commerce operations outside of China and expand its cloud business. Alicloud is hitting an inflection point for profitability, Patil wrote, and could reach margins similar to those of Amazon.com Inc.’s AWS cloud business in the next few years. In e-commerce, Alibaba has roughly 75% market share in China, whereas Amazon only has an estimated 35% share of the U.S. market, Patil added. “We view Alibaba as the best way to play the secular growth of the internet in China,” he wrote. Patil became the 45th out of 48 Wall Street analysts tracked by FactSet to assign the company the equivalent of a buy rating. Alibaba shares have soared 94% so far in 2017, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 17%.

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Netflix Inc. could add more subscribers in the fourth quarter than analysts at PiperJaffray initially forecasted. PiperJaffray analyst Michael Olson analyzed Google search trends for Netflix and he said they suggest upside potential for both international and domestic subscriber growth. The analysis points to 14.8% year-over-year growth in domestic subscriber gains, compared with Olson’s previous model for 9.3% growth. International subscriber growth is expected to be 54.5%, compared with previously expected international subscriber growth of 38.7%. Olson said something similar last quarter before Netflix reported more subscribers than expected, and recently, MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson said Netflix has yet to reach it’s peak year for subscriber additions. “With only two months of data, the index may be less accurate than the full quarter correlation and standard error we have seen historically, so we would caution investors not to directly apply the growth rates, but look at them as a directional indicator,” Olson wrote. “Directionally, the data is positive and points to potential for fourth quarter subscriber upside.” Netflix shares have gained more than 48% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 22%.

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Ford Motor Company is prepared to sign a partnership with Alibaba Group Holding [s:baba] which may enable the carmaker to sell its cars through Alibaba’s Tmall, according to a Reuters report. The arrangement could also allow Ford to test out “auto vending machines” in China, Reuters said, citing a source familiar with the matter. Ford’s chairman and CEO are expected to sign the arrangement on Thursday. Ford shares are down 0.3% in Wednesday morning trade, while Alibaba’s stock is up 0.6%. The S&P 500 Index is flat.

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Amazon.com Inc. said on Wednesday that its Prime Video app is now available for Amazon customers to download on Apple Inc.’s Apple TV streaming devices. The long-awaited move comes a day after Alphabet Inc. pulled its YouTube app from Amazon’s Echo Show and Fire TV streaming devices for a lack of a reciprocal agreement from Amazon to allow access to products and services. Amazon, for example does not carry Google Home, Chromecast or Nest devices. Shares of Amazon are up nearly 52% in the year to date, and Apple shares are up more than 45%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up more than 17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 22%.

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U.S. stock-market indexes opened slightly lower Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq on track for a fourth consecutive session of declines. The weakness is mainly due to a continued selloff in the technology sector. The S&P 500 opened 3 points, or 0.1%, lower at 2,626. If the benchmark index ends lower, it would be the longest losing streak since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 13 points, or less than 0.1%, at 24,165. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 25 points, or 0.4%, to 6,737. If the tech-heavy index closes lower, it would be the longest losing streak since November 2016. Among the best performers on Wall Street, shares of DaVita Group Inc jumped after news that UnitedHealth Group had agreed to buy the physician group for about $4.9 billion in cash.

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Analysts at Evercore on Tuesday initiated Netflix Inc. shares with an in-line rating and a $210 12-month price target, which represents a 14% premium to current trading levels. Lead analysts Vijay Jayant and Anthony DiClemente expect Netflix’s total forecasted return to be in line with that of their coverage universe. “Many aspects of the Netflix story are no longer debated,” the two analysts wrote in a note to investors. “The platform has reached near ubiquity with the help of an effective original content strategy, and a global mass market has emerged with streaming becoming the consumer’s preferred way to consume video content. As many of these views have become consensus, our focus in this report is on what we believe to be the key controversies that are central to the story today.” Those key controversies, as laid out by Jayant and DiClemente, are: How big the international opportunity is, the timetable to maturity and its potential profitability; whether U.S. price increases can continue to drive the upside as the market matures; and the two consider Netflix’s valuation to be the elephant in the room. Shares of Netflix are up nearly 49% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 22%.

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