Category: Stock Market News

Another Uber Technologies Inc. executive is stepping down from his role, according to reports Thursday. Ryan Graves, Uber’s first employee and a former chief executive at the company, is stepping down from his role as senior vice president of operations, but will remain on the company’s board, according to media reports. Graves steps down from the executive team as the company is still searching for a chief executive, after former CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down. Other open positions include chief finance officer, chief marketing officer and chief operating officer.

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Options for Snap Inc.’s stock are implying a big one-day move in the stock, after the Snapchat parent reports second-quarter results after the close, unless of course you compare it with the reaction to the previous quarter’s report. A “straddle” option strategy is currently pricing in a one-day post-earning move of 14%, in either direction, said E-Trade Senior Strategist David Whitmore in an emailed note to MarketWatch. “That’s a $2 swing for a stock currently trading at $13.50–so a lot of action expected,” Whitmore wrote. But the day after first-quarter results, which was the first report since Snap went public on March 2, 2017, the stock plunged 21.5% on May 11 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss and revenue that didn’t rise as much as projected. Snap’s stock has tumbled 25% since May 11, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.2%.

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Gold prices on Thursday finished at their highest level in more than two months Thursday, adding to the previous session’s sharp daily rise, as simmering North Korean tensions buoyed haven bids. December gold finished up $10.80, or 0.8%, at $1,290.10 an ounce, marking the highest level for a most-active contract since June 7, when the metal finished at $1,293.20 an ounce, FactSet data showed. Geopolitical tension persists after a North Korean army commander said “sound dialogue is not possible” with U.S. President Donald Trump and “only absolute force can work on him,” according to state media. The rise for the yellow metal also comes as the Dow Jones Industrial Average , the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite Index looked set to post their worst succession of down days since April.

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Nvidia Corp. option traders appear to be expecting some fireworks in the stock after the graphics chip maker reports second-quarter results after Thursday’s closing bell. An options strategy known as a straddle, which involves the simultaneous buying of bullish and bearish options expiring Friday at strike prices near current prices, is implying a one-day post earnings move of about 11% in either direction, according to an analysis of data provided by FactSet. That’s well above the average post-earnings move of 7.8% after the past 20 quarterly reports; the median move was 6.3%. During that time, the average move during up days has been 10.5% while the average move on down days was 2.8%. The implied move is more in line with the average of 12%, and the median of 10.5%, over the past 10 quarters. The stock, which closed at a record $172.35 on Monday, slumped 2.7% in afternoon trade ahead of the results. It has rocketed 38% the past three months, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index has edged up 2.9% and the S&P 500 has gained 2.1%.

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PayPal Holdings Inc. announced Thursday that it is acquiring small-business lender Swift Financial. The online lender’s shares were down 2.8% in early afternoon trading. PayPal did not disclose the deal’s terms and said the acquisition would close by the end of the year. Delaware-based Swift Financial offers credit to businesses through loans and advances, and the deal will increase small-business owners’ access to capital via loans of up to $500,000, and credit to merchants not using its services. PayPal has operated its own Working Capital unit since 2013, and has loaned more than $3 billion to small-businesses in total. PayPal shares have climbed more than $35% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 index has gained 9.4%.

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YogaWorks Inc., is testing out the public market again, at a lower deal size, after pulling its initial public offering a few weeks ago. YogaWorks is now proposing a share price of $5.50 to $6.50 a share to raise up to $47.5 million at the high end of its range, according to a filing Thursday. It previously had a range of $12 to $14 a share, raising up to $70 million at the high end of its range. Now the company plans to sell 7.3 million shares, up from 5 million shares. The company has been approved to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “YOGA.” YogaWorks said in late July that it was pulling its IPO over “market conditions,” though the timing coincided with valuation cuts in other recent IPOs.

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Exchange-traded funds that track the South Korean equity market fell on Thursday, extending their recent weakness as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea remained elevated. The iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF lost 1.9%, building on the 2% drop it underwent in Wednesday’s session. The fund is on track for its third straight daily decline, a period over which it has lost nearly 5% of its value. Thus far this week it is down about 4.3% and on track for its biggest weekly loss since January 2016, according to FactSet data. Among other funds, the Deutsche X-trackers MSCI South Korea Hedged Equity ETF fell 1.3%, the First Trust South Korea AlphaDEX Fund was down 1.6% and the Direxion Daily South Korea Bull 3X Shares , a leveraged fund that aims to offer 300% the daily move of its underlying index, dropped 5.3%. The South Korean Won fell 0.6% against the U.S. dollar, bringing its month-to-date decline to 2.4%. Global tensions appeared to escalate after North Korean army commander said, “sound dialogue” isn’t possible with President Donald Trump and “only absolute force can work on him,” according to state media. North Korea also laid out detailed plans of how it would launch a missile strike on U.S. military bases in Guam.

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Payless ShoeSource announced Thursday that it has emerged from Chapter 11 restructuring. It filed for bankruptcy in April of this year. Following the restructuring, the company said Chief Executive Paul Jones will retire. The post-bankruptcy board of directors will conduct the search for a successor. Payless will be led by a newly-appointed executive committee that includes Chief Financial Officer Michael Schwindle, Chief Operating Officer Mike Vitelli and led by Chairman and interim CEO Martin Wade. Payless comes out of bankruptcy with 3,500 stores. The company eliminated $435 million in funded debt. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 2.3% today, and down nearly 10% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 9.6% for 2017 to date.

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Shares of cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holding Inc. were down as much as 4.8% during intraday trade on Thursday. The stock’s move led a selloff in the cinema group, with Regal Entertainment Group , Cinemark Holdings Inc. , Marcus Corp. and Imax Corp. were all down nearly 2%. There was no news to point to for the share moves, but cinema stocks, and AMC in particular, have had a rough go of it recently as poor box office returns have dominated headlines, dragging down quarterly earnings and threats of shrinking theatrical windows and digital disruption continue to loom. Earlier this week, Walt Disney Co. , which has for a long time steered clear of certain streaming shifts, said it plans to launch its own standalone streaming service for its content in 2019 and end its current licensing deal with Netflix Inc. . “The industry is facing several issues, which is causing people to question the cyclical vs. structural issues for the industry,” wrote MKM analyst Eric Handler in an email. Also this week AMC said it was selling its 50% ownership stake in Oscar-winning production studio Open Road Films, which it co-owned with Regal Entertainment. The sale was part of the theater chain’s plan to monetize some of its assets and cut cost to combat box office volatility. Shares of AMC have declined more than 56% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up nearly 10%.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 28 billion cubic feet for the week ended Aug. 4. On average, analysts were looking for a build of 37 billion cubic feet, according to commodity brokerage firm iiTRADER. Total stocks now stand at 3.038 trillion cubic feet, down 275 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 61 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. September natural gas was up 5.2 cents, or 1.8%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.938 per million British thermal units. It traded at $2.898 before the data.

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From:: Stock Market News