Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ comment was improvised and surprised aides: report

President Donald Trump’s threat to bring “fire and fury” down on North Korea was entirely improvised and caught his aides by surprise, the New York Times reported Wednesday, citing several people with direct knowledge of what unfolded. Trump appeared to look at a single page of talking points when he made the threat but the piece of paper was a fact sheet on the opioid crisis, the report said.

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From:: Stock Market News

Crocs shares reverse to gains after post-earnings conference call

Crocs Inc. shares have swung to a 6.2% increase after falling as much as 3.5% in Wednesday premarket trading. The shoe company’s shares fell after it gave weak third-quarter guidance, forecasting sales between $230.0 million and $240.0 million, below the $247.5 million FactSet consensus. On the earnings call, the company said the guidance includes the impact of store closures, with 25 stores expected to shutter in the the third quarter. The company closed or transferred 39 stores during the second quarter. Earnings and sales beat consensus. Crocs shares are up more than 38% for the last three months. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 7.6% for the period, and the S&P 500 index is up 3% for the last three months.

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From:: Stock Market News

Birchbox in acquisition talks with a number of retailers, including Wal-Mart: Recode

Birchbox, the subscription beauty service, has been in talks with a number of retailers about being acquired, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , according to Recode. Wal-Mart has recently purchased a number of online sites, including ModCloth and Bonobos. It paid more than $3 billion for Jet.com in 2016. Marc Lore, Walmart U.S.’s e-commerce head, was in discussions with Birchbox’s Chief Executive and Co-Founder Katia Beauchamp. Birchbox underwent two rounds of layoffs in 2016 after investment stalled. It generates $200 million in annual sales, according to Recode. The company had to secure $15 million in investment last summer after a focus on e-commerce growth. They’ve raised more $80 million in total and some of that is coming due. Wal-Mart shares are up 0.3% in Wednesday trading, and up 17.7% for the year so far, outpacing the S&P 500 index , which is up 10.3% for 2017 so far.

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From:: Stock Market News

Refinances Lead Mortgage Applications Higher

While applications for loans to finance a home purchase saw a 1 percent week-over-week gain, applications for loans to refinance an existing mortgage led an overall increase.

During the seven days that concluded on Aug. 4, retail applications for residential loans rose a seasonally adjusted 3 percent from the prior week based on the Market Composite Index.

Even without any seasonal adjustments, the index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — still increased 3 percent from the preceding seven day period.


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From:: Financing

Disney, Goldman stocks exact steeper toll than North Korea on Dow

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is being weighed down by a steep drop in shares of Walt Disney Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in early trade Wednesday. Disney’s shares were contributing to a 35-point slump in the price-weighted blue-chip equity gauge, representing the lion’s share, or more than half, of the benchmark’s early morning retreat. Goldman’s stock , meanwhile, was sapping about 12 points from the Dow. All totaled, the pair exacted a nearly 50-point toll on the blue-chip average. Wall Street also is reacting to a flare-up in military tensions after North Korea threatened to launch a missile strike aimed at U.S. territory Guam, underlining deteriorating relations between Washington and Pyongyang. Still, the majority of the slide in the Dow appeared to be largely pegged to Disney’s late-Tuesday announcement, along with quarterly earnings, that it would launch an ESPN streaming service in 2018 and a direct-to-consumers offering in 2019, as it ends its distribution deal with Netflix Inc. . Overall, the Dow was off 50 points, or 0.2%, at 22,035, while the S&P 500 index was trading 0.2% lower at 2,469, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.5% lower at 6,340. Mounting political tensions have cast a downbeat shadow over markets but the decline so far appears to be relatively muted.

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From:: Stock Market News

EIA reports crude oil inventories fell 6.5 million barrels last week

U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels to 1.15 billion barrels while gasoline inventories rose 3.4 million barrels to 231.1 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 4, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Data from the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday also showed that crude inventories fell 7.8 million barrels, while gasoline inventories increased 1.5 million barrels during the week. The data are having a muted impact on the market as the sharp drop in crude inventory is being canceled out by the gain in gasoline supply. West Texas Intermediate futures were mostly flat at $49.17 a barrel.

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From:: Stock Market News

FBI raided Paul Manafort’s home to aid special counsel investigation: report

FBI agents raided the home of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, late last month, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the special-counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The Post report said the raid came before dawn and without warning, and was conducted to seize documents and other materials. The significance of the records seized from Manafort’s apartment is unclear, the report added. NBC News reported that a Manafort spokesman had confirmed the raid occurred.

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From:: Stock Market News

Disney stock exacts steeper toll than North Korea on Dow

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is being weighed down by a steep drop in shares of Walt Disney Co. in early trade Wednesday. Disney’s shares were contributing to a 36-point slump in the price-weighted blue-chip equity gauge, representing the lion’s share, or more than half, of the benchmark’s early morning retreat. Wall Street also is reacting to a flare-up in tensions after North Korea threatened to launch a missile strike aimed at U.S. territory Guam, underlining deteriorating relations between Washington and Pyongyang. Still, the majority of the slide in the Dow appeared to be largely pegged to Disney’s late-Tuesday announcement, along with quarterly earnings, that it would launch an ESPN streaming service in 2018 and a direct-to-consumers offering in 2019, as it ends its distribution deal with Netflix Inc. . Overall, the Dow was off 66 points, or 0.3%, at 22,022, while the S&P 500 index was trading 0.4% lower at 2,465, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.7% lower at 6,327. Rising political tensions have cast a downbeat shadow over markets but the ultimately decline appears to be relatively muted in early trade.

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From:: Stock Market News

Ben Carson offers hope to soon-to-be ghost town

Residents in the soon-to-be ghost town of Cairo, Illinois, explained they received their first sliver of hope in years after a visit from HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Carson assured the town’s residents the agency would do everything in its power to help them remain in the town, despite the pending demolition of its two main housing complexes. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire

Disney stock exacts bigger toll than North Korea on Dow industrials

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is being weighed down by a steep drop in shares of Walt Disney Co. in early trade Wednesday. Disney’s shares were contributing to a 36-point slump in the price-weighted blue-chip equity gauge, representing the lion’s share, or more than half of the benchmark’s early morning retreat. Wall Street also is reacting to a flare-up in tensions after North Korea threatened to launch a missile strike aimed at U.S. territory Guam, underlining deteriorating relations between Washington and Pyongyang. Still, the majority of the slide in the Dow appeared to be largely peggerd to Disney’s late-Tuesday announcement, along with quarterly earnings, that it would launch an ESPN streaming service in 2018 and a direct-to-consumers offering in 2019, as it ends its distribution deal with Netflix Inc. . Overall, the Dow was off 66 points, or 0.3%, at 22,022, while the S&P 500 index was trading 0.4% lower at 2,465, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was 0.7% lower at 6,327. Rising political tensions have cast a downbeat shadow over markets but the ultimately decline appears to be relatively muted in early trade.

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