Category: Stock Market News

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — FXCM has been banned from operating in the U.S. after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found the retail currency broker had an undisclosed interest in the market maker that consistently “won” the largest share of FXCM’s trading volume – and thus was taking positions opposite its retail customers. The CFTC also found that FXCM willfully made false statements to the National Futures Association in order to conceal FXCM’s role in the creation of its principal market maker as well as the fact that the market maker’s owner had been an FXCM employee and managing director. FXCM also agreed to pay a $7 million fine and never seek to register with the CFTC, and the two founding partners, Dror Niv and William Ahdout, will withdraw from CFTC registration. FXCM, Niv and Ahdout didn’t admit or deny the findings.

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Shares of Gap Inc. rose 2.7% late Monday after the retailer reported higher January and fourth-quarter sales, which included holiday sales. Net sales for January rose 2% to $828 million, compared with $813 million in January 2016. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, Gap’s net sales rose 1% to $4.43 billion, compared with $4.39 billion for the year-ago period. Sales at Old Navy and Gap rose 2% and 3%, respectively, in January, while sales at Banana Republic fell 4%. Gap said it expects adjusted earnings between $2.01 a share and $2.02 a share for fiscal 2016. Shares of Gap ended the regular trading session up less than 0.1%.

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Shares of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. fell 1.3% late Monday after the media company reported a quarterly decline in film revenues. Fox’s fiscal second-quarter earnings came in above Wall Street expectations, while quarterly sales were in line with forecasts. Fox reported quarterly income from continuing operations of $857 million, or 46 cents a share, compared with $674 million, or 34 cents a share, in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, Fox earned 53 cents a share, compared with 44 cents a share a year ago. Sales reached $7.7 billion, a 4% increase from the $7.38 billion reported a year ago. Growth reflected higher affiliate and advertising revenues at both the cable network programming and television segments, which were partially offset by lower content revenues at the filmed entertainment segment, the company said in a statement. The stock had ended the regular trading session down 1.1%.

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Stocks closed lower Monday following a mixed bag of earnings and continued friction against President Donald Trump implementing a wave of executive orders last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 19.04 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 20,052.42, with shares of Verizon Communications Inc. and Home Depot Inc. weighing on the average. The S&P 500 index closed down 4.86 points, or 0.2%, at 2,292.56, with energy and telecom stocks leading decliners. The Nasdaq Composite index slipped 3.21 points, or 0.1%, to finish at 5,663.55.

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Oil futures fell Monday to mark their lowest settlement of the month so far, but held ground above $53 a barrel. Concerns over the potential for a sizable increase in U.S. output put pressure on prices, but tension between the U.S. and Iran, the possibility that the U.S. government will ease some restrictions on energy companies, and data showing declines in global crude output provided some support. March West Texas Intermediate crude fell 82 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $53.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Gold futures climbed Monday to mark their highest finish in almost three months. Declines in Treasury yields, weakness in the U.S. dollar year to date, and uncertainty surrounding the U.S. economic outlook helped support demand for gold as a safe-haven investment. April gold rose $11.30, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,232.10 an ounce. That was the highest finish for a most-active contract since Nov. 10, according to FactSet data.

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Apple Inc.’s share of the Chinese smartphone market declined in the fourth quarter amid competition from local manufacturers, pushing its share further below that of Huawei, and below Oppo and Vivo for the first time, according to a new report by trends-tracker IDC. In the calendar-year fourth quarter, Apple sold 14.9 million phones in China, a year-over-year decline of roughly 13%. Its share of the Chinese market declined to 11% from 15% in the year-earlier period, while the top three Chinese manufacturers all gained share over the same period. Oppo’s share increased to 18.1% from 10.2% in the year-earlier period, while Huawei’s share increased to 16.9% from 15.7% a year ago, and Vivo’s rose to 16% from 9.7% last year. Last week, Apple reported a 12% revenue decline across all of its products in Greater China, representing its only geographic decline. However, the company beat top- and bottom-line expectations on stronger-than-expected iPhone sales globally, and its stock has been on a rip ever since. Shares of Apple gained 0.9% to $130.18 in afternoon trade. They’ve increased nearly 20% in the past three months, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average , up 12%.

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A popular way to bet on gold miners was trading about 1.5% higher on Monday. The advance in the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF comes as gold futures are on track to hit their highest level in nearly three months, according to FactSet data. Gold futures were up $10.40, or 0.9%, at $1,231.10 an ounce on Monday and was looking at their best settlement since Nov. 10. Although the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have been mostly rising in the wake of President Donald Trump’s early tenure, gold has been gaining ground after since mid November, amid concerns about the health of the European economy, a pick up in inflation and political anxiety about U.S. trade and immigration policies under the new administration.

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Facebook investors can rest easy as Snap does not appear to be as much of a competitive threat as expected, said Nomura analysts. The analysts say Snap is “unlikely to negatively affect Facebook’s growth trajectory in a direct way” as the company’s prospectus showed a deceleration in average revenue per user in the fourth-quarter as well as decelerating user growth in the second half of 2016, which came after Facebook launched Instagram Stories. Though there is not a direct comparison, Facebook engagement appears to be strong, with the company reporting 50 minutes per day spent on its sites, compared to Snap’s disclosure of younger users spending 30 minutes a day on the app. Shares of Facebook were up 0.5% Monday. Facebook shares have gained 8.9% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 9.8%.

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From:: Stock Market News

A popular way to bet on gold miners was trading about 1.5% higher on Monday. The advance in the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF comes as gold futures are on track to hit their highest level in nearly three months, according to FactSet data. Gold futures [s:GCJ7] were up $10.40, or 0.9%, at $1,231.10 an ounce on Monday and was looking at their best settlement since Nov. 10. Although the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have been mostly rising in the wake of President Donald Trump’s early tenure, gold has been gaining ground after since mid November, amid concerns about the health of the European economy, a pick up in inflation and political anxiety about U.S. trade and immigration policies under the new administration.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News