Category: Stock Market News

Pointing to a stronger start for Wall Street equities, U.S. stock futures pushed higher on Monday, tracking gains across Asia over easing North-Korea tensions. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures jumped 104 points, or 0.5%, to 21,882, while S&P 500 futures gained 11.25 points, or 0.5%, to 2,472.25. Nasdaq-100 futures futures rose 35 points, or 0.6%, to 5,959.50. Traditional haven assets, such as gold and the Japanese yen pulled back on Monday, while equities saw marked gains, led by a 1.4% gain for the Nikkei 225 index . Those moves came partly over relief that North Korea didn’t conduct a weapons test over the weekend, as expected, to mark the anniversary of the country’s founding. Investors were keeping a close watch on the movements of Hurricane Irma, which was battering South Florida with dangerous floods and knocking out power to millions.

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Rafael Nadal cruised to his 16th career Grand Slam title Sunday, dispatching Kevin Anderson, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, to win the men’s U.S. Open in New York. It was Nadal’s second Grand Slam victory this year, and fifth overall championship. He now ranks just three victories behind Roger Federer for the all-time Grand Slam record. Nadal, 31, has won the U.S. Open twice before, last in 2013. On Saturday, American Sloane Stephens won her first women’s U.S. Open.

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U.S. shares of AstraZeneca PLC rose in the extended session Friday after the drug maker released promising results from a lung cancer drug study. AstraZeneca American depositary receipts rose 2% to $32.90 after hours. The company said a late-stage clinical trial of its drug Tagrisso improved progression-free survival rates in certain lung cancer patients to a median 18.9 months compared with the 10.2 months seen in patients given standard of care treatment.

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Switch Inc. , a Las Vegas-based data-center company, filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday afternoon for an initial public offering. Switch owns large data centers in Las Vegas as well as Reno, Nevada, and in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is developing a new facility in Atlanta. Revenue grew nearly 20% from 2015 to 2016, to $318.4 million, according to the filing, though profits fell more than 50%, from $73.5 million to $31.4 million. Revenue in the first half of 2017 grew about 17% from the same period in 2016, to $181.3 million. The company will use the proceeds to buy out investors in Switch Ltd. and take control of that company though Switch Inc., which was just incorporated in 2017. A multi-class share structure will allow founder and Chief Executive Rob Roy to maintain control, as his shares will have 10 times the voting rights of common shares. Switch plans to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWCH.

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Liberty Tax Inc. , the parent company of Liberty Tax Service, said late Friday Ed Brunot has been appointed the company’s chief executive. “I was brought on to make organizational and policy changes to drive culture, performance and efficiencies, and I look forward to working with the Board of Directors and our executive team to roll out a plan to leverage the many opportunities that exist for our company,” Brunot said in a statement. Liberty shares were flat in the late session after ending the regular trading day down 0.2%.

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Cadence Design Systems Inc. will join the S&P 500 index before the market opens on Sept. 18, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices late Friday. San Jose, Calif.-based Cadence, which makes chip-design software, will replace Staples Inc. [s; spls] on the index. Shares of Cadence declined 0.6% to $38 after hours. In late June, Staples agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Sycamore Partners for $6.9 billion.

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Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi stepped down from the New York Times Company’s board of directors Friday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing cited “increased responsibilities” as Uber’s top boss as the reason for the resignation and that it was not because of a disagreement with the New York Times about the company’s “operations, policies or practices.” The Times has aggressively covered Uber, publishing several damaging stories about the company in recent months, including one about secret software code named “Greyball.” The company used the software to evade law enforcement sting operations in several cities. The Times story prompted a criminal probe into the matter by the Justice Department. Khosrowshahi previously served as CEO of Expedia Inc. until he resigned in August to take over the CEO job at Uber. Khosrowshahi had $184 million of unvested stock options in Expedia that Uber will likely have to replace.

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Prominent insurance-linked funds logged their best daily gains in years on Friday, even as Hurricane Irma was ready to lash deadly rains and winds at Florida, among a trio of powerful storms brewing in the Atlantic. Still, PowerShares KBW Property & Casualty Insurance Portfolio jumped 3.7% on Friday, matching the exchanged-traded fund’s best one-day rise since Nov. 30, 2011, according to FactSet data. All of its components finished in the green, led by a nearly 7% gain in shares of Maiden Holdings Ltd. and a 5.8% rise in XL Group Ltd.. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average , Travelers Cos. Inc. , rallied 4%, its best day in about five years, since Dec. 5, 2012. Its gain alone added about 30 points to the price-weighted Dow’s tepid climb on Friday. Other popular insurance closed sharply higher. The SPDR S&P Insurance ETF ended up 2.8% and the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF closed 2.6% higher. Despite, Friday’s odd gains, most of the insurer funds were set to log steep declines. The property and casualty ETF booked a 3.4% weekly decline, the iShares insurance fund slumped 1.8% drop for the period, while the SPDR insurance registered a weekly decline of 2.8%. Winds from Hurricane Irma, already the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, on Friday picked up steam as it barreled toward Florida, prompting Gov. Rick Scott to urge all Floridians to evacuate. The approaching storm comes less than two weeks since Hurricane Harvey devastated much of Houston and parts of Louisiana. Besides Irma, hurricanes Katia and Jose are also swirling in the Atlantic. In broader markets, the S&P 500 index closed off 0.2% at 2,461, while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 0.6%. The Dow finished in the green on back of Travelers. The insurance giant wiped out its weekly decline to show slight weekly advance. One rationale for insurer gains on the day is the hope that Irma will produce less damaging floodwaters and lasting damage, compared with Harvey.

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U.S. equity benchmarks ended Friday on a mixed note, with both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite in the red but the Dow Jones Industrial Average slightly higher as Hurricane Irma is set to make landfall in Florida over the weekend. Tensions with North Korea also weighed on investors’ minds, as the market fears the country will test a ballistic missile to commemorate its founding on Saturday. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 2,462 thanks to weaker energy stocks–down 0.6% on the week–while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index weakened 0.7% to 6,357, down 1.2% on the week. The Dow finished the week more or less flat at 21,789, as strong gains in the financials sector outweighed losses in energy and information technology. On the week, the Dow dipped 0.9%. In individual stocks, Equifax Inc. shares plunged 13.7% following the news of a data breach affecting 143 million Americans’ personal information, such as social security, drivers license and credit card numbers.

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Prominent insurance-linked funds looked set to log their best daily gains on Friday, even as Hurricane Irma was set to lash deadly rains and winds at Florida, among a trio of powerful storms brewing in the Atlantic. Still, PowerShares KBW Property & Casualty Insurance Portfolio was surging 4.2%, putting the exchanged-traded fund on track for its best one-day rise since Aug. 29, 2011, according to FactSet data. All of its components were in the green, led by more than 6% gain in shares of Maiden Holdings Ltd. and XL Group Ltd.. A component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average , Travelers Cos. Inc., was up 4.4%, its best day in about five years, since Dec. 5, 2012. Its gain alone was adding about 35 points to the price-weighted Dow’s tepid climb on Friday. Other popular insurance funds were trading sharply higher. The S&P Insurance ETF were 2.9% and the iShares U.S. Insurance ETF was nearly 3% higher. Despite, Friday’s odd gains, most of the insurer funds were set to log steep declines. The property and casualty ETF was set for a 3.1% weekly decline, the iShares insurance fund was looking at a 1.5% drop for the period, while the SPDR insurance fund was on track for a weekly slide of 2.6%. Winds from Hurricane Irma, already the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, on Friday picked up speed as it barreled toward Florida, prompting Gov. Rick Scott to urge all Floridians to evacuate. The approaching storm comes less than two weeks since Hurricane Harvey devastated much of Houston and parts of Louisiana. Besides Irma, hurricanes Katia and Jose are also swirling in the Atlantic. In broader markets, the S&P 500 index was trading off 0.1% at 2,462, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.6%. The Dow was in the green on back of Travelers. The insurance giant is on pace to wipe out its weekly decline, if its Friday rally holds. One rationale for insurer gains on the day is the hope that Irma will produce less damaging floodwaters and lasting damage than Harvey.

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.

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