Category: Stock Market News

President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration will detail its proposed changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement sometime in the next two weeks. Trump spoke in the Oval Office surrounded by steel executives, as he ordered a review of whether steel imports harm U.S. national security. Trump has stepped up criticism of Nafta, saying Tuesday he would scrap it if major changes aren’t made.

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Shares of industrial company Cemtrex Inc. jumped 5.6% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the company said it’s paying its first ever cash dividend of $1.00 per share per year. The Farmingdale, New York-based company said it made the decision to broaden its investor base and tap those mutual funds that only invest in dividend-paying stocks. The payout of a prorated portion of $1 a share —
or 25 cents — was made Wednesday to shareholders of the outstanding Series 1 preferred shares of record as of March 31. “We have sufficient cash flow and confidence in the future to give us comfort that we can afford to fund both a dividend and our ongoing acquisition program,” Chief Executive Saagar Govil said in a statement. Cemtrex shares have fallen 56% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.6%.

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The number and size of insurance claims against mergers and acquisitions is on the rise, underscoring the risk companies can take when negotiating deals. Insurer American International Group Inc. said a study of M&A claims filed between 2011 and 2015 found that 23% of deals with a value of more than $1 billion end in a claim. “The bigger and more complicated a deal is, the more likely there is an unknown liability lingering,” said Mary Duffy, Global Head of M&A Insurance, AIG. “We are paying sizeable claims, sometimes writing eight-figure checks in different geographies.” AIG shares are down 9% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.4%.

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United Airlines , which made news last week after police forcibly removed a passenger from one of its overbooked flights, said it is planning to testify at a U.S. House Transportation Committee hearing on consumer issues in the commercial airline industry. “Flight 3411 has prompted a lot of discussion, and we share many of the concerns being raised,” the company said in emailed comments. “We look forward to meeting with the committee and sharing with them the comprehensive review and the customer-focused actions we will communicate.” Regarding to the April 9 incident in which Dr. David Dao was dragged from the United aircraft after refusing to give up his seat to crew members on an overbooked flight, Dao’s lawyer said the 69-year-old suffered a broken nose, concussion and other injuries. Shares of parent company United Continental Holdings Inc. have fallen more than 3% since April 9 and are down nearly 5% in the year to date. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up more than 4%.

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Morgan Stanley analyst Ben Swinburne turned a little more bullish on Walt Disney Co.’s stock , on the belief that the media and entertainment giant’s ESPN cable property will transform into an earnings tailwind from a headwind. Swinburne raised his stock price target to $130, which is 14% above current levels, from $124. He sees an opportunity for ESPN, which had been struggling, to double its distribution revenue in the next few years, as new streaming bundles have stabilized volume trends and given the potential for increase pricing from carriage renewals with traditional distributors. ESPN accounts for about 70% of Disney’s cable business, so Swinburne wrote that he believes the opportunity “could turn ESPN from an overhang to an earnings driver, catalyzing earnings revisions and multiple expansion for [Disney] over the next several years.” The stock, which tacked on 0.4% in morning trade, has rallied 9.5% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 3.6%.

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President Donald Trump intends to nominate former Sen. Scott Brown to be the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, the White House announced Thursday. Brown represented Massachusetts in the Senate after winning a special election to replace the late Edward Kennedy, and later lost to Sen. Elizabeth Warren when he ran for a full term in 2012.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 54 billion cubic feet for the week ended April 14. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expected an increase of between 47 billion and 51 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 2.115 trillion cubic feet, down 368 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 282 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. May natural gas fell 1.7 cents, or 0.5%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $3.168 per million British thermal units. It was little changed from its pre-supply data level.

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Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s bounced 1.1% in morning trade Thursday, off a 4 1/2-month closing low hit in the wake of disappointing first-quarter results, after analyst Christopher Wheeler at Atlantic Equities said the recent weakness was overdone. He upgraded the stock to overweight, after being at neutral for the past four months. Wheeler pointed out that the banking sector has been selling off over the last month amid concerns about the speed at which President Donald Trump will be able to enact his pro-growth and anti-regulation policies. “However, the response to [Goldman’s] earnings miss was quite pronounced with the shares trading off sharply and some quite dramatic rhetoric about the health of the franchise and management disruption following Gary Cohn’s departure,” Wheeler wrote. “We believe the stock is oversold and upgrade it to overweight.” Cohn is currently director of the National Economic Council. Goldman’s stock had plunged 4.7% on Tuesday after the earnings miss, and 0.7% on Wednesday to close at the lowest level since Nov. 29. It has now shed 6.9% over the past three months, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has tacked on 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 3.3%.

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Shares of CSX Corp. soared 6.3% into record territory in morning trade Thursday, after railroad operator beat first-quarter profit and sales expectations and raised its dividend. The stock hit an all-time intraday high of $50.45 earlier in the session, before paring gains to trade around $49.90, which is above the March 6 record close of $49.79. The better-than-expected report and stock rally comes soon after Hunter Harrison took over as CEO, at the urging of activist investor Mantle Ridge LP, which also won approval to nominate five new directors. Even though Hunter Harrison had been in the CEO’s chair for only three weeks, when the 1Q17 came to a close, his impact has been immediately apparent and/or his timing, once again, is exceptional,” wrote analyst John Larkin at Stifel Nicolaus in a note to clients. “We think it is more the latter than the former, in this particular case.” The stock has run up 22% year to date, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average has ticked up 0.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%.

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Stocks opened higher on Thursday as The Dow Jones Industrial Average fought to end a two-day slide after data showed the number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell to a 17-year low. The S&P 500 index climbed 5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,343. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 18 points, or 0.1%, to 20,423, as a post-earnings drop in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. caused the benchmark to lag its peers. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 25 points, or 0.4%, to 5,887. Shares of Philip Morris International Inc. declined after the company’s first-quarter profit fell short of expectations. EBay Inc. shares fell after the online retailer delivered earnings and forward guidance that were largely in-line with expectations.

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