Category: Stock Market News

The dollar on Friday gained against top rivals after the monthly U.S. jobs report topped expectations. The buck bought 110.56 Japanese yen, up from 110.09 yen just before the data on July nonfarm payrolls. The pound was down at $1.3101 after holding above $1.3140 ahead of the release, while the euro traded at $1.1848, pulling back from around $1.1870.

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Banks stock jumped in premarket trade Friday, after the release of better-than-expected July jobs data. The SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF climbed 0.6% ahead of the open, after being unchanged just prior to the jobs data. Shares of Bank of America Corp. rallied 1% ahead of the open, after being up just 0.3% before the data, while the data helped push J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s stock up 0.8% from up 0.2%. Elsewhere, shares of Citigroup Inc. went to up 0.9% from up less than 0.1%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock was up 0.7% after a pre-data gain of 0.1% and Well Fargo & Co. share went to a 0.8% gain from a 0.1% rise. The economy added 209,000 nonfarm jobs in July, beating expectations of 175,000.

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U.S. stock-index futures rose modestly on Friday, following a July jobs report that came in stronger than expected. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53 points, or 0.2%, to 22,027. S&P 500-index futures added 2.8 points, or 0.1%, to 2,474.5. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 were up 7 points to 5,897, a rise of 0.1%. About 209,000 jobs were added in the month, well above the mean estimate of analysts polled by MarketWatch, which was for 180,000 jobs created. Separately, the June payroll report was revised higher. If the implied move higher in futures holds, the Dow will rise for a ninth straight session, as well as close at a record for an eighth straight day.

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Shares of Automatic Data Processing Inc. rose 2.9% in premarket trade Friday, after the business consulting company disclosed that activist investor William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is seeking to take control. ADP said Pershing, which owns 8% of the company’s shares outstanding, is seeking to extend the deadline for nomination directors by up to 45 days, as Ackman would like to take five board seats. Ackman is also seeking a change of the chief executive officer. “The Board has unanimously determined that it is not in the best interests of ADP or its other shareholders to accede to Pershing Square’s last-minute request for an extension,” the company said in a statement. ADP said in the six years that Carlos Rodriquez has been CEO, ADP’s total shareholder return (TSR) has been 202%, while the S&P 500’s TSR has been 128% and Pershing’s TSR has been 29%. Over the past year, ADP’s stock has rallied 26.4% while the S&P 500 has gained 14%.

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Potbelly Corp. announced Friday, along with a second-quarter earnings miss, that it will undertake a strategic review of the business to enhance shareholder value. Shares fell 1.4% in premarket trading after the sandwich chain reported a loss of $138.0 million, or 1 cent per share, after net income of $3.4 million, or 13 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was 11 cents, missing the 12-cent FactSet consensus. Revenue totaled $108.1 million, up from $105.0 million last year and below the $110.0 million FactSet consensus. Company-operated same-store sales fell 4% for the quarter. Potbelly expects 2017 a mid-single digit decline in company-operated same-store sales. Full-year EPS is expected to be 30 to 33 cents. The FactSet consensus is 37 cents. Potbelly shares are down 15.5% for the year to date while the S&P 500 index is up 10.4% for the period.

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Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. reported a second-quarter net profit that fell to $45.3 million, or 85 cents a share, from $70.7 million, or $1.27 a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 74 cents. Revenue fell to $720.8 million from $740.3 million, while the FactSet consensus was for a rise to $770.7 million. Unit volume fell 0.5%, as declines in North America offset growth in international. “The tire industry continues to face turbulence in the U.S. market in the form of raw material cost variability, weak trends in retail sell-out of tires to consumers, elevated inventory in the channels and a fluid pricing and promotional landscape,” said Chief Executive Brad Hughes. He said industry conditions are likely to persist into the third quarter. “Raw material costs are trending down at present, but may remain volatile, and we expect that uncertain consumer demand may contribute to continued high levels of promotional activity.” The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has lost 7.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 10.4%.

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Eli Lilly & Co. said early Friday that its migraine drug lasmiditan met its primary endpoint and a key secondary endpoint in a late-stage clinical trial. The company plans to submit for Food and Drug Administration approval in the second half of this year. A greater share of patients treated with the therapy were migraine pain-free two hours after the full dose relative to those on the placebo. Patients on the therapy also reported a statistically significantly larger percentage of freedom from their most bothersome symptom two hours after the first dose, relative to those on the placebo. Side effects reported by patients after taking the therapy most commonly included dizziness, tingling or numbness, sleepiness, fatigue, nausea and a lack of energy, the company said. Eli Lilly is one of several companies developing migraine drugs, including Amgen Inc. , Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Alder BioPharmaceuticals Inc. . Though many people think of migraines as headaches, the head pain and other symptoms can be severe and disabling, and treatment options are limited. Eli Lilly shares were not active in premarket trade. Shares have declined 1.3% over the last three months, compared with a 3.5% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of video game developer Activision-Blizzard Inc. [s; ATVI] were down 1.5% after hours after the company gave full year guidance that was below Wall Street expectations. Activision reported net income of $243 million, or 32 cents per share for the second quarter, compared with $151 million, or 20 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago. Activision said that redefined non-GAAP earnings were 55 cents per share, which it said included the net effect of revenue deferrals accounting treatment on certain online enabled products. The impact of those deferrals was 12 cents, which when subtracted from 55 cents, yields an EPS number of 43 cents. FactSet’s consensus for per-share earnings was 30 cents. Revenue for the quarter, which was impacted by the GAAP deferrals, was $1.63 billion, up from $1.57 billion. FactSet’s revenue consensus was $1.23 billion. The company said it had 407 million monthly active users in the quarter. Activision said it expects revenue for the year to come in at $6.40 billion, below FactSet’s consensus of $6.54 billion, and the company expects redefined non-GAAP per-share earnings to be $1.94, below FactSet’s $2.02 consensus. Shares of Activision-Blizzard have gained more than 77% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 10%.

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Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco is in talks to buy a stake in a PetroChina Co. refinery, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Saudi Aramco might take a more than 30% stake in PetroChina’s 260,000-barrels a day Anning plant in China’s Yunnan province, according to the report. The deal could be valued at $2 billion.

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Swiss Re AG said Friday first-half net earnings fell to $1.21 billion from $1.87 billion in the year ago period. Profit was hurt by $360 million in claims in the wake of Cyclone Debbie that hit the Australian region in late March. The reinsurer’s gross written net premiums during the period came in at $18.15 billion, compared with $19.8 billion a year ago. Swiss Re’s shares fell 3.4% following the release of the results.

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