Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Altria Group Inc. continued to fall in premarket trade Monday, in the wake of a new Food and Drug Administration proposal to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes, with RBC Capital warning investors not to buy the dip. The stock fell 1.8% ahead of the open, after plunging 9.5% on Friday, which was the biggest one-day tumble since November 2008. RBC analyst Nik Modi upgraded Altria to sector perform from underperform but kept his stock price target at $62, which was 7.4% below Friday’s closing price of $66.94. Modi said large regulatory price shocks have in the past 20 years created buying opportunities, but he believes this time is different. Among his concerns, Altria is not a buyout candidate, valuation is only “fair,” fundamentals remain under pressure following disappointing second-quarter results and “we are not going to make a leap of faith” on the launch of the company’s new smokeless cigarette product IQOS in the U.S. given limited visibility on regulatory issues. The stock has lost 1.0% year to date through Friday, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF has gained 7.0% and the S&P 500 has climbed 10.4%.

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Headline inflation in the eurozone held steady in July, according to a preliminary estimate from Eurostat on Monday. Inflation at a rate of 1.3% was the same level logged in June, and the latest figure met expectations of economists polled by FactSet. Core inflation, which strips out volatile energy and food prices, rose to 1.2%, above a consensus estimate of 1.1%. Core inflation in the previous month year-on-year was 1.1%. Separately, Eurostat said eurozone unemployment fell to 9.1% in June, the lowest rate since February 2009. “While this will be music to the ears of policy makers at the ECB as they prepare for further reductions in asset purchases later this year, it’s worth remembering the low base that the region is recovering from,” wrote Oanda’s senior market analyst Craig Erlam.

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Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 will cost $35,000 for a base version and $44,000 for a model with longer range, Chief Executive Elon Musk announced Friday night at an event outside the company’s Fremont, Calif., factory. Tesla has announced hundreds of thousands of reservations for the car, which included $1,000 deposits, but only announced the final pricing schedule at the event, where the first 30 Model 3 units were supposed to be delivered to owners. The two options for range introduced Friday night were a Standard edition expected to travel 220 miles on a full charge, and a Long-Range model that would travel 310 miles. Musk reiterated at the event that he expects to soon build the cars at a rate of 5,000 a week, ramping up to 10,000 a week by the end of next year, and that customers who order the cars now would likely receive them late next year.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — In a late Friday shocker, President Donald Trump on Friday named a new chief of staff, turning to Gen. John Kelly, currently the secretary of homeland security. He replaces embattled Reince Priebus, the former Republican Party chairman who has clashed with other officials, including the new director of White House communications, Anthony Scaramucci. Over two tweets, Trump called Kelly a great American and a great leader. “John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration,” Trump wrote.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Averaged wrapped up at an all-time closing high Friday, ending the week u 1.2% higher, even as the broader market was weighed by a recent slump in shares of technology companies. But notably, the Dow finds itself just 170 points away from hitting another psychological milestone: 22,000. The Dow last hit 21,000 on March 1, but has advanced in fits and starts over the past five months amid growing doubts about how quickly President Donald Trump can implement pro-growth policies pledged during his campaign for the White House. A late-Friday defeat in passing a bill to revamp the Affordable Care Act, underlines those fears. Still, the blue-chip gauge has enjoyed a relatively steady climb, powered by strong moves in shares of Boeing Co. , which has been a key driver of the price-weighted average in recent weeks and months. Boeing shares have climbed 55% so far this year, making it the best performer in the benchmark. The Dow closed on Friday up 0.2% at a record 21,830, the S&P 500 index , meanwhile, ended down 0.1% at 2,472, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.1% at 6,374.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced modestly on Friday to close at an all-time high, with gains this week fueled by earnings from bellwether companies such as Boeing and Verizon Communication . The Dow added 33.76 points, or 0.2%, to 21,830.31 and gained 1.2% over the week. But broader markets slipped on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also posting modest weekly losses. The S&P 500 closed 3.32 points, or 0.1%, lower at 2,472.10, retreating from record levels set on Wednesday. The benchmark index finished the week roughly where it started. The Nasdaq Composite index declined 7.51 points, or 0.1%, to 6,374.68 and ended the week 0.2% lower. On Friday, sharp post-earnings losses from Amazon.com weighed on the main indexes.

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Oil prices finished Friday at their highest level since late May, lifting their weekly gain to 8.6%, on the back of renewed output-curb commitments from some key oil producers and uncertainty surrounding supplies from Venezuela. September West Texas Intermediate crude rose 67 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $49.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the session. Prices saw their biggest weekly percentage gain since early December.

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Shares of Under Armour Inc. slipped 0.4% in afternoon trade Friday, with Instinet analyst Simeon Siegel reiterating his bearish stance ahead of the athletic apparel maker’s second-quarter results due out next week. The company is scheduled to reveal its second-quarter report before Tuesday’s open, with analysts surveyed by FactSet expecting a second-straight quarterly loss. With the stock shedding 33% so far this year, Siegel said sentiment is already poor, but that’s unlikely to change given that investor concerns are growing. “We remain concerned over shares of [Under Armour] due to cautious channel checks and the potential for a shift in the perceived growth [opportunity] may ultimately place a focus on profitability metrics, any of which paint the shares as quite expensive,” Siegel wrote in a note to clients. He reiterated his reduce rating and his stock price target at $15, which is 22% below current levels. While Under Armour’s stock has tanked this year, rival Nike Inc.’s shares have rallied 15% year to date and the S&P 500 has climbed 10%.

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Gold prices settled Friday at their highest level since mid-June, up 1.1% for the week, as reports of another missile test in North Korea and further weakness in the U.S. dollar boosted investment demand for the precious metal. August gold added $8.40, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,268.40 an ounce. The metal scored a third weekly gain in a row.

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Stitch Fix, a subscription clothing service, has filed confidentially to go public, according to TechCrunch, citing sources. The company has been rumored to be going public for months, with Reuters reporting in May that the company had hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to underwrite the offering. Under the JOBS Act, companies are able to file confidentially before releasing a public prospectus. In late June, the Securities and Exchange Commission moved to allow confidential filing for all companies, rather than the previous standard of companies with annual revenue of less than $1 billion. Stitch Fix would be another test of a subscription service model, after Blue Apron Holdings Inc.’s offering earlier this month. Shares of Blue Apron have fallen 28% month-to-date, while the S&P 500 has gained 2%.

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