Category: Stock Market News

Oil futures finished the session sharply higher on Friday, but booked a weekly loss, as investors focused on a decline in rigs drilling for oil against a coming OPEC meeting to assess compliance of to an agreement to check global production and stabilize crude prices. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in September advanced 55 cents, or 1.1%, at $49.58. However for the week, crude prices finished about 0.4% lower, according to FactSet data. Crude prices added to earlier gains after a report at 1 p.m. Eastern showed that overall U.S. rig counts pulled back for the week, helping to support gains in crude-oil prices on Friday. The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil fell by 1 to 765 rigs this week, while those drilling for gas declined by 3 to 189, bringing the overall oil-and-gas count to 954 for the week, according to Baker Hughes. Oil had been on the rise after an upbeat reading of U.S. employment showed that 209,000 jobs were created in July, with the unemployment rate falling to a 16-year low at 4.3%. Strong U.S. jobs can suggest impending demand for crude, lifting prices. Looking ahead, investors will be focused on a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to discuss compliance to agreed upon global production limits that run through March 2018. The meeting is set for set for Aug. 7-8 in Abu Dhabi.

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Gold futures settled firmly lower on Friday as the dollar jumped after a key report on payrolls in July showed stronger-than-expected job creation. December gold fell $9.80 , or 0.8%, to finish the session at $1,264.60 an ounce. A gauge of the U.S. dollar, the U.S. ICE Dollar Index rose 0.8%, coming off a 15-month low, and weighing on commodities, like gold, priced in the currency. The moves came after a report from the Labor Department showed that the U.S. added a better-than-expected 209,000 new jobs in July, more than most economists were banking on. The unemployment rate fell back to a 16-year low of 4.3%. The labor report underlined what has been a healthy pace of job growth, but also may offer the Federal Reserve little cause to delay lifting interest rates as it seeks to normalize monetary policy. The one-two punch of higher rates and a stronger greenback can serve as a headwind to assets like gold that don’t bear a yield. For the week, the buck finished down 0.4%.

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Shares of Trivago N.V. tumbled 24% on heavy volume in afternoon trade Friday, after the Germany-based hotel booking site reported a surprise second-quarter loss amid increased marketing spend. Volume ballooned to over 6.2 million shares, compared with the full-day average of about 1.2 million shares. The company reported a U.S. dollar equivalent loss of a penny a share, compared with consensus analyst expectations for a breakeven quarter, according to FactSet. Analyst Shyam Patel at Susquehanna Financial cut his stock price target to $21 from $23, citing a lower outlook for 2018 after management said it continued to expect revenue growth to decelerate. “We continue to like Trivago, given its leadership position in the hotel metasearch space, large runway for growth and ability to sclare margins over time,” Patel wrote in a note to clients. But given concerns over valuation, Patel kept the rating at neutral. The stock, which went public on Dec. 16, 2016, was still trading 49% above its $11 IPO price. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has gained 9.5% over the same time.

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Overall U.S. rig counts pulled back for the week, helping to support gains in crude-oil prices on Friday. The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil fell by 1 to 765 rigs this week, while those drilling for gas declined by 3 to 189, bringing the overall oil-and-gas count to 954 for the week, according to Baker Hughes. September West Texas Intermediate crude rose 35 cents, or 0.7%, at $49.37 a barrel, ticking slightly higher after the rig-count data were released. Falling rig counts may ease some of the worries that U.S. shale drillers are undercutting a global agreement led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut global production and lift crude prices off historic lows. U.s. oil producers have been cited as the biggest headwind to such efforts.

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Shares of Snapchat parent Snap Inc. shot up 3.9% in midday trade Friday, putting it on course for back-to-back gains for the first time in five weeks. The disappearing-messaging app company’s stock has now run up 13% since it hit a record intraday low of $11.90 on Thursday, when it was down as much as 5.9% before bouncing sharply to close up 2.2%. It was still down 1.8% since its closed at $13.67 on July 31, which was when the post-IPO lockup period expired. Prior to Thursday’s gain, the stock had fallen in 17 of the previous 20 sessions. The last time the stock rose for more than just one day was the three-session win streak ending June 29. It was still 21% below the $17 IPO price. Snap is scheduled to report second-quarter results after the Aug. 10 close. The stock has tumbled 41% over the past three months, while rival Instagram parent Facebook Inc. shares have rallied 12% and the S&P 500 has gained 3.6%.

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Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. rose as much as 10% on Friday from Thursday’s close, despite the company reporting softer-than-expected revenue and a slightly wider loss in the second quarter than Wall Street was expecting. Investors seemed to shrug off the earnings miss, after AMC issued a profit warning earlier in the week and shares tanked as much as 27%. They focused on the company’s $100 million buyback announcement and the cinema chain’s plans to stabilize the business in the face of volatile box office returns. AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron said, “I also plan individually to buy AMC stock on the open market with personal monies within the next 60 days.” In the company’s quarterly report Aron laid out plans for confronting the challenges ahead, including streamlining operating costs and seeking revenue enhancement opportunities. AMC management is also looking to reduce capital expenditures by $100 million in the latter half of 2017 and an additional $100 million in 2018, while identifying roughly $400 million in non-strategic assets that could be monetized over the next two years. AMC is doubling down on its investment in concessions and premium recliner seating, and is positive on the industry’s future and the company’s position in it. “We remain optimistic about our ability to deliver meaningful value to our shareholders,” Aron said in a statement. “Consumer demand to go to the movies was robust as 2017 started out in the first quarter. And just ahead of us is a strong fourth quarter film slate, that creates the opportunity to lessen the angst surrounding box office weakness industry-wide in the second and third quarters of 2017.” Shares of AMC have lost more than 52% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 index has gained nearly 11%.

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U.S. stock benchmarks opened higher Friday, putting the Dow on track to book its eight record close in a row as a healthy report on U.S. employment helped to lift buying sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% at 22,081, the S&P 500 index climbed 0.2% at 2,476, while the Nasdaq Composite Index traded flat but in positive territory at 6,344. Gains for U.S. equities come after a report from the Labor Department showed that the U.S. created 209,000 new jobs in July, beating Wall Street forecasts. Separately, the unemployment rate moved to 4.3% from 4.4%, retouching a 16-year low, while average-hourly wages matched expectations, rising 0.3%. The healthy report jolted Treasury yields modestly higher, with the 10-year benchmark Treasury note rising to 2.26%, compared with 2.23% late Thursday in New York. Bond prices and yields move inversely. The jobs data are seen as helping to support the Federal Reserve’s efforts to normalize interest rates, which have hovered near historic lows. Bank shares, which benefit from higher rates, were leading early gains on the day, with the popular bank-centered, exchange-traded Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF rising 0.7% in early trade, led by gains in widely held bank stock, Bank of America Corp. , advancing 1.7% on the session. In other corporate news, GoPro Inc. shares surged 15% after after the wearable video-camera maker’s quarterly results and outlook out late Thursday beat Wall Street estimates.

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AT&T Inc. said on Friday it has named GroupM North America Chief Executive Brian Lesser as head of a new advertising and analytics company. GroupM is one of the largest media investment management organizations, applying data and technology to maximize ad value. AT&T didn’t give much detail about the new business in its release, but Lesser will be charged with using AT&T’s customer data and growing content assets to build an advertising and analytics business. AT&T is still waiting for its proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of media company Time Warner Inc. to clear regulatory review. The two companies have pointed to the advertising potential as an important part of the merger. “Once we complete our acquisition of Time Warner, we believe there is an opportunity to build an automated advertising platform that can do for premium video and TV advertising what the search and social media companies have done for digital advertising,” said AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson in a statement. Shares of AT&T are down 10% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 10%

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United Therapeutics Corp. shares surged 8.7% premarket on Friday after a news report suggested that major pharmaceutical companies were weighing a bid for it. The Evening Standard report said that Gilead Sciences Inc. is considered the frontrunner, while GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis AG are also possible contenders. Glaxo and United Therapeutics declined to comment to the Evening Standard. United Therapeutic, which was founded by Martine Rothblatt, a co-founder of Sirius XM , currently has five products on the market, four of which treat pulmonary arterial hypertension; the fifth is intended for pediatric cancer patients. United Therapeutics shares have dropped 11.5% year-to-date, compared with a 10.4% rise in the S&P 500 .

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U.S. Treasury yields rose modestly on Friday after a the key jobs report came in better than expected. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.248%, the 2-year yield , the most sensitive to shifting rate expectations, was at 1.367% , while the 30-year bond yield stood at 2.820% . Bond prices and yields move inversely. The labor-market report added an impressive 209,000 jobs in July. Over the past two months, the U.S. has added nearly 450,000 new jobs, pushing the unemployment rate down to a 16-year low of 4.3%. A healthy jobs market is seen as adding support to the Federal Reserve’s push to lift interest rates and unwind a $4.5 trillion asset portfolio. Higher rates weigh on bond prices, nudging yields higher. One point that Treasury traders might view as less than stellar, average-hourly wages matched economists’ expectations polled by MarketWatch for a rise of 0.3%. Rising wages are viewed as a proxy for inflation, which bond investors have mostly viewed as sluggish over the past several months. Overall, economists had expected 180,000 jobs to have been added to the U.S. economy in July.

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