Category: Stock Market News

Snap Inc’s initial price range puts the company’s initial public valuation below the $25 billion it was reported to be seeking. The Snapchat parent set a price range of $14 to $16 a share Thursday, which would give it a market capitalization of between $19.5 billion and $22.2 billion. The company said it would sell 200 million shares to raise up to $3.2 billion. The price range and number of shares is subject to change ahead of the company going public. Snap’s latest private valuation was $17.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s two-days of testimony to Congress earlier this week signaled there will likely be interest-rate hikes this year and she kept the door open for a March meeting, said Dennis Lockhart, the head of the central bank’s Atlanta regional bank, on Thursday. Lockhart is retiring from the Atlanta Fed at the end of the month and will not attend the Fed’s next policy meeting on March 14-15. In an interview on Bloomberg TV, Lockhart said recent data suggest the economy is on a “little stronger” path than he expected and he might have been “persuadable” to support a March interest-rate hike. Lockhart said he expects the Fed to raise rates 2 or 3 times this year. “I could go either way based on what we’ve seen,” he said.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that supplies of natural gas fell by 114 billion cubic feet for the week ended Feb. 10. That was less than the decline of 126 billion expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 2.445 trillion cubic feet, down 303 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 87 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. March natural gas extended its decline, falling 4.8 cents, or 1.6%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.877 per million British thermal units. It traded at $2.914 before the data.

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Ralph Lauren Corp. named on Thursday Jonathan Bottomley to the newly created position of chief marketing officer, effective April 3. The fashion apparel and accessories company said Bottomley, who was most recently Chief Strategy Officer at Vice Media, will lead the global marketing team and be responsible for Ralph Lauren’s brand voice. The company also named Tom Mendenhall to the newly created role of brand president, Men’s Polo, Purple Label and Double RL, effective March 29. Mendenhall was most recently chief operating officer at Tom Ford International. All men’s brand functions will report into Mendenhall, including design and merchandising. The moves follow Stefan Larsson stepping down as chief executive officer on Feb. 3 after just 15 months in the position, after Larsson and Chief Creative Officer Ralph Lauren couldn’t agree about how to evolve the creative and consumer-facing parts of the business. The stock, which tacked on 0.3% in morning trade, has tumbled 29% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.7%.

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The bitcoin price rose on Thursday after Chinese digital-currency exchange BTCC said it would temporarily halt withdrawals while it upgrades its anti-money laundering systems, becoming the third major exchange to do so. Last week, OKCoin and Huobi, which, along with BTCC, comprise China’s “big three” bitcoin exchanges, made similar announcements, saying the necessary upgrades should take a month, if not less. One bitcoin cost $1,019 in recent trade, according to Coin Market Cap. In the past, the bitcoin price has fallen following reports of Chinese regulators stepping up pressure on the exchanges. Instead, the price reaction on Thursday suggests that investors are less worried about interference from Chinese authorities, who have sought to tighten oversight over the country’s exchanges in recent months. “The market is kind of numb,” said Chris Burniske, blockchain analyst and products lead at ARK Invest. “It’s priced in this information and it’s not concerned.” Earlier in the week, a former governor of the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, said on local television that bitcoin will continue to exist in China.

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U.S. stocks opened modestly higher on Thursday following their best record-setting run in a quarter-century. The S&P 500 index was flat at 2,350. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 10 points, or 0.1%, to 20,621. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced four points, or 0.1%, to 5,823. The three benchmarks on Wednesday notched their longest streak of simultaneous record closes since January 1992. Cisco Systems Inc. shares rose after the company posted better-than-expected results late Wednesday. CBS Corp. shares slipped despite serving up forecast-topping earnings. Kraft Heinz Co. shares also fell despite the company posting strong earnings.

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Pfizer Inc. said early Thursday that its Xeljanz drug met its primary endpoint in combination with methotrexate as compared to AbbVie’s blockbuster drug Humira, although it didn’t meet the primary endpoint on its own. The results of the phase 3B/4 trial, which lasted 12 months and enrolled about 1,150 patients, show Xeljanz’s efficacy as a combination therapy for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis, said Chief Development Officer Michael Corbo. Xeljanz has already been approved for rheumatoid arthritis in the U.S., but pharmaceutical companies have increasingly looked to efficacy data to show the value of their treatments relative to competitors’. Humira is the world’s top-selling drug. Pfizer shares have risen 4.9% over the last three months, compared with a 7.9% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Kate Spade & Co. shares rose 6.8% in premarket trading after the handbag company said it has hired consultants, Perella Weinberg Partners, to explore strategic alternatives. Net income for the fourth quarter totaled $85.5 million, or 66 cents per share, up from $61.5 million, or 48 cents per share, for the same period last year. The FactSet EPS consensus was 34 cents. Sales for the quarter were $470.8 million, up from $428.0 million, but below the $472.0 million FactSet consensus. Direct-to-consumer same-store sales rose 9% for the quarter. The company said it will not provide guidance and won’t provide updates on the review process, nor is there a guarantee of a transaction or other move as a result. There’s no timeline for the strategic review. Kate Spade shares are up 17.6% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 24% for the same period.

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Shares of Dean Foods Co. slumped 2.2% in premarket trade Thursday, after the food and milk processing company missed fourth-quarter profit expectations and provided a downbeat outlook. Earnings rose to $32.8 million, or 36 cents a share, from $18.5 million, or 20 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 38 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 41 cents. Revenue of $2.02 billion matched the year ago revenue and the FactSet consensus. Total volume across all products declined 0.8% to 653 million gallons, but the company’s share of U.S. fluid milk volumes increased by 0.1%. Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter adjusted EPS of 12 cents to 20 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 40 cents, and projects 2017 adjusted EPS of $1.35 to $1.55, below expectations of $1.57. “In the first quarter, we expect dairy commodity inflation of nearly 20% and a roughly 1% decline in total volume performance versus prior year,” said Chief Executive Ralph Scozzafava. The stock has lost 2.4% over the past 12 months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has climbed 24%.

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MGM Resorts International shares fell more than 5% in premarket trade on Thursday after the company reported earnings for the fourth quarter, in which profit missed expectations. The casino and entertainment company reported net income of $24.67 million, or 4 cents per share, after a loss of $781.45 million, or $1.38 per share in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet had forecast earnings of 20 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter hit $2.69 billion, up from last year’s $2.38 billion during the same quarter. Revenue fell short of FactSet’s $2.46 billion consensus. MGM said the board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of 11 cents per share, payable March 15 to shareholders of record as of March 10. Shares of MGM have increased more than 54% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 Index is up nearly 24%.

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