Pace University has been evacuated after man reportedly seen with gun on campus: report

Pace University has been evacuated Thursday afternoon, as law enforcement is said to be taking precautions following reports that one man was seen with a gun at the school’s downtown New York campus. According to NBC 4 New York, no shots have been fired. Pace has campuses in the Manhattan and Westchester County, N.Y.

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Oil prices end below $50, but still mark highest finish in over 6 weeks

Oil climbed for a fourth-straight session Thursday, with U.S. prices settling at their highest level in more than six weeks, but failing to hold above the key $50-a-barrel level. Recent data showing strong expectations for demand contributed to the price gains, but concerns over rising U.S. crude supplies and production levels remained. October West Texas Intermediate crude rose 59 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $49.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest finish since July 31, according to FactSet data.

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Trump ally Roger Stone to appear before House intelligence panel: report

Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, will appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Sept. 26, according to the Associated Press. Stone has said he communicated with a hacker who took credit for breaking into Democratic National Committee email servers, but he has denied working with Russian officials to influence the election. Stone said the session is closed but is asking for the “immediate release” of transcripts, according to the AP.

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Nestle to acquire majority interest in Blue Bottle Coffee

Nestle SA has agreed to acquire a majority interest in coffee startup Blue Bottle Coffee, an Oakland, California-based chain of coffee shops that had attracted big-name venture investors. Nestle did not provide financial details in announcing the deal, but The Financial Times reported that the company is paying up to $500 million for two-thirds of the company, valuing it at about $700 million. “This move underlines NestlĂ©’s focus on investing in high-growth categories and acting on consumer trends,” Nestle Chief Executive Mark Schneider said in the announcement. Nestle said it would continue to run Blue Bottle as a separate company, keeping management like Chief Executive Brian Meehan and Chief Product Officer James Freeman in place. “To us, this deal brings with it an attendant recognition and belief in our accomplishments,” Meehan and Freeman said in a blog post. The coffee chain, founded in 2002, had attracted more than $120 million in venture investment from the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Google Ventures, Chris Sacca of “Shark Tank” and Twitter Inc. cofounder Ev Williams, according to Crunchbase. Nestle stock closed with a 0.1% decline on the Swiss exchange, while its ADR was trading about 0.4% lower Thursday.

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SEC fines SunTrust $1.1 million for steering customers to high-fee mutual funds

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges against the investment services subsidiary of SunTrust Banks [s:sti] on Thursday for charging clients more than $1.1 million in excessive fees for more expensive shares mutual funds when cheaper shares of the same funds were available. SunTrust breached its fiduciary duty to act in clients’ best interests by recommending the costlier mutual fund share classes that charge 12b-1 fees, a type of marketing and distribution fee, without telling investors that they were eligible for less costly shares. SunTrust Investment Services agreed, without admitting or denying the findings, to pay a penalty of more than $1.1 million to settle the charges. SunTrust also began refunding the overcharged fees plus interest to more than 4,500 affected clients as a result of the SEC investigation. The firm also agreed to be censured.

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Blue Apron’s stock surges as analyst sees problems as ‘decidedly temporary’

Shares of Blue Apron Holdings Inc. ran up 4.5% in morning trade Thursday, after Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Graham said recent management commentary reinforces his view that current headwinds are “decidedly temporary.” The stock has now retraced nearly half what it lost after reporting on Aug. 10 a wider-than-expected loss in its first quarterly report since going public. In an interview at this year’s Code Commerce conference, Graham said Salzberg outlined the meal-kit delivery company’s long-term opportunity, said the company can coexist with Amazon.com Inc. and that it was working through the troubles it had with the rollout of a new fulfillment center that affected the latest quarter’s results. “We continue to view the current headwinds as decidedly temporary, and managements’ recent commentary reinforces our view that the company is working through issues at a good pace and can largely complete the transition by the end of the year,” Graham wrote in a note to clients. He reiterated his buy rating and $11 stock price target, which was 95% above current levels. The stock has shed 44% since it closed at its IPO price of $10 on its first day of trade on June 29, compared with a 3.2% gain in the S&P 500 over the same time.

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Chance of December rate hike peeks above 50% for first time since July

Traders on Thursday wagered a December rate hike was more likely than not for the first time since mid-July, ahead of a key Federal Reserve policy meeting next week. The fed fund futures market showed market participants were estimating a 50.9% chance of a quarter basis-point rate increase in December. This comes after a stronger-than-expected inflation reading on Thursday offered one of the more substantial signs that a recent string of weak inflation data was only “transitory,” reinforcing the Fed’s argument for normalizing interest rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported inflation in August had rose 0.4%, pushing its yearly rate higher to 1.9%.

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Natural-gas prices edge up EIA reports U.S. supply rise of 91 billion cubic feet

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 91 billion cubic feet for the week ended Sept. 8. That was just above the average forecast for a climb of 88 billion cubic feet by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 3.311 trillion cubic feet, down 179 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 43 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. October natural gas was up 1.9 cents, 0.6%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $3.077 per million British thermal units. It traded at $3.053 before the data.

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William Lyon’s stock falls as Paulson sells off holding of Class A shares

Shares of William Lyon Homes tumbled 5.8% in morning trade Thursday, after filings showed that the homebuilder’s second-largest shareholder, billionaire investor John Paulson’s hedge fund Paulson & Co., was selling off its entire holding of Class A shares. William Lyon filed late Wednesday to say Paulson planned to offer 3,322,666 shares for sale. Early Thursday, the company said the offering had priced, and that it was expected to close on our about Sept. 18. On Oct. 12, 2012, Paulson & Co. was issued 15.24 million Class A shares for $16.0 million, or at $1.05 a share. A May 2013 share offering, priced at $25 a share, left Paulson with about 3.3 million Class A shares, filings show. The stock closed Wednesday at $24.79. So, did Paulson & Co. pocket a total of over $440 million dollars on a $16 million investment made about 5 years ago? The hedge fund declined to comment. William Lyon’s stock has now gained 2.0% over the past three months, while the SPDR S&P Homebuilder ETF has slipped 0.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 2.4%.

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Equifax’s stock takes another dive to 2 1/2-year low; J.P. Morgan slashes price target

Shares of Equifax Inc. extended their plunge Thursday, falling another 8.9% in morning trade to a 2 1/2-year low, and have now lost more than one-third of their value since the credit-reporting company unveiled a massive data breach. With 120.37 million shares outstanding as of July 13, the $52.57 decline in the past week has wiped out $6.33 billion in market capitalization. Analyst Andrew Steinerman at J.P. Morgan slashed his stock price target to $135, which is about 50% above current levels, from $167, while reiterating his overweight rating. He said that after a meeting with management, the full impacts of the data breach are still uncertain. “However, some key points were clarified and we now feel better positioned to assess the near term drag (we estimate a 10% EPS drag in 2018), even as we acknowledge that facts are still emerging. The stock, which hit a 2 1/2-year low in intraday trade, has now lost 24% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 11%.

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