Category: Stock Market News

Gold futures pared much of their earlier gains on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, but uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve’s pace of interest-rate hikes and President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference helped lift the metal to a six-week settlement high. February gold tacked on 60 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,185.50 an ounce.

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From:: Stock Market News

Gold futures pared much of their earlier gains on Tuesday as the U.S. dollar strengthened, but uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve’s pace of interest-rate hikes and President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference helped lift the metal to a six-week settlement high. February gold tacked on 60 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,185.50 an ounce.

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General Motors Co. said Tuesday it expects adjusted per-share earnings of $6.00 to $6.50 for 2017. The current FactSet consensus is for 2017 EPS of $5.71. The company said it further expects to maintain or improve its EBIT-adjusted margin on higher revenues. EBIT is earnings before interest and taxes. The company’s board has approved an additional share buyback program of up to $5 billion, bringing the total authorization to $14 billion. The company is adding $1 billion to its cost savings target, which now totals $6.5 billion. The 2017 outlook is based on expectations for strong growth in North America and China, growth at GM Financial, cost savings, improvement in South America and continued strong car launches. Shares jumped 5.6% on the news, pushing 12-month gains to 29%, while the S&P 500 has gained about 18%.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Tuesday raised its price and production forecasts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude oil for this year and offered its first projections for 2018. In its monthly energy outlook report, the government agency forecast WTI prices at $52.50 a barrel for this year, up from $50.66 in the December forecast. For 2018, it forecast $55.18. Brent crude is seen at $53.50 this year and $56.18 next year. The EIA also raised its estimate on U.S. crude production to 9 million barrels a day for this year, compared with the previous forecast for 8.78 million. For 2018, it forecast output of 9.3 million barrels a day. February WTI crude traded at $51.47 a barrel, down 49 cents, or 0.9%. March Brent crude shed 63 cents, or 1.2%, to $54.31 a barrel.

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Fitbit has acquired “specific assets” from Vector Watch, a European wearables company, a Fitbit spokesperson told MarketWatch Tuesday. The acquisition does not include the watch company’s hardware products. With the acquisition, Fitbit said it would be starting a development center in Bucharest, Romania. The acquisition announcement follows Fitbit’s acquisition of Pebble’s assets, but not its hardware, in December. Shares of Fitbit were down 5% Tuesday. In the past three months, shares of Fitbit have fallen 47%, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 5%.

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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is paying a $400,000 fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission and admitting allegations it didn’t tell investors about risks from New Jersey roadway projects. The SEC’s order finds that the Port Authority offered and sold $2.3 billion worth of bonds to investors despite internal discussions about whether certain projects outlined in offering documents, including the Pulaski Skyway, ventured outside its mandate and potentially weren’t legal to pursue. The SEC said the Port Authority has become the first municipal issues to admit wrongdoing in an SEC enforcement action.

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Airline stocks soared Tuesday, sparking a sharp rally in the Dow Jones Transportation Average , after upbeat December operations updates helped push the shares of Southwest Airlines Co. and Alaska Air Group Inc. into record territory. The NYSE Arca Airline Index jumped 2.4%, and the Dow transports rallied 1.2%, with the top six gainers being airline stocks. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 45 points, or 0.2%. Alaska Air shares ran up 5.3%, after the carrier said overall December load factor increased 50 basis points (0.5 percentage points) to 83.1%, as a 140 basis point increase in Alaska Airlines’ load factor offset a 140 basis point decline in Virgin America’s load factor. Southwest’s stock climbed 2.9% after boosting Tuesday its outlook for fourth-quarter revenue per available seat miles (RASM) to a decline of 3% to 4% from a decline of 4% to 5% a month ago. Among other airline stocks, United Continental Holdings Inc.’s rose 3.4%, JetBlue Airways Corp.’s gained 3%, Delta Air Lines Inc.’s surged 3% and American Airlines Group Inc.’s advanced 1.8%.

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The London Stock Exchange’s boss Xavier Rolet has warned that hundreds of thousands of British jobs are at risk if euro clearing functions are moved abroad and if there is continued uncertainty over the final shape of Brexit. Speaking in testimony to a U.K. parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Rolet described the impact of clearing changes as “potentially systemic,” given the huge number of transactions that would need to be migrated, Financial News reported. See the full report for more comments from top executives on the Brexit challenges facing the U.K. finance industry.

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Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, said Tuesday he would recuse himself from investigations related to Hillary Clinton if he is confirmed. Congressional Republicans have said they will continue to investigate Clinton’s use of a private server. Sessions, an Alabama Republican, supported Trump during the campaign and was critical of Clinton. During the campaign, Trump suggested Clinton should be jailed over her use of the server. But he said after he won he didn’t want to continue with an investigation.

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Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slumped $2.58, or 1.1% in morning trade Tuesday, enough to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average into negative territory, after analyst Keith Horowitz at rival bank Citigroup Inc. turned bearish on Goldman, on the belief that investors may be too optimistic about revenue growth potential. The price decline was shaving 18 points off the Dow, which was down just 7 points. Horowitz downgraded Goldman to sell from neutral, saying the current stock valuation implies revenue growth of 18% off the 2016 base, while the FactSet revenue consensus for 2017 implies 7.6% growth. “While we expect [Goldman] to see improved trading revenues going forward, the path is relatively uncertain and the bar is relatively high,” Horowitz wrote in a note to clients. Meanwhile, Horowitz raised his stock price target to $225, which is 6.4% below current levels, from $200. The stock has rocketed 32% since the election, on optimism over President-elect Donald Trump’s policy promises to slash regulation and boost fiscal stimulus, which would boost longer-term Treasury yields. In comparison, the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has climbed 17% since the election while the Dow has gained 8.4%.

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