Category: Stock Market News

Oil prices climbed for a fourth session Thursday to notch another settlement at a two-month high. Four-consecutive weeks of declines in U.S. crude supplies and pledged cutbacks in exports from some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have helped support prices, setting them up for a gain of roughly 7% for the week. September WTI crude rose 29 cents, or 0.6%, to settle $49.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Despite the sharp intraday selloff in the major indexes from record highs Thursday, which has sent the CBOE Volatility Index up 12% in afternoon trade, the Arms Index, which many use to measure buying or selling intensity, suggests investors remain relatively calm. On down days, the Arms tends to rise above 1.000, as the ratio of down volume to up volume rises relative to the ratio of declining stocks to rising stocks. But the NYSE Arms has slipped to 0.867 and the Nasdaq Arms has declined to 0.883, a sign that buyers on the dip have been slightly more aggressive than sellers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were all up in record territory around noon ET before taking an afternoon dive. After paring some of the weakness, the Dow as up 30 points, the S&P 500 was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq was down 0.8% in recent trade.

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A popular way to bet on the the biotech sector was trading sharply lower on Thursday and on track to register its worst one-day in a month. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF was down 1.8%, led by an about 11% decline in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Corp. and Novavax Inc. , with its shares off 6.4% on the session. The drop for the biotech group came amid a broad and sudden selloff in the overall technology sector that put the Nasdaq Composite Index on pace to log it sharpest daily fall since June 9, when the tech sector underwent a similar retreat, fueled on concerns about valuations among some of the group’s biggest companies, including Apple Inc. , Amazon.com Inc., and Facebook Inc., which reported better-than-expected earnings late Wednesday. More broadly, the overall market was under pressure but off its worst levels of the day. The S&P 500 index was down 0.3% at 2,469, the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading modestly higher, fueled by gains in Verizon Communications Inc. , which saw its shares up nearly 8%, more than offsetting a 2.3% decline in Apple’s stock.

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The Trump administration and top lawmakers working on a tax overhaul said Thursday their goal is to reduce tax rates “as much as possible” and create a system that encourages U.S. companies to bring back profits “trapped overseas.” In a short joint statement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other officials also said they had decided to set aside the so-called border adjustment tax. They said they expect legislation to move through relevant congressional committees “this fall.”

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The Nasdaq on Thursday afternoon turned sharply lower. The Nasdaq Composite Index was most recently down 89 points, or 1.6%, as the index was jolted suddenly lower. The abrupt retreat for the tech-centric gauge came as the other main equity benchmarks pared earlier gains. All three equity gauges notched all-time intraday trading highs, with the S&P 500 index down 0.7% at 2,461 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading flat at 21,708, buoyed by gains in Verizon Communication , with Dow component and tech-giant Apple Inc. , off 2.8%, and cutting about 30 points from the blue-chip gauge. Technology shares were seeing the heaviest selling pressure, with the popular tech-focused exchange-traded fund, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF , down 1.1% in recent trade.

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From:: Stock Market News

The largest exchange-traded fund to track the technology sector fell on Thursday, erasing an earlier gain and leading the broader market lower. The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF fell 1.1% in afternoon trading, dropping to $57.10. Earlier, it had risen as high as $58.20, largely on the back of positive results out of Facebook Inc. . While the social media giant was still positive on the day, up 2.3% to $169, it was well off its highs of the session, having previously gained as high as $175.49, a level that represented a record. Among the most notable names, Apple Inc. sank 2.9% while Google parent Alphabet was off 2.3%. Microsoft Corp. shed 1.4% on the day. Separately, Netflix Inc. , a consumer discretionary stock that often moves on trends in the internet sector, fell 4.4%. Amazon.com , another internet name classified in the consumer discretionary sector, fell 0.5%. The online retailer is scheduled to report its quarterly results after the market closes. While the tech sector is one of the strongest-performing of the year, investors have become increasingly concerned about the group’s valuations, leading to multiple sessions this year when it abruptly turned lower. The weakness in tech spread to the broader market, with the S&P 500 down 0.6% while the Nasdaq , which is heavily weighted towards technology stocks, lost 1.5%.

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Shares of New York Times Co. rose more than 6% in intraday trade on Thursday, catapulting the newspaper publisher’s stock to its highest level since 2008. New York Times shares were on track to close at their highest level since May 9, 2008, after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and revenue. The company said subscription revenue increased 13.9%, while 22.5% growth in digital-only advertising revenue offset a 10.5% decline in print ad revenue. The stock has gained more than 46% in 2017, and it’s up 73% since the presidential election, while the S&P 500 index has gained more than 10% this year and is up 15% since the November election.

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The S&P telecom sector soared on Thursday and was on track for its biggest one-day percentage increase in more than eight years, boosted by strong results from some of its biggest components. The sector jumped 4.8%, its best day since March 2009, according to FactSet data. Thursday marks the third straight daily increase for the industry, a period over which it has gained about 8%. Despite that, telecom remains one of the laggards of the year, down 8.7% for 2017. The rally came after Verizon Communications Inc. popped 6.9% on the back of second-quarter revenue that beat expectations, as well as an expansion of its unlimited wireless data plan, which helped it recover from a net subscriber loss in the first quarter. AT&T Inc. gained 3.3% on Thursday, building on a rally the shares had on Wednesday, which came in the wake of the company’s own results, when it posted a profit that topped analyst forecasts. The S&P 500 dipped 0.4% on Thursday.

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Analysts at Canaccord Genuity on Thursday increased their price target on Boeing Co. shares to $215, from $200, saying the aerospace and defense company benefits from a “perfect storm” of stability in fuel prices and interest rates, strong fundamentals, and improving macroeconomic outlook. Boeing’s second-quarter earnings, released Wednesday, beat Wall Street expectations, and the stock has rallied to a record, trading as high as $242.68 on Thursday.

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MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson put out a bullish note on Netflix Inc. on Thursday, raising his 12-month price target on the streaming giant to $230 from $195. That represents a 23% premium to current trading levels. Sanderson also said his model suggests that Netflix hitting earnings of $30 per share is possible over time. “While we look to our $12 EPS power in 2021 as our valuation benchmark, we think there is a much larger opportunity over time,” Sanderson wrote. “We think that 2021 provides a relevant benchmark for valuation, but think that the growth story will still have meaningful headroom from there. We continue to think the international opportunity is much larger. Each benchmark suggests the opportunity for Netflix outside the U.S. could be four to five times the domestic opportunity over time.” Shares of Netflix were down less than 1% intraday on Thursday, but have gained more than 50% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up nearly 11%.

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