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President Donald Trump may return to Washington on Monday for the day from his working vacation, Politico reported Friday. An updated schedule reviewed by Politico said Trump is scheduled to fly back to Washington Monday morning and return to New York City Monday evening. It wasn’t clear why Trump is returning in the middle of his planned 17-day summer break, however. Politico said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

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From:: Stock Market News

The selloff in Amazon.com Inc.’s stock over the past couple weeks has knocked Founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos down to third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Friday morning. Bezos’s net worth declined $2 billion Thursday to $82.2 billion, while Spanish retail mogul Amancio Ortega’s net worth declined just $833 million to $82.8 billion to take over second place. Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates has a firm hold on first place at $90.0 billion. Bezos had spent half a day as the world’s richest man on July 27, when Amazon’s stock shot up as much as 2.9% to an all-time intraday high of $1,083.31, before reversing to close down 0.6%. The stock has now lost 8.8% since closing at a record $1,052.80 on July 26. Over the same time, the Nasdaq Composite has slipped 2.7% and the S&P 500 has eased 1.3%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The selloff in Amazon.com Inc.’s stock over the past couple weeks has knocked Founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos down to third place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Friday morning. Bezos’s net worth declined $2 billion Thursday to $82.2 billion, while Spanish retail mogul Amancio Ortega’s net worth declined just $833 million to $82.8 billion to take over second place. Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates has a firm hold on first place at $90.0 billion. Bezos had spent half a day as the world’s richest man on July 27, when Amazon’s stock shot up as much as 2.9% to an all-time intraday high of $1,083.31, before reversing to close down 0.6%. The stock has now lost 8.8% since closing at a record $1,052.80 on July 26. Over the same time, the Nasdaq Composite has slipped 2.7% and the S&P 500 has eased 1.3%.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday was trying to halt a three-session downdraft, with its early rise supported by a rise in shares of Apple Inc. and Home Depot. Apple’s stock , and those of Home Depot Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. were contributing more than 30 points to the price-weighted Dow , helping it to pare its weekly decline to 0.9%. Apple alone was adding 17 points to the Dow, which was up 0.2% at 21,893, after tumbling more than 200 points on Thursday amid intensifying threats between the U.S. and North Korea. Overall, the market was bucking up, with the S&P 500 index adding 0.3% at 2,445, and the Nasdaq Composite Index , which suffered the steepest decline in the prior session, gaining 0.6% to 6,252. Fears of a military clash between Pyongyang and Washington have pushed investors into so-called haven assets like gold future and the 10-year benchmark Treasury and out of those perceived to be risky like stocks. The S&P 500 is looking at a weekly drop of 1.2%, while the Nasdaq is setting up for a weekly fall of 1.5%.

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The two largest exchange-traded funds offering exposure to emerging-market equities fell on Friday, extending a week that has the pair on track for their biggest one-week decline since December. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is off 2.7% thus far this week, while the Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF is off 2.3%. Both are on track for their biggest weekly decline since December. The emerging-markets region came under pressure this week amid growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. On Thursday, President Donald Trump said perhaps his threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea “maybe wasn’t tough enough.” The iShares fund dipped 0.1% in its third straight daily decline on Friday, slightly extending a drop of nearly 2.4% it underwent on Thursday, which was the biggest one-day drop for the fund since mid-December. Vanguard’s ETF has dropped for four straight sessions, including a 2.3% slump on Thursday that represented its own worst session since December. On Friday, shares were flat. In the U.S., the S&P 500 is down 1.5% on the week, its biggest one-week drop since November.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stock-index benchmarks opened slightly higher on Friday, but equities were on pace for its ugliest week in months amid intensifying rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading up 0.2% at 21,894, while the S&P 500 index was up by 0.2% at 2,442, and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.3% at 6,236. For the week, the Dow is looking at a roughly 1% drop, the S&P 500 is on track for a drop of 1.6% decline, while the Nasdaq was set for a weekly slump of 1.9%. Stocks were set to extend what has been its worst succession of down days since April, until inflation data was released. The consumer-price index showed a rise to a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in July, its fifth straight month of softness, raising more questions about whether inflation will eventually rise to hit the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual rate target. Investors have been dumping assets considered risky as U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated a war of words with North Korean leaders, saying on Thursday that perhaps his threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea “maybe wasn’t tough enough.”

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From:: Stock Market News

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was upgraded to overweight from equal-weight at Stephens on the belief that investments in things like lower prices, staff and e-commerce capabilities have created an in-store experience that should continue to have momentum. The food retail sector has become increasingly competitive and more promotional as grocers prepare for the Lidl expansion and the Amazon.com Inc. bid to buy Whole Foods Market Inc. , Stephens writes, but Wal-Mart is “well positioned to compete on these fronts.” Investments in staff training and a decline in turnover has improved traffic to stores and customer satisfaction. And its willingness to innovate and acquire e-commerce companies is a positive. “Even with the recent increase in the stock price, we believe this is an attractive entry point for shares given what we see as a path to accelerating earnings in fiscal 2019,” the note said. Wal-Mart shares are up 16.7% for the year so far, outpacing the S&P 500 index , which is up 9% for the period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 10.5% for 2017 so far.

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Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it laid off one-fifth of its workforce, or 60 employees, as part of a cost cutting plan. The biopharmaceutical company expects to save $3.7 million to $4.3 million in fiscal 2018 from the job cuts, and more than $7 million in operating expenses beginning in fiscal 2019. The company said it cut its research and development workforce in half to 11 employees. The company expects to take a one-time charge of $1.1 million to $1.7 million for the job cuts during the second quarter of fiscal 2018. “While this was a difficult decision, our board and management team believe it was a necessary step as we continue to evaluate strategic options to further strengthen our two distinct businesses and seek to maximize shareholder value,” said Chief Executive Steven King. The layoffs come a month after the company announced plans to expand its board of directors. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has tumbled 14% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.8%.

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YogaWorks priced its initial public offering at $5.50 a share, the low end of its revised price range, Renaissance Capital said Friday. The company, which owns and operates 50 yoga studios in the U.S., sold 7.3 million shares to raise $40 million, said Renaissance, a manager of IPO-focused ETFS. The company pulled a deal planned for July, citing market conditions, although the timing coincided with valuation cuts in other recent IPOs. The company is listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “YOGA”. Cowen & Co., Stephens Inc. and Guggenheim Securities were underwriters on the deal.

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From:: Stock Market News

DryShips Inc. said Friday it has approved the sale of $100 million worth of its common stock at $2.75 a share to entities affiliated with Chief Executive George Economou. The price represents a 34% premium to Thursday’s closing price of $2.05. The shipping company said it also approved a rights offering allowing shareholders to buy their pro rata portion of up to $100 million worth of stock at $2.75 each. The company plans to use the proceeds from the rights offering will be used for general corporate purposes, vessel acquisitions or to pay down debt. The stock was halted in the premarket for news. It has plunged 99% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.8%. The stock has undergone five reverse stock splits so far this year, effectively increasing the price of each share by a multiple of 7,840.

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From:: Stock Market News