Category: Stock Market News

Shares of internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. were down more than 2% on Monday, extending their previous session’s losses. Pandora stock closed at an all-time low on Friday and were on track to close at a new low on Monday. The company recently secured a $480 million investment from Liberty Media Corp.-owned satellite radio company Sirius XM Holdings Inc. . Despite the investment, announced on Tuesday of last week, Pandora shares have fallen everyday since. Pandora has faced tough competition from the likes of Spotify and Apple Inc.’s Apple Music, and some analysts believe it might be too late for Pandora to compete in the crowded subscription music space. Pandora shares have fallen more than 47% in the year to date and are down nearly 41% over the prior 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 9% in the year and more than 18% in the last 12 months.

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Oil futures ended lower Monday after a rebound effort fizzled out, leaving crude to succumb to supply concerns. West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery on the New York Mercanctile Exchange fell 54 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $44.20 a barrel. Natural gas futures also fell sharply after extended weather forecasts pointed to a return to normal to below-normal temperatures for much of the U.S. July natural-gas futures dropped 4.7% to close at $2.894 per million British thermal units.

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Shares of Biogen Inc. ran up 3.9% in afternoon trade Monday, to turn positive on the year, after UBS backed away from its bearish rating on the belief valuation may have bottomed. Analyst Carter Gould raised his rating to neutral from sell and raised his stock price target to $270, which is 3.2% above current levels, from $262. The stock is now up 0.2% year to date, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF has run up 13.1% and the S&P 500 has gained 9.4%. Gould said concerns over competition to Biogen’s Spinraza for spinal muscular atrophy from gene therapy is already priced into the stock price, and sentiment has neared a bottom after the departure of its chief financial officer last week. Gould said he is also “more constructive” on Biogen’s aducanumab Alzheimer’s treatment. Although he believes intensifying competition will continue to weigh on the company’s multiple sclerosis franchise, but he sees that “increasingly balanced by a growing focus on aducanumab.”

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The White House will address the issue of the existence of any possible recordings between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey “probably” this week, press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. Spicer’s comments echo those by Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s attorneys, over the weekend. Trump raised the possibility of tapes existing in a tweet directed at Comey in early June, after firing him. Comey has said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

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Gold prices finished firmly lower Monday, as the dollar strengthened and as investors favored assets perceived as risky, including stocks, over so-called havens. August gold finished off $9.80, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,246.70 an ounce. The precious yellow metal has closed down in seven of the past nine trading sessions and has been pressured down by a trio of factors: The Federal Reserve’s efforts to normalize U.S. interest rates, a climb in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index to records on the day, as well as a rising dollar, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index . On Monday, that gauge, a measure of the buck’s strength against a basket of a half-dozen rivals, was climbing 0.3% higher. All of those factors have combined on Monday to weigh on gold, which is priced in dollars, doesn’t offer a yield and tends to underperform when appetite for riskier assets is strong, detracting from demand for so-called haven like gold and U.S. Treasurys .

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Hasbro Inc. said Monday that it is launching a subscription service for games called Hasbro Gaming Crate, priced at $49.99 plus shipping per crate. The service will deliver one of two themed crates containing three games to subscribers every three months. The Party Crate will be geared towards college students, young adults and adult-only game nights. The Family Crate will contain games for children and adults. The first Family Crate will contain Mask of the Pharoah, a virtual-reality-based board game that requires players to download an app. The first Party Crate will include a version of the Speak Out game inspired by the comedian Joe Santagato. Customers can begin signing up on Monday with the first crate delivered in the fall, and cancel anytime. Hasbro shares are up 1.2% in Monday trading, and up 42.7% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 9.5% for the year so far.

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Weapons including guns were found in a car that crashed into a police van on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Monday, a report said. The driver of the car has died, France’s interior minister said, according to Agence France-Presse. A Kalashnikov rile, handguns and gas bottles were found in the car, sources told AFP. There was an explosion after the car hit the van, but there were no reports of injuries.

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The Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys-general of California and Washington D.C. said Monday they are challenging the merger between daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel. According to the FTC’s complaint, DraftKings and FanDuel are each other’s most significant competitor, and the combined firm would hold more than 90% of the U.S. market. According to the FTC’s complaint, consumers of paid daily fantasy sports are unlikely to view season-long fantasy sports contests as a meaningful substitute.

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Expectations that a rival bidder for Whole Foods Market Inc. appear to be increasing, as the natural and organic foods grocer’s stock extends gains above Amazon.com Inc.’s buyout bid price. Whole Food’s stock rallied 1.5% to $43.32 in morning trade Monday, or 3.1% above Amazon’s bid of $42 a share. Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos said that while he believes it is likely that “defensive bids” emerge from rival grocers, he expects Amazon to eventually get its target. On Friday, Barclays upgraded Whole Foods and raised its stock price target to $48, or 14% above Amazon’s per-share bid, on the belief that a bidding war could emerge. Whole Foods’ stock has now soared 38% year to date, while Amazon’s has run up 33% and the S&P 500 has gained 9.5%.

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The recently embattled technology sector on Monday was enjoying a reprieve, with the group on pace to book its best one-day gain since December. The S&P 500’s information technology names were looking at a 1.6% rise, which would mark the best daily climb since Dec. 7, according to FactSet data. The rally in the tech sector, which has been mostly retreating after many of its most prominent names, including Apple Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. , hit all-time highs, helped to drive the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to an all-time trading highs. A popular way to track the technology sector, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF , was up 1.3%, on pace for its best daily gain since March 1. Gaines in Advanced Micro Devices Inc. , Micron Technology Inc. . and NVIDIA Corp. , led the ETF’s charge higher. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.2% and on pace for its best daily gain since April 24.

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