Category: Stock Market News

Shares of athletic clothing and shoes Under Armour Inc. slid 3% Friday to lead S&P 500 decliners, after The Baltimore Sun reported job cuts at the company’s Connected Fitness unit. The unit makes apps for wearable devices to allow users track fitness. About two dozen workers were affected, mostly in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Under Armour acquired fitness app Endomondo in 2015, the paper said. Under Armour stock was downgraded earlier this week at FBR & Co., where analyst Susan Anderson assigned it a rare underperform rating and slashed her price target to $14, or about 24% below its current trading level. Anderson said channel checks suggest a growing price war with Nike Inc. after UA’s entrance into department store chain Kohls Inc. . Under Armour shares are down 27% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Shares of Okta Inc. opened at $23.70 Friday, above the company’s $17 issue price, in the software company’s debut on the Nasdaq. Okta, which helps companies securely mange sign-ons, priced its IPO at $17 a share, the top end of its range, to raise $187 million. That issue price put the company’s public market capitalization above its last private valuation, when it sold shares for $12.02 at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Co. were the lead underwriters on the offering. The underwriters have the option to buy up to 1.65 million additional shares.

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Cruise operator Carnival Corp. & plc said Friday it is raising its quarterly dividend 14% to 40 cents a share from 35 cents. The new payment will be made June 16 to shareholders of record as of May 26. The company’s board also approved an additional $1 billion share buyback. Shares were flat Friday, but are up 13% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Wholesale inventories in the U.S. rose 0.4% in February, rebounding from a decline at the start of 2017, the government said Friday. The inventory-to-sales ratio was unchanged at 1.28 months, but it was down from 1.36 a year earlier. The ratio reflects how long it would take a company to sell all the goods sitting on warehouse shelves. A lower number is usually better than a higher one.

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Comcast Corp.’s new mobile phone service Xfinity Mobile is likely to help keep its customers wrapped up in its suite of services, mainly cable, said Instinet analysts. Lead analyst Anthony DiClemente wrote in a note to clients that Xfinity Mobile’s main value driver is its ability to reduce churn. “For now, Comcast plans to leverage its existing cutomer base and network infrastructure in order to provide a strong wireless customer experience that is profitable to Comcast on a standalone basis,” DiClemente wrote. DiClemente maintains his buy rating and $43 12-month price target for Comcast. With Xfinity Mobile’s $45 to $65 per month unlimited data plans and the cost of up to three lines totaling $135 a month at the high end, DiClemente said Comcast’s mobile offering is competitive and even cheaper than plans from Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. . “Overtime, we believe wireless could serve as an incremental tailwind to the already steadily improving fundamentals as Comcast,” DiClemente wrote. Shares of Comcast have gained more than 24% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 15% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 18% during the same time frame.

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Fitch Ratings on Friday cut its ratings on both South Africa’s foreign- and local-currency debt to junk, leaving Moody’s Investors Service as the only major ratings firm with an investment-grade rating on the country’s debt. South Africa’s currency, the rand, fluctuated between gains and losses after the decision. It recently traded at 13.79 to the dollar, little-changed from its late-Thursday level. Earlier in the week, S&P Global Market Intelligence cut its rating on the country’s foreign-currency debt to junk. The country’s currency, stocks and bonds sold off dramatically after President Jacob Zuma late last week fired respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

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U.S. stocks on Friday opened slightly lower as investors weighed a weaker-than-expected March employment data and President Donald Trump’s late-Thursday airstrike against Syria. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 19 points, or 0.1%, at 20,646, while the S&P 500 index declined 2 points, or 0.1%, at 2,355, while the Nasdaq Composite Index opened off 7 points, or 0.1%, at 5,871. The Labor Department report showed that the U.S.created just 98,000 new jobs in March, marking the smallest gain in almost a year, as hiring cooled. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 185,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. Among the bright spots were the unemployment rate which fell to 4.5% from 4.7%, marking its lowest level in about a decade. The moves for stocks come as investors await the conclusion of a closely watched summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In corporate news, shares of Raytheon Co. , maker of Tomahawk missiles used in the U.S.’s airstrike against Syria on Thursday, lead the S&P 500’s early gainers. Meanwhile, crude-oil prices were edging slight higher as attacks in Syria can foster concerns about disruptions of supplies in the region, which can push prices higher.

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Three people in Stockholm have been killed and several injured after a truck ran into a crowd on a street, according to news reports Friday. Shots have been fired in the area and a police task force is in place, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. Two weeks ago, a terrorist attack in London began with a car plowing into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. A Metropolitan Police officer in London also died after being stabbed by the terrorist, who was shot dead.

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Smithfield Foods, a $14-billion food company and a licensee of Nathan’s Famous Inc.’s hot dogs, announced Friday that Six Flags Entertainment Corp. has entered into a multi-year partnership with Nathan’s Famous to make its frankfurters the “Official Hot Dog of Six Flags.” Nathan’s Famous hot dogs will be served at 15 U.S. theme and water parts in 2017, with Chicago coming in 2018. The partnership also includes a marketing program to promote the partnership through the Six Flags mobile app, Six Flags TV and other initiatives. Six Flags shares are down 3.7% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 5.3% for the period.

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Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday that it has decided to retain its Prosper inkjet business after a review and discussions with prospective buyers. Prosper experienced a 40% increase in annuity sales in 2016 and the company expects its enterprise inkjet division to be profitable this year, said Chief Executive Jeff Clarke in a statement. Kodak will continue to invest in its Ultrastream inkjet technology, and expects products built with this technology to hit the market in 2019. Kodak had been accounting for Prosper as discontinued operations, but will reclassify it to continuing operations. Kodak shares are inactive in premarket trading and are up nearly 12% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 15.5% for the last 12 months.

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