Category: Stock Market News

An auction of 2-year Treasury notes saw weak demand, pushing yields higher across the board. The 2-year Treasury note yield rose 2.5 basis points to 2.287%, according to Tradeweb data. The 10-year note yield was up 1.9 basis points to 2.845%, while the 30-year bond yield was mostly unchanged at 3.077%. Bond prices fall when yields rise. The auction “tailed” 0.4 basis points, a sign of diminished appetite. The tail is the gap between the highest yield the Treasury sold in the auction and the highest yield expected when the auction began – the “when issued” level. The 2-year note yield is sensitive to shifting expectations for monetary policy and has seen a relentless climb since September on rising expectations for a more aggressive Federal Reserve.

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Shares of Electronic Arts Inc. are up 2.8% in Monday trading after Stifel analyst Drew Crum reiterated his upbeat view of the company’s prospects and dismissed concerns that the popular “Fortnite” game, made by privately held Epic Games, posed a material threat to EA. “‘Fortnite’ is VERY popular right now, but the sky isn’t falling for EA,” Crum wrote. “We’re not dismissing Fortnite, but also think the absence of any major releases (since November) has probably had some affect on its success.” Crum said that his recent meetings with management indicated that the company is “happy” with engagement levels for its major franchises. The company singled out “Battlefield 1” and FIFA Ultimate Team, according to Crum, who thinks the title will benefit from the World Cup this summer. EA shares are up 40% over the past year, while Activision Blizzard Inc. shares are up 41% and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. are up 76%. The S&P 500 has gained 12% in that time.

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U.S. stocks traded well off session highs in late-morning trade Monday, with a decline in Facebook contributing to the midday retreat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%, but it had previously gained more than 2% on the day. The S&P 500 was up 0.6%, less than half the 2% increase it had seen earlier in the session, which had represented its biggest one-day percentage gain since November 2016. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.5%. The index, which is heavily weighted toward large-capitalization technology and internet stocks, previously rose 2.1%. Facebook fell 5.6%, with losses accelerating after the Federal Trade Commission said it was investigating the company’s privacy practices. The social-media giant has been under tremendous selling pressure of late, and it is down more than 20% from its recent record high, a decline that puts it into bear-market territory. Despite Facebook’s weakness, the technology sector remained up 1.1% on the day, and all 11 primary S&P 500 sectors were in positive territory. The gains on the day came on signs that concerns over a potential trade war were waning.

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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are down 3.6% in Monday morning trading after Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland downgraded the stock to negative from neutral. “While this call is likely early (in front of needed GPU channel replenishment), the proliferation of Ethereum mining ASICs have the ability to impact ~20% of AMD’s total company revenue,” he wrote, referring to application-specific integrated circuit chips. He thinks AMD will “blow out” its next quarterly report, but his concerns have a longer time frame. Rolland also lowered his price target on Nvidia Corp. shares to $215 to $200. He rates Nvidia at neutral. AMD shares are down 25% over the past 12 months, while Nvidia’s stock is up 122%. The S&P 500 is up 11% in that time, compared with a 34% rise for the PHLX Semiconductor Index .

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Shares of General Electric Co. fell on Monday, bucking the sharply upward trend of the broader market as the beleagured industrial conglomerate continued to struggle. The stock fell 1.5% to $12.88, dropping below $13 for the first time since July 2009. GE is on track for its third straight daily decline, as well as its eighth negative session of the past 10. At current levels, it is down more than 26% in 2018, and it has lost more than half its value over the past 12 months. The company has been struggling for years, with the stock recently pressured by downbeat profit outlooks, a halved dividend, and an accounting probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other factors. The stock was the only one of the 30 Dow components to be negative on Monday. The Dow gained 1.5% while the S&P 500 was up 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.4%.

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The Federal Trade Commission on Monday said it’s investigating the privacy practices of Facebook . “The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers,” said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection, in a statement. “Foremost among these tools is enforcement action against companies that fail to honor their privacy promises, including to comply with Privacy Shield, or that engage in unfair acts that cause substantial injury to consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Companies who have settled previous FTC actions must also comply with FTC order provisions imposing privacy and data security requirements. Accordingly, the FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”

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TD Ameritrade on Monday said reports of a systemwide outage on its platform were inaccurate and said issues before the open were limited to clients being unable to see balance and position information on the trading outfit’s website. A spokeswoman said the technical issue was resolved before the start of regular trade, emphasizing that the ability to trade wasn’t affected. “The ability to trade wasn’t impacted. This issue didn’t impact other platforms, such as Thinkorswim or our Mobile Trader app, and service was restored by market open,” she said. News about the technical problem was https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/broker-td-ameritrade-suffers-system-wide-outage.html. Shares of TD Ameritrade were up 1.9% early Monday, and have gained 13.1% so far in 2018, compared with a 3.3% decline for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a loss of 1.8% for the S&P 500 index , and a gain of 2.9% for the Nasdaq Composite Index over the same stretch.

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Spotify Technology issued financial guidance for its fiscal year and fiscal first quarter, ahead of its direct listing which is expected to occur next week. The Luxembourg-based music-streaming company expects to have 198 million to 208 million monthly active users by the end of the fiscal year, including paid and free users, which would mark a rise of about 29% year-over-year at the midpoint of that range. Spotify predicts that its paid user base will grow faster than that. Its outlook calls for 92 million to 96 million premium subscribers by the end of the year, up 33% at the midpoint. Spotify also forecasts revenue of between €4.9 billion to €5.3 billion, up 25% at the midpoint, after factoring in negative currency effects of €260 million to €300 million.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 400 points at the open on Monday, with all of its 30 components in positive territory, as trade-war fears eased somewhat. The Dow was led by gains in Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp. , which were helping the price-weighted index rally, after the stock market logged one of its worst weeks in years. The Dow was most recently up 450 points, or 1.9%, at 23.998. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was up 1.8% at 2,636, while the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.1 at 7,138. Last week, stock benchmarks finished sharply lower on the back of fears about trade conflict between the U.S. and China, but a report from The Wall Street Journal signaled that the two parties are in currently negotiating, suggesting that a full-fledged trade war may yet be averted.

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Shares of Roku Inc. are up 4.2% in Monday morning trading after Needham analyst Laura Martin called the company’s Roku Channel its “next $1 billion asset.” Roku said last week that the Roku Channel app would be coming to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd smart TVs this summer. The Roku Channel aggregates ad-driven content from across other apps on Roku’s platform, and the company doesn’t own any of the content. The app “raises ROKU’s total addressable market (TAM), gives Roku a clear mobile strategy, and creates a stronger brand & bigger moat,” Martin wrote. She sees it doubling Roku’s revenue per hour of content streamed, for current viewers. Roku shares are down 38% so far in 2018 but up 128% from their September IPO price of $14. The S&P 500 is down 1.6% since the start of the year.

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