Category: Stock Market News

Target Corp. held discussions to buy New York-based mattress startup Casper Sleep for $1 billion, but Target gave up after a deal couldn’t be worked out, according to a Recode report, which citing “multiple sources.” Instead, the report said Friday that Target plans to take a minority stake in Casper, as the discount retail giant is likely to be the lead investors in a large new round of funding, which could be announced in the coming weeks. Target announced this week that it would start selling Casper mattresses, which were previously available only online, in Target stores starting June 18. Target said it would also offer Casper pillows, sheets and exclusive new Casper products. Target’s stock, which was up 0.3% in afternoon trade, has tumbled 22% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has lost 6.9% and the S&P 500 has gained 6.6%.

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Gold futures edged higher Friday to end the week with a gain of roughly 2.1%. The U.S. dollar and equities were trading lower than a week ago, helping to boost investment demand for the precious metal. June gold rose 80 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,253.60 an ounce.

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A man was arrested Friday for manipulating Fitbit stock with a fake tender offer, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced. Civil charges also were filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Robert Murray, a Virginia man who used the SEC’s Edgar system to lodge a fictitious tender offer for the watchmaker. The U.S. Attorney said the fake tender manipulated the market by $100 million, and Murray had used call options to profit.

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Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 8 to 720 rigs this week. The latest data marked an 18th weekly rise in a row. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, jumped by 16 to 901, according to Baker Hughes. Oil prices pared some of their gains in the wake of the data. June West Texas Intermediate crude was up 88 cents, or 1.8%, to $50.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the session. It traded at $50.33 before the data.

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The buyers in the stock market are much more aggressive Friday than sellers were during the market’s tumble earlier this week. The NYSE Arms Index, which is a volume-weighted measure of breadth, fell to 0.523. The Arms is used by many to gauge the intensity of buyers and sellers. When buyers are more aggressive, the Arms tends to fall below the equilibrium level of 1.000, as volume in rising stocks rises in proportion to volume in declining stocks. Many chart watchers believe a decline in the Arms to below 0.500 suggests panic buying, while a rise above 2.000 indicates panic selling. On Wednesday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 373 points, the Arms edged up to just 1.21 on the NYSE, suggesting sellers were relatively calm and collected. Meanwhile, current Arms readings suggests buyers are behaving like they are panicking, but aggressively rushing into advancing stocks. About 77% of NYSE were trading higher, but the volume in advancing stocks represented about 88% of total volume. On the Nasdaq, 61% of the stocks were rising, while advancing volume was 77% of the total. The Dow rallied 163 points in midday trade.

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A shrinking gap between the price of food consumer away from home and food consumed at home is a positive for restaurant stocks, which suffered last year from slowing customer traffic. That’s the view of Lynne Collier, analyst at Canaccord Genuity in a note Friday. The narrowing of the gap has been driven by a drop in deflation in meat, dairy, fruits and produce, with meat accounting for the biggest share of the food at home index in monthly consumer price inflation data at 23%. Meat prices have fallen 3% from a year ago. “The y/y change in the Producer Price Index intermediate food demand index is a strong leading indicator of grocer prices and suggests that this gap will continue to narrow this year, which we believe will be an incremental positive for the restaurant industry,” said Collier. She added that USDA forecasts are for grocer prices to shift to flat to up 1% in 2017 from their current deflationary level, suggesting inflation will return in the latter half of the year. Shares of Brinker International have fallen 16% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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The S&P 500 index and the Dow traded above their short-term trading average on Friday, two days after the benchmarks suffered the steepest losses in months on the back of intensifying turmoil in the White House. The S&P 500 was recently trading up 0.7% at 2,382, which is above its 50-day moving average of 2,369.35, according to FactSet data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 20,784, above its short-term average of 20,773.63. Both equity gauges on Wednesday tumbled below their short-term trading averages, as volatility spiked amid investors’ worries about President Donald Trump’s ability to enact Wall Street-friendly policies reached a crescendo. Market technicians use moving averages to help to determine an asset’s short-term and long-term trends, with a break above the 50-day line signaling a bullish uptrend. Trump has been assailed by a number of stories that allege that members of his presidential campaign have ties to Russia and that he attempted to interfere with a federal probe, all of which the president has denied. On Wednesday, the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite Index rang up their worst losses in months, while the market’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index saw its biggest one-day pop in nearly a year. The VIX tends to have an inverse relationship with stocks and is used by investors to bet on big market swings lower. The three main benchmarks are still set to record weekly declines, but trading action over the past two sessions may signal that investors are taking a respite from Wednesday’s political turbulence.

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ShotSpotter , a gunshot detection service for law enforcement, set a price range Friday for its initial public offering of $10 to $12, which would bring in up to $33.6 million. The Newark, Calif.-based company uses a sensor system to pinpoint the location indoors or outdoors where shots were fired and alert law enforcement. The system is in about 90 cities across the U.S. ShotSpotter plans to sell 2.8 million shares and list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “SSTI.” Roth Capital is the underwriter on the offering.

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Shares of Under Armour Inc. sank to a near 4-year low in morning trade Friday, and were on track to suffer their longest losing streak since going public in November 2005, in the wake of disappointing results from athletic shoe retailer Foot Locker Inc. . The stock was down as much as 2.9% earlier at an intraday low of $18.35, which was the lowest price seen since Aug. 20, 2013. It was recently down 1.5%, and in danger of its 8th-straight loss. The stock had previously suffered losing streaks of as long as 7 sessions four times, in April 2017, October 2016, February 2016 and September 2008. Weighing on the athletic apparel and accessories company’s stock, Foot Locker shares plunged 16% after the retailer’s fiscal first-quarter results missed profit, revenue and same-store sales expectations. Under Armour shares have plunged 36% year to date, while rival Nike Inc.’s stock has gained 1.1% and the S&P 500 has advanced 6.4%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

The S&P 500 index traded above its short-term trading average on Friday, two days after the broad-market benchmark suffered its steepest losses in months on the back of intensifying turmoil in the White House. The S&P 500 was recently trading up 0.6% at 2,380, which is above its 50-day moving average of 2,369.35, according to FactSet data. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday tumbled below their short-term trading averages, as volatility spiked amid investors’ worries about President Donald Trump’s ability to enact Wall Street-friendly policies. Market technicians use moving averages to help to determine an asset’s short-term and long-term trends, with a break above the 50-day line signaling a bullish uptrend. Trump has been assailed by a number of stories that allege that members of his presidential campaign have ties to Russia and that he attempted to interfere with a federal probe, all of which the president has denied. On Wednesday, the S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq Composite Index rang up their worst losses in months, while the market’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index saw its biggest one-day pop in nearly a year. Moves in VIX tend to have an inverse relationship with stocks and signal that worries about the market swinging lower are picking up. The three main benchmarks are still set to record weekly declines of at least 1%, but trading action over the past two sessions may signal that investors are taking a respite from Wednesday’s political turbulence. The Dow is still trading below its 50-day moving average of 20,773.63, most recently up 0.4% at 20,736.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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