Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Tesla Inc. dropped 2.5% in premarket trade Thursday, extending the previous session’s sharp selloff, after the electric car maker’s Model S failed to receive a top safety award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). After tumbling 7.2% on Wednesday, the stock was on track to open Thursday 17% below its June 23 record close of $383.45. The IIHS said the Model S didn’t qualify for any award because it only earned an “acceptable” rating in the small overlap front test. “The main problem with the performance of the Model S was that the safety belt let the dummy’s torso move too far forward, allowing the dummy’s head to strike the steering wheel hard through the airbag,” IIHS’s report said. Although Tesla made changes to the safety belt in vehicles built after January, when IIHS tested the modified Model S, the same problem occurred. The cars that did receive “Top Safety Pick+” awards were Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln Continental, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Avalon. Other cars that failed to receive any award were General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Impala and the Ford Taurus. Tesla’s stock has rallied 53% year to date through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.7%.

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The EU antitrust watchdog has opened formal probes into General Electric Co. , Merck KGaA , Sigma-Aldrich and Canon Inc. , alleging they broke merger rules in recent acquisitions. The EU competition commission said General Electric, and Merck and Sigma-Aldrich all provided incorrect or misleading information, while Canon went through with a merger before notification and clearance. “We can only do our job well if we can rely on cooperation from the companies concerned — they must obtain our approval before they implement their transactions and the information they supply us must be correct and complete,” said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in a statement. The three mergers include Merck’s takeover of Sigma-Aldrich, General Electric’s planned acquisition of LM Wind and Canon’s deal to buy Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation. The EU commission said the probes won’t impact the approval process. Shares of Merck were down 1.3% in Germany, while GE was slightly higher in U.S. premarket action. Canon shares were closed for trade at the time of the release and Sigma-Aldrich is owned by Merck.

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The third try was a charm Wednesday, as Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a communications satellite after two planned launches earlier this week were scrubbed in the final seconds. The satellite, called Intelsat 35e, from satellite communications provider Intelsat SA , weighs more than 13,000 pounds, making it one of the heaviest payloads SpaceX has launched. The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., but won’t land and be reused, since the heavier payload will require it to use all its fuel for the launch itself. It was the third successful launch for the Southern California-based company in three weeks, and its 10th mission this year.

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Shares of Yum China Holdings Inc. fell in Wednesday’s extended session after the fast-food chain posted in-line earnings but flat revenue growth. The operator of KFC and Pizza Hut in China reported its second-quarter earnings rose to $107 million, or 27 cents a share, from $77 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue, however, remained at $1.59 billion while same-stores sales grew 3%. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 27 cents on revenue of $1.6 billion. Yum China had spun off from Yum Brands late last year. Yum China shares slid 5% while Yum edged down 0.3% after hours.

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The American Petroleum Institute reported Wednesday a much larger-than-expected drop of 5.8 million barrels in U.S. crude supplies for the week ended June 30, according to sources. Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group said the decline was a “delayed impact” from the tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico last month. “The supply side is tightening,” he said. The API data, which was released a day later than usual due to Tuesday’s holiday, showed a fall of 5.7 million barrels in gasoline supplies, while inventories of distillates were up 400,000 barrels, sources said. Supply data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Thursday morning. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA to report a decline of 1.6 million barrels in crude inventories. August crude was at $45.50 a barrel in electronic trading, up from the contract’s settlement of $45.13 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Merck & Co. shares declined in the extended session Wednesday after the drugmaker said the Food and Drug Administration halted three clinical studies of a blood cancer drug because of deaths in the studies. Merck shares declined 1.3% to $63.30 after hours. The three studies involve Keytruda, which is being studied to treat blood cancer multiple myeloma patients. Merck said the FDA determined that the risks of the drug in the affected studies outweighed any potential benefits. Patients in the affected studies will no longer receive the drug. Merck said that other clinical studies for Keytruda were unaffected by the FDA clinical hold. Back in June, Merck announced that it was halting new patient enrollment in two of the studies.

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The Big 3 market indexes rose Wednesday, led by the tech-friendly Nasdaq Composite , but market internal data told a very different story, with most individual stocks trading lower. The number of advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by a 1,836-to-1,069 score on the NYSE and by a 1,536-to-1,166 margin on the Nasdaq. And while 62% of Nasdaq volume was in advancing stocks, only about 36% of NYSE volume was in gainers. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up about 5 points in afternoon trade, but only 12 of 30 components gained ground. The S&P 500 tacked on 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 0.6%.

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Oil prices settled with a loss of more than 4% Wednesday–their largest such decline in a month. Prices pulled back on the heels of eight-straight sessions of gains on reports of a rise in monthly crude exports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and news that Russia has ruled out deeper OPEC-led production cuts. August WTI crude fell $1.94, or 4.1%, to settle $45.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Gold prices settled higher Wednesday, finding investor interest in the wake of some downbeat U.S. economic data and North Korea’s ballistic missile test. Following minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s June meeting, which came after the settlement, prices seesawed between minor losses and gains. August gold fell $2.50, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,221.70 an ounce. It topped $1,223 in electronic trading immediately after the Fed minutes, then pulled back under $1,221.

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U.S. stocks held on to modest gains on Wednesday after the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting highlighted the plan to begin the process of shrinking the central bank’s balance sheet later this year. The policy makers also indicated eagerness to raise interest rates at least once more in 2017. The Fed also seemed confident that inflation will recover after recent soft readings. The S&P 500 was up by 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2,433. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat at 21,473. The Nasdaq Composite index advanced 40 points, or 0.7%, to 6,150.

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