Category: Stock Market News

Skechers USA Inc. said Monday that it has launched a new collection, You by Skechers, a women’s lifestyle line that incorporates the technologies from its performance shoes. You by Skechers aims to tap into the demand for “lightweight wellness footwear in the athleisure marketplace,” according to a press statement. Skechers has partnered with four healthy-living advocates, including fitness model Koya Webb and Pilates expert Katie Yip, to promote the collection on their social media channels. Skechers is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings on Thursday after the market closes. Skechers shares are up 2% in Monday trading, and up 3.6% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 4.6% for 2017 to date.

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Gold prices marked a fourth straight gain Monday to hold ground at their highest finish since early November. Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea weighed on the dollar, supporting prices for the precious metal, which is traded in the greenback. June gold rose $3.40, or 0.3%, to settle at $1,291.90 an ounce.

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Tenet Healthcare Corporation shares dropped 8.7% in afternoon trade Monday and Community Health Systems shares dropped 7.5% after rival hospital operator HCA Holdings Inc. warned of a first-quarter revenue and earnings miss. Tenet shares were valued at $15.95 and Community Health Systems shares were valued at $8.42 as of Monday afternoon. HCA Holdings stock dropped 2.7% in afternoon trade after warning Monday morning that it expected earnings to come in at $1.74 per share, below the FactSet consensus of $1.79. The company also said it expects revenue to come in at $10.6 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $10.7 billion. HCA Holdings attributed the results to changes in payer mix, meaning more patients have government insurance such as Medicare, which pays less than employer-sponsored plans. Investors appear to be concerned that those factors will have industry-wide effects. Hospital operator LifePoint Health Inc. shares fell just 1.3% on Monday afternoon, and Universal Health Services shares slumped just 0.2%, compared with a 0.6% rise in the S&P 500 . Tenet shares have dropped 16.1% over the last three months, and Community Health Systems shares have risen 18.1%, compared with a 3.3% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Boeing Co.’s stock surged 1.5% in afternoon trade Monday, to provide the biggest boost to the Dow Jones Industrial Average , after reports that the aerospace and defense giant was cutting more jobs. The stock’s price gain of $2.62 was adding 18 points to the Dow, which was up 132 points. The second-biggest boost was from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shares, which rose $1.76 to add 12 points to the Dow. Boeing was planning “hundreds” of more involuntary job cuts, focused on engineers at Seattle manufacturing plants, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a staff memo. The notices will be issued on Friday, the WSJ report said. The company has already accepted about 1,800 voluntary buyouts, but said it needed to cut more jobs to meet its operating plan, the WSJ report said. Boeing’s stock has rallied 15% year to date, while the Dow has gained 4.2%.

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Roche Holding AG’s Genentech said Monday afternoon that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its drug for diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can cause blindness. The drug, Lucentis, is the first approved for patients with or without swelling in the back of the eye called diabetic macular edema. Genentech estimates that diabetic retinopathy affects nearly 7.7 million Americans, and said the condition is the leading cause of blindness among adults ages 20 to 74. Roche shares have surged 9.4% over the last three months, compared with a 3.2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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North Korea remained defiant about its nuclear weapons program amid increasing tensions with the U.S. and South Korea and again warned that any military action by the U.S. will lead to war. “We’ll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-Ryol told the BBC in an interview. The comment comes on the heels of a failed North Korean missile launch that coincided with a visit to South Korea by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Separately, the North Korean ambassador to the United Nations, Kim In Ryong, held a press conference on Monday to reiterate that his country is ready to engage in a war “desired by the U.S.” and will take “toughest counteraction against provocations.”

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The New York Taxi and Limousine Commission announced a proposal Monday that would require credit card-based car companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. to offer a tipping option within the app. The proposal came after the TLC granted a petition Monday from the Independent Drivers Guild, a union which represents 50,000 ride-hailing drivers in New York City. The Guild submitted the petition with 11,000 signatures, saying that the rule would bring in an additional $300 million a year to ride-hailing drivers in New York. Lyft currently has tipping built into the app, but Uber does not. Uber does not explicitly offer the option for tipping, but has said that drivers can accept cash tips.

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McDonald’s Corp. was upgraded to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo based on the upcoming rollout of the company’s mobile order and pay system and curbside check-in, which analysts expect to take place at the 14,000 U.S. stores by the fourth quarter of 2017. McDonald’s valuation range was lifted to $145 to $150 from $125 to $130. Analysts believe the introduction will give McDonald’s a head start among burger chains at a time when “restaurant consumers are aggressively gravitating toward concepts that offer the greatest level of convenience across ordering, payment and distribution.” Wendy’s will offer mobile order and pay across half its system by the end of the year, and both Burger King, a Restaurant Brands Inc. chain, and Jack in the Box Inc. are testing it. McDonald’s shares are up 0.2% in Monday trading, and up 7.8% for the year to date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 4.4% for 2017 so far.

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U.S. stocks kicked off trade on Monday with solid gains, setting the stage for a modest bounce after a three-day Easter holiday weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70 points, or 0.3%, at 20,526, the S&P 500 index rose 7 points, or 0.3%, at 2,335, while the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 22 points, or 0.4%, at 5,828. The tech-laden Nasdaq was trying to avoid its first four-session skid since November. A number of European markets remained closed in observance of Easter Monday. Moves for markets follow rising geopolitical tensions, including a warning from U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who told Pyongyang not to test President Donald Trump’s “resolve” after a failed missile test over the weekend. In corporate news, shares of United Continental Holdings , parent of United Airlines, was trading higher. The air carrier has been at the center of a public-relations storm after passenger Dr. David Dao was forcibly dragged off a flight last week, as the airline sought to reaccomodate its own staffers. In economic data, a reading of New York manufacturing, the Empire State Index, disappointed, falling to a reading of 5.2 in April from a two-year high of 16.4 in March.

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Shares of Arconic Inc. surged 5.2% in premarket trade Monday, after the company said Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld was leaving the company after he used “poor judgment” by contacting an activist investment without authorization. Arconic named board member David Hess as interim CEO, while lead director Patricia Russo was named interim chairman. The company said in a statement that Kleinfeld stepped down after the broad learned that he sent a letter directly to a senior officer at investor Elliott Management, which has been pushing for Kleinfeld to step down, and for four new board members. “Importantly, this decision was not made in response to the proxy fight or Elliott Management’s criticisms of the company’s strategy, leadership or performance and is not in any way related to the financials or records of the company,” the company said in a statement. Kleinfeld was CEO of Alcoa Inc. since 2008, then became CEO of Arconic after he led the aluminum giant’s separation into two companies. The stock had soared 40% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 had gained 4%.

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