Category: Stock Market News

Treasury yields fell Friday after Bloomberg News reported President Donald Trump is leaning towards Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell as the next chairman of the Fed. Fed Gov. Powell is viewed as similar to Chairwoman Janet Yellen on monetary policy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was at 2.433%, compared with 2.452% late Thursday in New York. The 2-year Treasury yield [S: tmubmsud02y] stood at 1.584%, versus 1.618% in the previous session, while the 30-year Treasury bond yield traded at 2.945%, compared with 2.959% late Thursday. Bond prices move inversely to yields.

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Twitter Inc.’s stock surged 3.3% in morning trade Friday, putting it on course for a the highest close in about 13 months, after the social media company’s third-quarter results prompted UBS to abandon its bearish stance. Analyst Eric Sheridan raised his rating to neutral, after being at sell since Feb. 9, and lifted his stock price target to $21 from $14. He said he now sees Twitter’s risks as more balanced versus potential reward for investors, after results reported Thursday daily engagement metrics continued to grow at a fast pace. “Going forward, we see Twitter’s sustained engagement performance–clearly the output of improved user interface/experience on video and curation–takes a front/center view for investors as key to a healthy debate over whether such trends will act as a leading indicator for forward…ad revenue trends in the business,” Sheridan wrote in a note to clients. The stock has now run up 24.6% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.0% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 7.4%.

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Spanish stocks tumbled even further Friday after Catalan’s parliament voted to declare independence from Spain. The IBEX 35 sank 2% to 10,139.80 in afternoon trade. The yield on 10-year Spanish government bonds rose 4 basis points to 1.591%, according to Tradeweb. Yields rise as prices fall. Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a Friday afternoon tweet asked for peace for Spain and vowed the rule of law will be restored in Catalonia. The euro was little changed after news of the Catalan vote, remaining below $1.1600 against the U.S. dollar at $1.1590.

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U.S. stock benchmarks opened mostly higher on Friday, supported by data showing the U.S. economy expanded at a solid 3% annual pace for a second straight quarter despite damages from two hurricanes. A strong spate of quarterly results from technology giants, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. , also helped lead the way higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , however, lagged behind the other equity gauges, down 29 points, or 0.1%, at 23,370, as shares of Chevron Corp. and Merck & Co. Inc. weighed on the price-weighted average. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 72 points, or 1.1% at 6,632, while the S&P 500 index added 7 points, or 0.3%, at 2,567.

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Shares of Planet Payment Inc. rocketed 17% on heavy volume in premarket trade Friday, after the multi-currency payment processing company agreed to be acquired by Fintrax Group in a deal that values Planet Payment at about $224 million. Volume topped 7.7 million shares, compared with the full-day average of about 220,000 shares, and enough to make it the most actively traded stock ahead of the open. Under terms of the buyout deal, announced late Thursday, Fintrax will pay $4.50 in cash for each Planet Payment share outstanding, which represents an 18% premium to Thursday’s closing price. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. The per-share bid is 7.4% below the July 26, 2016 closing high of $4.86, and 9.9% below the Aug. 3, 2011 record close of $4.95. Planet Payment’s stock had lost 6.4% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 had climbed 14%.

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Shares of Apple Inc. rallied 1.4% in premarket trade Friday, as reports that the iPhone X has already sold out helped assuage demand concerns. Pre-orders for the highest-priced iPhone X began at 12:01 a.m. ET. Cascend Securities said it manually conducted a survey of iPhone X availability in the 100 most populous markets in the U.S. “In every case, iPhone X was sold out for pre-order online home delivery by 5 a.m., when we started the survey,” Chief investment strategist Eric Ross wrote in a note to clients. He said there were still some supply available in stores for buying online and store pick up, but based on how quickly the supply was diminishing, he expected most of the supply would be gone by noon, if not sooner. He said the silver model, in both 64 gigabit and 256 GB memory, were in far lower supply compared with the gray model at all the carriers surveyed. The stock had gained 4.6% over the past three months through Thursday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has tacked on 2.0% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has advanced 7.4%.

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Chevron Corp. shares slid 1.2% premarket after the company reported third-quarter earnings. Chevron said it had net income of $1.952 billion, or $1.03 a share, in the quarter, up from $1.283 billion, or 68 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $36.2 billion from $30.1 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 98 cents and revenue of $34.5 billion. “Cash flow is at a positive inflection point, with oil and gas production increasing and capital spending falling,” Chief Executive John Watson said in a statement. “We’re completing projects that have been under construction and ramping up production, notably at our Gorgon LNG Project in Australia. And our shale and tight rock drilling activity in the Permian Basin is exceeding expectations.” Shares have gained 0.6% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 14%.

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Merchants Bancorp. on Friday priced its initial public offering at $16 a share, below its price range of $17 to $19. The bank sold 6.25 million shares to raise $100 million. The stock will start trading today on the Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol “MBIN.” Proceeds will be partly contributed to the bank’s subsidiary, Merchants Bank of Indiana, to be used for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions and other growth initiatives. Sandler O’Neill, Stephens Inc. and Raymond James were lead managers on the deal with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acting as co-bookrunner.

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The rallies in Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. shares in premarket trade Friday, after both technology giants reported better-than-expected third-quarter results, was helping keep the futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average in positive territory. Microsoft’s stock rose $4.74, or 6%, ahead of the open, which would add about 33 points to the Dow’s price. Intel shares climbed $1.38, or 3.3%, in premarket trade, which would add about 9.5 points to the Dow. Dow futures were up just 16 points in recent trade. Among other early Dow movers, shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. gained 52 cents, or 0.6%, after third-quarter results, which would add about 3.6 points, while Apple Inc.’s stock rose $2.03, or 1.3%, after reports of a quick sellout of its iPhone X, which would add about 14 points to the Dow.

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Shares of Imax Corp. were up more than 2% in premarket trade on Friday after analysts at J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to overweight from neutral and increased their 12-month price target to $29 from $25. J.P. Morgan’s price target represents a 24% premium to current trading levels. The upgrade comes after Imax reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday that beat Wall Street expectations. Lead analyst Alexia Quadrani said shes positive on the strategic moves Imax management has made to enhance revenue and contain costs, which are beginning to materialize. Quadrani said she has more conviction in better fundamental performance moving forward, with ongoing healthy screen signings and signs of healthier overall China box office. She said Imax’s spending in new business initiatives, as well as box office and per screen average volatility are sure to remain important concerns for investors, but that investors have already discounted Imax’s virtual reality strategy and are assuming flat to slightly declining per screen averages over the next few years, all of which presents opportunity for upside in the case of box office outperformance. Shares of Imax are down more than 25% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 14% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 18%.

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