Category: Stock Market News

Halliburton Co. said late Friday it settled a 14-year-old class action lawsuit that had gone to the U.S. Supreme Court. Halliburton said it will contribute $54 million to a $100 million settlement fund in its lawsuit with the Erica P. John Fund, with the company’s insurer contributing the rest. The legal fight was considered a test of the right of investors to file a class-action lawsuit based on public misrepresentations. Shares of Halliburton declined 0.1% to $54.77 after hours.

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Halliburton Co. said late Friday it filed papers with Russian regulators to advance a bid to acquire interest in Novomet Oil Services Holding Ltd. The oil-services company said it made a filing with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia in connection with the deal, which includes the possibility of acquiring Novomet outright. “No agreement has been reached to date,” the company said in a statement, which did not include a potential price. “However, Halliburton believes it is beneficial to seek clarity from the FAS at this point in the discussions.” Novomet specializes in artificial lift — the process in which pressure is increased in oil wells to lift crude to the surface — used in electrical submersible pumps. Halliburton shares declined 0.1% to $54.77 after hours.

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U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average logging its seventh straight weekly gain — the longest winning streak in two years. Health-care, consumer-staples and financial shares led the market, offsetting a drop in energy and consumer-discretionary shares to help the S&P 500 climb 2.81 points, or 0.1%, to 2,263.77. The Dow rose 15.13 points, or 0.1%, to 19,933.94, led by Proctor & Gamble Co. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. . The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 15.27 points, or 0.3%, to 5,462.69, with the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology Index , which tracks the benchmark’s biotech stocks, rising more than 2%.

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Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Member Jay D. Hanson notified the audit regulator on Friday of his resignation from its Board. The PCAOB did not provide a reason for his departure.

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Gold prices settled higher Friday but it wasn’t enough to save the precious metal from its seventh weekly loss, its longest weekly string of losses in more than 12 years. Gold for February delivery settled up $2.90, or 0.3%, at $1,133.60 an ounce, as the U.S. Dollar index retreated slightly but was still near its highest levels since December 2002. For the week, gold declined 0.3%. The last time gold had a run of seven weekly losses was back in mid-May 2004, according to Dow Jones data. Silver for March delivery settled down 11.2 cents, or 0.7%, at $15.76 an ounce. For the week, silver finished down 2.4% for the week for its second week of losses.

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing how hackers infiltrated computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for several years beginning in 2010, Reuters reported Friday. Senior FDIC officials believe the breach was sponsored by China’s military, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Hackers gained access to dozens of computers in the breach, including the workstation of former FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair.

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The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 13 to 523 rigs this week. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, also rose by 16 to 653, according to Baker Hughes weekly report. Prices for oil held onto their earlier losses after the rig data. February crude was of 12 cents, or 0.2%, at $52.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for February was off 11 cents, or 0.2%, at $54.94 a barrel.

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Shares of Lockheed Martin Corp. dropped 2.1% in morning trade Friday, after President-elect Donald Trump once again criticized the cost overruns of Lockheed’s F-35 stealth fighter program in a tweet late Thursday. The stock was down as much as 1.8% in intraday trade before bouncing slightly. On Dec. 12, the stock had slumped 2.5% after Trump tweeted that the F-35 program cost was “out of control.” Analyst Robert Stallard at Vertical Research Partners said the F-35 program “has been on schedule and on budget” since 2011. Meanwhile, Boeing Co.’s stock fell 0.4% Trump’s tweet said he asked the company to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet. “Unless the rules of physics have changed, you cannot make a non-stealthy two-engined carrier-based aircraft from the 1980s into a single-engine, multi-role stealth fighter from the 2000s,” Stallard wrote in a note to clients. On Dec. 7, Boeing’s stock had inched higher after a Trump tweeted that costs for Boeing’s Air Force One program were “out of control.” Lockheed shares have climbed 14% year to date and Boeing’s stock has gained 8.4%, while the S&P 500 has rallied 11%.

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U.S. stocks opened marginally lower on Friday as the three main benchmarks struggled to preserve their weekly gains in an environment of intensifying geopolitical uncertainty. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped seven points, or less than 0.1%, to 19,913, but remained on track to notch its 7th straight weekly gain, what would be its longest winning streak in two years. The S&P 500 shed one point to 2,260. The Nasdaq Composite Index declined 3.5 points, or 0.1%, to 5,443. Some of Friday’s big movers include uniform-maker Cintas Corp. which fell after releasing its fiscal 2017 forecast. Shares of Prestige Brands Holdings Inc. , known for its line of over-the-counter enemas and laxatives, also fell. Investors were rattled this week by attacks in Turkey and Germany, as well as news that Australian police foiled a terror plot set for Christmas Day.

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Two suspected hijackers are threatening to blow up an Afriqiyah Airways jet diverted from Libya to Malta on Friday, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing a local government spokesman. Negotiators are talking to the suspects, the WSJ report said. The Airbus 320 was on a domestic flight from Sabha to Libya’s capital Tripoli, carrying 111 passengers, when a hijacker demanded to be taken to the Mediterranean island. A total of 65 passengers has been released so far, some in groups of 25, Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said in a post to Twitter Friday. Of the passengers, 82 are males and 28 females, with one infant, Muscat said. Operations in Malta are being directed by the security services, the Maltese prime minister said, adding that he had spoken to his Libyan counterpart, Faez al Serraj.

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