Category: Stock Market News

Shares of engineering and tech company Fluor Corp. fell 5% Friday to lead S&P 500 decliners, after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. The company said per-share earnings came to 43 cents, well below the 67 cents consensus, as revenue declined and it suffered a cost overrun in its industrial, infrastructure and power group. Macquarie analysts said new orders of $2.3 billion were well below the four-quarter average of $5.2 billion and back of of $41.6 billion, which was down 10% from the year-earlier period. “We think continued execution issues should put pressure on the valuation,” they wrote in a note. “Management indicted they remain confident on their exposure to Kuwait and indicated their projects are on budget, unlike the charges taken by some of the international peers.” Macquarie lowered its price target to $44 from $54. It rates the stock neutral. Shares are down 9% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained about 7%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 6 to 703 rigs this week. That marks a sixteenth weekly climb in a row. The oil-rig count is also down 56% from the Oct. 10, 2014 peak, according to Citi Futures. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, rose 7 to 877, according to Baker Hughes. June West Texas Intermediate crude was up 61 cents, or 1.3%, at $46.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the session. It traded at $46.02 before the data.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Energy stocks rallied to lead S&P 500 gainers Friday, rebounding from a rout Thursday driven by a steep decline in oil prices. Crude futures were back in the black Friday after a nearly 5% decline in the prior session, although prices were on track for a hefty loss for the week. Oil has suffered “heavy losses this week as investors are no longer pleased with current output cuts by OPEC,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets, as reported by MarketWatch. Futures were up 77 cents, or 1.7%, at $46.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Against that backdrop, Transocean Ltd led the advancers with a 7.4% gain. Chesapeake Energy Corp. was up 5.4%, NRG Energy Inc. was up 3% and Murphy Oil Corp. rose 2.5%. National Oilwell Varco Inc. added 2.3%, TechnipFMC Plc rose 2.2% and Hess Corp. tacked on 2.1%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund was up 0.8%. The S&P 500 was slightly higher.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Revlon Inc. shares plummeted 19.2% in Friday trading after the beauty company reported a year-over-year earnings slide and a pro forma sales decline in the first quarter. Net loss was $37.4 million, or 71 cents per share, compared with income of $11.0 million, or 21 cents per share, last year. The adjusted loss was 23 cents per share. Sales for the quarter were $594.9 million, up from $439.6 million. But on a pro forma basis, sales fell 5.8%. Revlon acquired Elizabeth Arden in September 2016, and expects $50 million to $60 million in synergies and cost reductions in 2017. It attributed the revenue decline to softening consumption in beauty categories across both mass retail and prestige channels, and fewer replenishment orders in the professional channel. “During the quarter and as widely reported, most of our U.S. retail partners experienced lesser foot traffic, store closures and shopper channel shifting to online and beauty specialty retailers,” said Chief Executive Fabian Garcia on the earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. “Although beauty remains a growth category in the U.S., where and how consumers shop for beauty is evolving.” Revlon shares are down 43.6% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 16.6% for the period.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Mathematical rules to set interest rates can be useful as guides for central bankers but can’t be followed blindly, said Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer on Friday. Policy makers must have freedom to depart from the prescriptions of the rules and even change their assessment of which rule is the appropriate benchmark, Fischer said at a conference sponsored by the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif. The House Financial Service Committee passed legislation Thursday to force the Fed to follow a mathematical rule like the one written by Stanford University economist John Taylor. Fischer argued that the Fed’s 12-member committee structure removes the need for a rule by bringing many different perspectives to table.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. rallied 5.5% Friday in a rebound from their prior-day lows, as analysts weighing in on first-quarter earnings were mostly upbeat. The stock was battered Thursday by a sharp slide in oil prices and a miss on production that overshadowed consensus-beating earnings. Wunderlich analysts said the quarter was solid, pricing was strong and costs continued to trend lower. “While a relatively quiet quarter for CHK in terms of financial and operational moves, there were some nice positive incremental oil well results that should help drive CHK’s oil weighting higher as it shifts to growth in 2H16,” they wrote in a note. Wunderlich rates the stock a buy with a $10 price target, equal to 84% upside from current trading levels. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts said the company is moving forward with plans to pay down debt and improve liquidity. Patience is still needed but a strong 2017 exit is likely, they wrote in a note. SunTrust rates the stock buy with a $9 price target. Chesapeake shares have fallen 23% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.7%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

A sharp decline in shares of International Business Machines Corp. on Friday was cutting its market capitalization by about $3.8 billion. The Armonk, N.Y.-based computing giant was seeing its shares slide by about 2.7% to put its market cap at around $145.565 billion, from $149.427 billion at Thursday’s close, according to FactSet data. The slump for the computing giant, best known for its artificial-intelligence system, known as Watson, comes after billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC in an interview on Thursday that he sold about a third of his stake in the company after he lost confidence in the investment. “I don’t value IBM the same way that I did six years ago when I started buying,” Buffett told CNBC. “I’ve revalued it somewhat downward,” he said. IBM’s shares were most recently off 2.7%, putting on track for its worst daily decline since a 5.4% drop on April 21. For the week, IBM’s shares are off 3.4%, compared to slight gains for the S&P 500 index , the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index .

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday was trading modestly lower, withe the lion’s share of the drop driven by a 2.4% decline in shares of International Business Machines Corp. Shares of the computing giant were under pressure after billionaire Warren Buffett told CNBC in an interview on Thursday that he sold about a third of his stake in the company after he lost confidence in the investment. “I don’t value IBM the same way that I did six years ago when I started buying,” Buffett told CNBC. “I’ve revalued it somewhat downward,” he said. In recent trade, IBM was cutting about 28 points from the price-weighted Dow , which was trading 25 points, or 0.1% lower. The S&P 500 index , meanwhile, was up less than 0.1% at 2,390, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1% to 6,081. Berkshire at one point was IBM’s largest stakeholder, with about a $13 billion stake. On April 20, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company reported weaker-than-expected results.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks opened mostly higher on Friday after the April headline jobs number surpassed expectations, though the details of the report were somewhat weaker than expected. The S&P 500 index advanced 4 points, or 0.2%, to 2,393. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 16 points, or 0.3%, to 6,091. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was marginally lower at 20,943. The U.S. economy created 211,000 jobs in April, beating economists’ expectations for a 190,000 gain. Investors will be watching shares of Berkshire Hathaway [brk.b] because the Warren Buffett-owned conglomerate will report quarterly earnings after the close. Shares of Zynga Inc. jumped after the gaming company’s earnings beat forecasts. Shares of International Business Machines Corp. fell after Buffett told CNBC in an interview Thursday that Berkshire had sold one-third of its stake in the computing giant.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

The greenback briefly spiked on Friday after the U.S. economy created 211,00 jobs in April. However, it soon pared those gains as disappointing data from March were revised even lower. The greenback shot to 112.73 yen immediately after the data were released, but it soon returned to 112.47, where it had traded late Thursday in New York. The euro skidded to $1.0949 after the data, though it soon pared most of that drop, with one euro buying $1.0978 in recent trade, compared with $1.0984 late Thursday in New York. The pound remained higher after the data, buying $1.2952, compared with $1.2923 late Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected the economy to create 190,000 jobs in April. The data also showed that the unemployment rate dipped to a new postrecession low at 4.4%. Wage pressures eased slightly, as hourly pay increased 2.5% in the 12 months leading up to April 2017, down from an annualized rate of 2.6% in March.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News