Category: Stock Market News

Shares of online travel company Expedia Inc. tumbled 4.5% in early trade Monday, on news that Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi is to become next CEO of Uber. The news is “an incremental negative for Expedia, in our view, given Mr. Khosrowshahi’s hand in Expedia’s success to date,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts wrote in a note. “While such an outcome would create some near term leadership vacuum at the CEO level, we do not expect to see a material negative hit to the business’s performance given the deep executive bench and the organizational set-up of the company.” Khosrowshahi has held the role for more than a decade and is broadly credited with positioning the company as a leading player in its field. However, the business heads at its key units operate with some independence in day-to-day decision making, meaning the business is unlikely to see disruption, the analysts wrote. SunTrust views Chief Financial Officer Mark Okerstrom and Aman Bhutani, who is president of the brand, as front runners for the CEO spot. The former has been at Expedia since 2006, while the latter has been there for seven years. Shares have gained 26% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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Time Warner Inc.’s flagship cable network HBO said on Monday that it has launched a new series tied to its most popular show “Game of Thrones.” HBO has created a seven-part post-season series titled “The Game Revealed” that will give fans of arguably TV’s most popular show a behind-the-scenes look at how the penultimate seventh season of “Game of Thrones” came together. The series will be available only on HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO On Demand and its affiliate partners. The first episode was released on Monday, with exclusive interviews with cast and crew, and is available for free on Facebook and YouTube. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on Monday, and will be available only to HBO subscribers.

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Shares of insurance giant Travelers Cos. Inc. and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Monday were yanking the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower in early trade. The fallout of now-Tropical storm Harvey, which has submerged much of the Houston area in what is expected to be 50 inches of rain. That has helped to whack insurance companies, while growing doubts about additional rate hikes in 2017, has pressured bank shares. Travelers’s stock was off 2.8%, or about $3.52, while Goldman’s shares were down about 0.9% at $1.87, translating to a nearly 40-point retreat in the price-weighted Dow industrials . A $1 move in any of the Dow equates to a 6.84-point swing in the blue-chip average. Overall, the Dow reversed modest gains at the open, to trade down 25 points, or 0.1%, at 21,788, while the S&P 500 index was flat at 2,443, and the Nasdaq Composite Index traded 0.2% higher.

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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Shares of online travel company Expedia Inc. tumbled 4% in early trade Monday, on news that Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi is to become next CEO of Uber. The news is “an incremental negative for Expedia, in our view, given Mr. Khosrowshahi’s hand in Expedia’s success to date,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts wrote in a note. “While such an outcome would create some near term leadership vacuum at the CEO level, we do not expect to see a material negative hit to the business’s performance given the deep executive bench and the organizational set-up of the company.” Khosrowshahi has held the role for more than a decade and is broadly credited with positioning the company as a leading player in its field. However, the business heads at its key units operate with some independence in day-to-day decision making, meaning the business is unlikely to see disruption, the analysts wrote. SunTrust views Chief Financial Officer Mark Okerstrom and Aman Bhutani, who is president of the brand, as front runners for the CEO spot. The former has been at Expedia since 2006, while the latter has been there for seven years. Shares have gained 26% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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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Shares of Ally Financial Inc. were slightly lower Monday, as investors awaited assessments of the company’s exposure to hurricane Harvey, given that Texas is one of the bigger states in the U.S. auto market. Texas is Ally’s biggest state for retail auto loans, at about $9 billion of premiums, and commercial real estate, at about $650 million in premiums, according to research firm CreditSights, and it likely has big exposure in its $35 billion commercial loan book. Ally and the broader original equipment maker markets may actually benefit from the storm damage, as natural disasters effectively lead to a spike in the scrappage rate, or percentage of vehicles of a certain type in a given age class that are retired from use in a give year. That will pull supply from the market and drive consumers back to the lot earlier than expected, said CreditSights analyst Jesse Rosenthal. “There is precedence for this type of near-term tailwind, with used car prices bouncing in the wake of Sandy and Katrina, and could be a boost for the beaten-down industry in coming months,” said Rosenthal. Ally shares have gained 19% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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Apple Inc. will reportedly hold a product launch event on Sept. 12, including the expected launch of three iPhones, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Analysts have expected a fall launch for Apple’s new iPhone 8, which is expected to have an all-glass display and function without a physical home button. Apple is also expected to launch updates to its two iPhone 7 models. However, analysts have been concerned that the event could be pushed back, as Apple has been said to have manufacturing issues with the new iPhone. Shares of Apple were relatively flat Monday. Shares of Apple have gained 39% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 10%.

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AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares rose as much as 6.2% to $4.01 in extremely heavy morning trade Monday after the company’s cancer drug was approved in Europe. The drug, Fotivda, was approved for adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma — the most common type of kidney cancer — in the European Union as well as Norway and Iceland. Fotivda is being licensed in Europe by Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ EUSA Pharma Inc. The drug was recommended for approval by a scientific committee of the European Medicines Agency in late June, news that sent AVEO Pharma shares surging. AVEO Pharma shares have risen 426% over the last three months, compared with a 1.3% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of insurance giant Travelers Cos. Inc. on Monday weighed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the open of trade in the fallout of now-Tropical storm Harvey, which has submerged much of the Houston area in what is expected to be 50 inches of rain. The insurer was off 2.6%, or about $3.18, translating to a roughly 20-point retreat in the price-weighted Dow industrials , with traders trying to assess liabilities for insurers in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. A $1 move in any of the the Dow equates to a 6.84-point swing in the Dow. Still, the Dow climbed at the open, up 0.1% at 21,828, while the S&P 500 index added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index traded 0.2% higher.

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U.S. stock opened modestly higher on Monday, as investors attempt to gauge the carnage wrought to property and energy facilities following Hurricane Harvey over the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 25 points, or 0.1%, at 21,836, giant insurer Travelers Cos. Inc. was among the worst performers among the Dow’s components in early trade. The S&P 500 index was adding 4.5 points, or 0.2%, at 2,447, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2% at 6,276. U.S. traded crude-oil prices were slipping in the aftermath of the devastation of now-Tropical storm Harvey, which is expected to dump some 50 inches of water in the Houston/Galveston region of Texas. Among the more active energy futures was gasoline prices, which were spiking, but off their highs.

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Shares of home-improvement retailers rose Monday, on expectations they will benefit from demand for wood and other supplies from homeowners in the region that has been battered by hurricane Harvey all weekend. Harvey, which is now a tropical storm, is expected to dump about 50 inches of rain over Houston this week, an “unprecedented” rainfall, according to the National Weather Service. J.P. Morgan said the disaster could generate insurance losses of $10 billion to $20 billion, although estimates are preliminary as flooding is expected to continue for several days and to hit neighboring Louisiana too. Home Depot Inc. shares jumped 1.1% in early trade, while Lowe’s Cos. Inc. was up 1.9%. Home Depot shares have gained 13% i 2017, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained about 11% and the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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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