Category: Stock Market News

More than 160,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Northern California on Sunday night, over fears that the spillway at the Oroville Dam could break, potentially causing catastrophic flooding. Evacuated areas included the town of Oroville, at the base of the dam, and nearby Marysville and Yuba City. As of 9 p.m. Pacific time, the situation north of Sacramento had stabilized, with officials making emergency repairs and successfully lowering the water level behind the dam. The earthen Oroville Dam is the tallest in the United States, at 770 feet, and the lake behind it is California’s second-largest reservoir. While officials said the dam itself was not in danger of failing, a 30-foot section of the overflow spillway was weakened by erosion and officials earlier in the evening feared its imminent collapse. Lake Oroville is at 101% capacity following the rainiest winter in more than a decade in Northern California.

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A top aide to national security adviser Michael Flynn was denied security clearance to serve on the National Security Council, Politico reported late Friday. Robin Townley, the senior Africa director on the NSC, learned on Friday that the CIA had denied his “sensitive compartmented information” security clearance. CIA director Mike Pompeo approved of the rejection, the report said. The rejection, which analysts in the Politico report said smacked of a CIA “hit job,” is the latest hurdle for Flynn. Flynn reportedly discussed Obama-led sanctions against Russia with the country’s ambassador to the U.S. in December, the Washington Post reported this week, although Flynn had previously denied it. President Trump on his way to Florida on Friday told the reporter pool he did not know of Flynn’s talk with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but said he would look into the matter.

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Billionaire hedge fund manager Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC took new positions in banking giants J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America in the fourth quarter, while dumping his stake in biopharmaceutical company Allergan, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. Among other moves, Third Point held 17.5 million shares of Bank of America as of Dec. 31, according to filings tracker Whalewisdom.com. Other new stakes included 5.25 million shares of J.P. Morgan Chase. The firm sold its entire stake of 3.785 million shares of Allergan . Large investors must disclose the long stock positions they held at the end of each quarter.

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Shares of Yelp Inc. tumbled nearly 14% on Friday as investors reacted to a disappointing outlook that offset better-than-expected earnings. The company estimated full-year 2017 revenue in the range of $880 million to $900 million, the midpoint of which missed the FactSet consensus view of $895.3 million. The company had previously forecast that it would hit $1 billion in revenue for the year. Shares of Yelp closed down around $35.83 on Friday. Despite the sell-off, the stock is still up more than 133% in the past 12 months, vastly outperforming the S&P 500’s 25% increase.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission got a court order on Friday to freeze the brokerage accounts of Shaohua (Michael) Yin, a partner at Summitview Capital Management Ltd., a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, alleging the accounts hold more than $29 million in illegal profits from insider trading in advance of the acquisition of DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. by Comcast Corp [s:cmcsa] in April 2016. The SEC’s order alleges Yin accumulated more than $56 million of DreamWorks stock in the U.S. brokerage accounts of five Chinese nationals, including his elderly parents, accounting for 16.9% of all market trading in DreamWorks during that period. DreamWorks stock price rose 47.3% once the acquisition was announced. The SEC also alleges the accounts profited from other suspicious trading in another U.S.-based company and three China-based companies ahead of market-moving news. The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction, return of allegedly ill-gotten profits, civil money penalties, and other relief. “The SEC’s data analytic investigative tools enabled us to determine who was behind the suspicious trading,” said Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office in a press release. The SEC’s investigation continues and was aided by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

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Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would invest $1 billion over five years in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence company based in Pittsburgh, aiming at developing a virtual driver system for Ford’s driverless car coming in 2021. Argo AI founders Bryan Salesky, the company’s chief executive, and Peter Rander, chief operating officer, led the self-driving car teams of Alphabet Inc. and Uber, Ford said. “Argo AI’s agility and Ford’s scale uniquely combine the benefits of a technology startup with the experience and discipline of the automaker’s industry-leading autonomous vehicle development program,” Ford said in a statement. Ford last year announced plans to sell driverless cars by 2021 and unveiled partnerships and investments in the arena, as well as buying a San Francisco-based shuttle startup. Shares of Ford rose 3% on Friday.

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From:: Stock Market News

Ford Motor Co. said Friday it is investing $1 billion in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence company that will help it develop its self-driving vehicle. The company said Argo will help it develop a virtual driver system for the self-driving car coming in 2021, and that it may license the system to other companies. Argo AI was founded by former Google and Uber employees from their self-driving car teams. Ford will become a majority investor in the company. The investment will be made over five years. Ford shares were up 0.9% in late trade, but have gained 10% in the last 12 months, underperforming the S&P 500’s 24% gain.

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Oil futures climbed Friday after the International Energy Agency lifted its forecast for global crude demand, but prices finished just 3 cents above the week-ago settlement. March West Texas Intermediate crude rose 86 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at $53.86 a barrel. That was the highest finish since Feb. 1, but prices barely gained from last Friday’s settlement of $56.83, according to FactSet data.

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Gold futures pared their losses shortly before the settlement on Friday, finding some support as the U.S. dollar lost ground. The greenback fell against the Japanese yen , in particular, as U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. April gold fell 90 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,235.90 an ounce after trading as low as $1,222.60. For the week, prices tacked on roughly 1.2%.

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Daniel Tarullo, the Federal Reserve governor who is most known for his role in setting the central bank’s regulatory policy, said he will resign on or around April 5. Tarullo has been a member of the Fed’s board since 2009. The 64-year-old’s term was due to expire in 2022. Tarullo, though mostly known for his role in bank regulation, was seen as an ally of Fed chief Janet Yellen on issues of monetary policy. “Dan led the Fed’s work to craft a new framework for ensuring the safety and soundness of our financial system following the financial crisis and made invaluable contributions across the entire range of the Fed’s responsibilities,” Yellen said in a statement.

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