Category: Stock Market News

Rafael Nadal won the French Open for a record 10th time Sunday, easily dispatching 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1, in Paris. It was the 15th career Grand Slam victory for Nadal, 31, who now trails only Roger Federer, who holds the all-time mark with 18. After years of nagging injuries, Nadal continued his dominance on clay courts — the Spaniard is 79-2 in his French Open career, and 102-2 on clay courts overall. Speaking of dominance, Nadal’s run at Roland Garros was one of the most impressive in history — he did not lose a set in any of his seven matches, and dropped just 35 games overall, the second-fewest ever in a Grand Slam.

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Adam West, the actor who portrayed Batman in a popular 1960s television series, died late Friday at the age of 88 after a battle with leukemia, according to news reports. “Our dad always saw himself as The Bright Knight and aspired to make a positive impact on his fans’ lives. He was and always will be our hero,” his family said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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The Nasdaq closed sharply lower from record highs Friday as several big tech names sold off ahead of the Federal Reserve’s expected rate hike next week. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 113.85 points, or 1.8%, it’s largest one-day drop since May 17, at 6,207.92, with huge losses from Apple Inc. , Nvidia Corp. , Netflix Inc. , Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. , to end the week 1.6% lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 89.44 points, or 0.4%, at 21,271.79, for a 0.3% gain on the week. The S&P 500 index finished down 2.02 points, or 0.1%, at 2,431.77, with the tech sector plummeting 2.8%, offsetting a 2.5% gain in energy stocks. The S&P 500 finished 0.3% lower on the week.

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XBiotech Inc.’s stock plunged 62% toward a record low in afternoon trade Friday, after the company said an independent data monitoring committee (IDMC) recommended the discontinuation of a Phase-3 trial for the company’s colorectal cancer treatment because it failed to meet threshold requirements for continuation. The stock was halted for trading for news until 3:30 p.m. ET. The IDMC said it had no safety concerns, but the findings were not sufficient to meet efficacy endpoints. “We are obviously disappointed with these findings. In the coming weeks, the company plans to analyze the data extensively to further understand the primary and secondary endpoint data, as well as to identify populations that may have benefited from the therapy,” said XBiotech Chief Executive John Simard. “These findings today will not affect our efforts to pursue approval of the therapy based on the successful completion of the European study, which demonstrated control of debilitating symptoms in colorectal cancer.” The stock has tumbled 64% year to date, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF has climkbed 11% and the S&P 500 has gained 8.5%.

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Shares of Apple Inc. sank 4.4% in afternoon trade Friday, on track for the biggest one-day drop in nearly 14 months, with losses accelerating around midday as investors appeared to cash in on technology-sector gains ahead of the weekend. The stock was headed for the first close below the closely-watched 50-day moving average, which many chart watchers view as a dividing between short-term uptrends and downtrends, since Dec. 8, 2016. That would snap a 124-session streak that the stock closed above the 50-day MA, which would be the longest such stretch since the 132-session streak ending March 15, 2011. The stock was still 17% above its 200-day moving average, which is used as the long-term trend tracker. The stock was still up 28% year to date, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has climbed 15% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 7.3%.

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Oil prices finished with a gain Friday, finding support after suffering back-to-back losses. Oil, however, still lost 3.8% for the week-its third weekly decline in a row. Data showing an unexpected rise in last week’s U.S. crude supplies fed concerns that efforts by other major oil producers to cut global inventories will fail. Baker Hughes , meanwhile, reported that the number of active U.S. oil rigs has climbed 21 consecutive weeks, raising expectations for further production growth. July WTI crude rose 19 cents, or 0.4%, to settle $45.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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From:: Stock Market News

Oil prices finished with a gain Friday, finding support after suffering back-to-back losses. Oil, however, still lost 3.8% for the week-its third weekly decline in a row. Data showing an unexpected rise in last week’s U.S. crude supplies fed concerns that efforts by other major oil producers to cut global inventories will fail. Baker Hughes , meanwhile, reported that the number of active U.S. oil rigs has climbed 21 consecutive weeks, raising expectations for further production growth. July WTI crude rose 19 cents, or 0.4%, to settle $45.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. sank 5.2% in afternoon trade Friday, marking an abrupt end to the recent win streak, amid a broad selloff in the technology sector. AMD shares, which were up as much as 3.9% earlier in the session, started sinking just before noon, along with tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite , with some analysts attributing the sudden weakness to profit-taking ahead of the weekend. The Nasdaq Composite was slumped 1.5%, after being up as much as 0.3% at a record intraday high earlier, while the S&P 500 eased just 0.1%. AMD’s stock had rocketed 18% during the four-session win streak through Thursday, as investors focused on Apple Inc.’s mention of the company’s chips and recent strong demand from the gaming and cryptocurrency sectors.

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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia and other countries to end their “blockade” of Qatar, after they accused the country of backing terrorist activities. But Tillerson also said the emir of Qatar must do more, and do more quickly, to fight extremism. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar earlier this week.

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Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 8 to 741 this week. That marked a 21st weekly rise in a row. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, increased by 11 to 927, according to Baker Hughes. Traders showed little reaction to the data, with July West Texas Intermediate crude up 31 cents, or 0.7%, at $45.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, nearly unchanged from $45.97 before the data.

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