Category: Stock Market News

Twitter Inc. announced Intuit executive Ned Segal as its chief financial officer Tuesday. Segal will be taking over in late August from Anthony Noto, who had been working as Twitter’s chief financial officer as well as its chief operating officer. Noto will remain with Twitter as its chief operating officer. Segal was most recently senior vice president of finance for the small business group at Intuit Inc. Before that, he was the CFO at RPX, a patent risk management solutions company. “I’ve long admired Twitter’s impact in the world, and I’m committed to helping the company build on its recent momentum, allocate resources against its greatest priorities, and continue toward its goal of GAAP profitability and beyond,” Segal said in the press release. Segal will receive an annual salary of $500,000 as well as close to 800,000 restricted stock units over four years and close to 400,000 performance-based restricted stock units. Alongside the COO appointment, Twitter announced that it would release its second-quarter earnings on July 27 before the market opens. Shares of Twitter were up 0.5% in after hours trading. Twitter shares have gained 30% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 3%.

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Oil prices settled higher Tuesday, as a lower 2018 U.S. crude output forecast from the Energy Information Administration and talk of possible production curbs in Libya and Nigeria lifted prices back above $45 a barrel. Analysts also expected data from the EIA Wednesday to reveal a second-straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories. August WTI crude rose 64 cents, or 1.4%, to settle $45.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after losing nearly 3% on Friday.

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The Senate is delaying the start of its summer recess until the third week of August to give lawmakers more time to work on health care and other issues, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. McConnell said once the Senate finishes work on health care it will turn to a defense bill and nominations. President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that he couldn’t imagine Congress would leave “without a beautiful new health care bill fully approved and ready to go.”

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Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard on Tuesday indicated she supports the central bank beginning to reverse its $4.5 trillion balance sheet but not necessarily more rate hikes after that. “If the data continue to confirm a strong labor market and firming economic activity, I believe it would be appropriate soon to commence the gradual and predictable process of allowing the balance sheet to run off,” she told a conference held at Columbia University. “In my view, the neutral level of the federal funds rate is likely to remain close to zero in real terms over the medium term. If that is the case, we would not have much more additional work to do on moving to a neutral stance. I will want to monitor inflation developments carefully, and to move cautiously on further increases in the federal funds rate, so as to help guide inflation back up around our symmetric target.”

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday lowered its price forecasts on West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil for this year and next and cut its U.S. production outlook for 2018. In its monthly energy outlook report, the government agency forecast WTI prices at $48.95 a barrel for this year, down 3.6% from its June forecast. For 2018, it forecast $49.58–down 7.5% from the previous outlook. The EIA also lowered its 2017 forecast on Brent crude by 3.6% to $50.79 and its 2018 outlook by 7.2% to $51.58. It left its U.S. crude production view at 9.33 million barrels per day this year, but reduced its 2018 output view by 1% to 9.90 million barrels a day. August WTI crude traded at $45.20 a barrel, up 79 cents, or 1.8%. September Brent crude added 80 cents, or 1.7%, to $47.68 a barrel.

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The U.S. stock market took a decided turn lower on Tuesday around noon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by more than 100 points. The cause for the sudden jolt lower wasn’t entirely clear, as stocks had been wavering between small gains and losses earlier in the session, but the move came as Donald Trump Jr. released an email exchange via Twitter related to allegations that he held meetings with individuals claiming to possess incriminating information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during his father’s presidential campaign against the Democratic rival. The Dow was down more than 120 points at one point, but has pared some of those losses to trade down 0.3% at 21,339. The S&P 500 index was off 0.3% at 2,420, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was trading flat Tuesday afternoon. Despite the early skittishness exhibited by the U.S. equity market, government bond moves remained muted, with the 10-year Treasury yield at 2.37% and gold futures held their ground, trading flat. Wall Street has had a tendency to be fairly resilient when it comes to worries about drama in the White House, including charges that Russian officials meddled with the 2016 U.S. election, helping President Donald Trump come into power.

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PetIQ, Inc. , a manufacturer and distributor of pet medications, set a $14 to $16 price range Tuesday to raise up to $90.7 million in its initial public offering. The company plans to sell 5.67 million shares. It recorded a net loss of $3.4 million in 2016 on top of net sales of $200 million. It has applied to list on the Nasdaq Global Market under them symbol “PETQ.” Jefferies and William Blair are the lead underwriters on the offering.

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Tesla Inc. on Tuesday scheduled its reporting second-quarter financial results after market close on Wednesday, Aug. 2. A conference call with analysts following results was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Pacific. Analysts polled by FactSet expect the Silicon Valley electric-car maker to report an adjusted loss of $1.74 a share on sales of $2.6 billion in the quarter, which would compare with adjusted losses of $1.06 a share and sales of $1.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. Tesla shares rose nearly 3% Tuesday, versus losses for the S&P 500 Index.

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Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. slumped 2.3% toward a four-month low in morning trade Tuesday, after Oppenheimer said the downside risk still remains too risky to get bullish despite the recent sharp selloff. The stock has tumbled 19.7% since closing at a 14-month high of $496.14 on May 16, putting it on the cusp of kicking off a new bear market. Many Wall Streeters define a bear market as a decline of at least 20% from a bull-market peak. Oppenheimer analyst Brian Bittner reiterated his perform rating on the fast-casual Mexican food chain, which he’s had on the stock since Jan. 4, 2016. “We remain cautious, despite CMG’s recent [near] 20% pullback,” Bittner wrote in a note to clients. “Our analysis within highlights material risk to the [Wall] Street’s post-2017 earnings power thesis–a requirement to justify current valuation.” Chipotle is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 25, with analysts expecting a second-straight quarter of same-store sales growth following five-straight quarters of declines, according to FactSet. The stock has gained 5.7% year to date, but was still down 1.1% over the past year, while the S&P 500 has climbed 14% over the past 12 months.

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Homebuilder stocks slumped broadly Tuesday, after Barclays downgraded several of them, and reiterated a bearish view on some others, citing concerns that valuations suggest investors may be too optimistic in the face of data pointing to moderating buyer traffic trends. Toll Brothers Inc.’s stock shed 1.6% after analyst Michael Dahl downgraded it to underweight from equal weight, while shares of Lennar Corp. fell 1.5%, PulteGroup Inc. lost 0.6% and TRI Pointe Group Inc. dropped 1.7% after Dahl downgraded them to equal weight from overweight. Shares of KB Home slipped 0.2%, Meritage Homes Corp. gave up 0.8% and Realogy Holdings Corp. lost 0.3% after Dahl reiterated his underweight ratings. “Our June A.G.E.N.T. Survey indicated moderating buyer traffic trends, warning of risk that near-term catalysts for builders will disappoint relative to rising expectations,” Dahl wrote in a note to clients. Separately, CalAtlantic Group Inc.’s stock bucked the sector’s trend by rallying 0.8%, after Dahl upgraded it to equal weight from underweight, citing its recent underperformance relative to the group. The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF , which was down 0.6% in morning trade, has run up 25% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.4% this year.

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