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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision has charged a former Amazon.com Inc. employee with leaking confidential financial data about the company ahead of an earnings announcement, the SEC said on Thursday. Brett Kennedy, a former financial analyst at Amazon, shared first-quarter 2015 financial data with Maziar Rezakhani, a college friend, who paid $10,000 in cash for the tip. Ahead of the company’s first-quarter earnings, Rezakhani bought 4,400 shares of Amazon for $1.7 million and sold the shares after the earnings news was public. Rezakhani made $116,000 in illicit profit from trading, a portion of which he shared with Sam Sadeghi, who was advising him on his brokerage account. Ahead of the earnings announcement, Rezakhani boasted on social media that he was able to accurately predict Amazon’s first-quarter revenue writing, that the “numbers are so obvious” a “5 year old can guess what they will do,” according to an SEC press release. Sadeghi and Kennedy have agreed to monetary settlements with the SEC, and Kennedy has pled guilty to a criminal charge in federal court. He will be sentenced Dec. 8. Rezakhani is currently serving a five year prison term for defrauding a bank, Apple Inc., and shipping and insurance companies. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. Amazon shares were up 1.1% during the regular session.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading in negative territory Thursday afternoon, with shares of Walt Disney Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., proving the biggest drags on the benchmark. Shares of Disney were down $5.13, or 5%, by far the worst performer among the Dow’s 30 components and slicing more than 35 points from the price-weighted gauge. A $1 swing in any Dow component equates to a move of 6.89 points. The Dow was off 47 points, or 0.2% at 21,759, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% at 2,463, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up about 0.1% at 6,396. During a Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the entertainment and media giant will report annual earnings “roughly in line” with what the company generated in fiscal year 2016 at about $5.72, disappointing analysts average, annual estimates for full-year earnings a share of $5.89. Other media stocks also fell on the news, including CBS and 21st Century Fox . Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s shares also pressured the Dow as benchmark yields trade near fresh November lows, at 2.06%, for the 10-year Treasury note . That fact and diminished expectations for more rate increases by the Federal Reserve in 2017 weighs on a bank’s business model. Combined, Goldman and Disney’s stock were dragging the Dow down by about 60 points.

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The Senate approved legislation Thursday extending both the U.S. debt limit and government funding through Dec. 8. The package also doubles the amount of disaster aid approved on Wednesday in the House, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and as Hurricane Irma barrels towards Florida. The $15.25 billion in aid and extensions of the debt limit and regular federal spending now go back to the House for a vote. The Senate bill also extends a federal flood insurance program to Dec. 8. The vote was 80-17, with all “no” votes by Republicans.

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The Food and Drug Administration described “significant violations of current good manufacturing practice” in a warning letter to a Pfizer unit that manufactures Mylan’s EpiPen allergic reaction treatment. The unit, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., “failed to thoroughly investigate multiple serious component and product failures… including failures associated with patient deaths and severe illness,” the warning letter said, referring to an FDA inspection of a Missouri manufacturing facility between February and March of this year. “You also failed to expand the scope of your investigations into these serious and life-threatening failures or take appropriate corrective actions, until FDA’s inspection.” The regulator asked the company to review its manufacturing investigations and provide its plan for addressing safety risks, all within 15 days. If the company doesn’t promptly fix the violations, there may be legal action, and the FDA may not approve applications listing the manufacturing facility, the FDA said. Mylan shares declined nearly 1% in moderate Thursday afternoon trade, while Pfizer shares rose a scant 0.3% in heavy trade, compared with a 0.1% decline in the S&P 500

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A handful of media stocks took a dive on Thursday after Walt Disney Co. warned that the media and entertainment company’s 2017 earnings would be “roughly in line” with last year, and Comcast Corp. management told investors it is likely to lose 150,000 video subscribers during the third quarter. Comcast led the sector down, falling more than 7%, while Disney shares dropped more than 4%. Shares of Altice USA Inc. were down nearly 6% during intraday trade on Thursday, while shares of Viacom Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc. were down more than 4%. CBS Corp. , AMC Networks Inc. and Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. shares fell more than 3%. Shares of Discovery Communications Inc. , MSG Networks Inc. and Dish Network Corp. were down more than 2%. In the year to date, Disney shares are down more than 6%, while shares of Comcast are up nearly 12% and the S&P 500 index is up more than 10% in the year.

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President Donald Trump said Thursday there are “a lot of good reasons” to eliminate the U.S. debt ceiling. Asked by reporters about the borrowing limit, Trump said he was open to getting rid of it. Trump’s remarks follow a Washington Post report that he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed on a plan to eliminate regular votes on the borrowing limit. But the plan would require approval from Congress, and Republicans would likely oppose it.

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A popular way to wager on the financial sector Thursday afternoon was trading below a long-term trend line intraday for the first time in about 14 months. The Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF tumbled 1.9% to 23.83 on Thursday, trading below its 200-day moving average at 23.98 for the first time since early July, according to FactSet data. Market technicians tend to see short-term and long-term moving averages as dividing lines between bullish and bearish trends. Slipping below an average is viewed as a bearish sign. The financial sector has been under recent pressure as Wall Street’s expectations for another interest-rate increase in 2017 has diminished and as benchmark yields have fallen to their lowest level in 2017. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to around 2.06% Thursday after a European Central Bank news conference. Anxieties about North Korea’s recent test of a hydrogen bomb over the Labor Day weekend also have contributed to the swing lower for yields, which move inversely to prices. Recent declines in the 10-year Treasury yield narrows the gap between long- and short-term rates, potentially undercutting banks’ business model of borrowing short term and providing long-term loans. Overall, the stock market was tipping lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.2% at 21,768, the S&P 500 index trading 0.1% lower at 2,463, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was flat at 6,395. U.S. equities had opened slightly higher on the day.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading in negative territory Thursday afternoon, with shares of Walt Disney Co., and Apple Inc., proving the biggest drags on the benchmark. Shares of Disney were down $4.34, or 4.3%, the worst performer among the Dow’s 30 components and slicing almost 30 points from the price-weighted gauge. A $1 swing in any Dow component equates to a move of 6.89 points. The Dow was off nearly 40 points, or 0.2% at 21,766, while the S&P 500 index was down 0.1% at 2,463, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was up about 0.1% at 6,396. During a Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the entertainment and media giant will report annual earnings “roughly in line” with what the company generated in fiscal year 2016 at about $5.72, disappointing analysts average, annual estimates for full-year earnings a share of $5.89. Other media stocks also fell on the news, including CBS and 21st Century Fox . Meanwhile, Apple Inc.’s shares also pressured the Dow after a report from The Wall Street Journal that said the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has been plagued by production glitches as it looks to roll out its latest update to its smartphone lineup with the the iPhone 8. Apples shares were down 62 cents or 0.4%, in most recent trade.

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From:: Stock Market News