Bank of New York Mellon will pay a fine of $3 million for “unsafe and unsound practices” that led to the bank misstating its capital for more than three years, the Federal Reserve Board announced Thursday. …read more
From:: Real Estate Wire
Biggest jump in a month for Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ as health bill is delayed
A popular gauge of volatility, or fear, on Wall Street Tuesday surged by the most since mid-May as the stock market turned firmly lower in afternoon trade. The CBOE Volatility Index was up 12% at 11.07 and on pace to mark its largest daily jump since May 17, when it climbed more than 46%, according to FactSet data. The so-called VIX, otherwise known as the fear gauge, measures options bets on the S&P 500 index 30 days in the future and is used by traders to wager on sharp swings in the market. The indicator is often used as a measure of how investors are positioned for sudden market selloffs, because stocks tend to fall faster than they rise. Wall Street views passage of the health-care legislation as a proxy for President Donald Trump’s ability to get through a raft of other business-friendly laws, including tax cuts, deregulation and infrastructure spending. That trio has helped to push markets to recent repeated records, but doubts around the president’s ability to pass his agenda has often led to downdrafts in assets perceived as risky, like stocks. Tuesday’s action saw technology stocks, as measured by the Nasdaq Composite Index , down 1.3%, take the brunt of the selling pressure. A tech-specific exchange-traded fund, the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF , also was down sharply. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.3% lower, while the S&P 500 was off 0.5%. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF was down 0.5% in recent trade.
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From:: Stock Market News
Oil tallies fourth-straight session rise as analysts forecast a weekly decline in U.S. crude supplies
Oil prices climbed Tuesday for a fourth session in a row, as analyst forecasts pointed to a weekly drop in U.S. crude supplies. The market predicts that output disruptions caused by Tropical Storm Cindy will contribute an inventory decline for last week. August West Texas Intermediate crude added 86 cents, or 2%, to settle at $44.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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.
From:: Stock Market News
U.S. stocks fall to session lows; Nasdaq down more than 1%
U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday, with major indexes nearing their lows of the session and the Nasdaq dropping more than 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 47 points, or 0.2%, to 21,361. The S&P 500 was down 11 points to 2,428, a decline of 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 1.2% to 6,175, a decline of 73 points. The outsize drop in the Nasdaq was due to weakness in the technology sector, which led the day’s decline by falling 1.5%. Among the biggest drags in the index, Google parent Alphabet Inc. fell 2% while Facebook lost 1.5%. Separately, Amazon.com Inc. lost 1.2%. Also impacting markets were Republicans in the U.S. Senate, who opted to postpone a vote on a controversial bill to replace Obamacare with a conservative alternative. Some investors have viewed health-care reform, a major legislative priority for President Donald Trump, as a symbol of how easily Trump can get his economic initiatives through Congress. As markets spiked following his election, in large part on expectations for his agenda, many analysts view getting his bills passed as necessary for justifying current valuations.
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From:: Stock Market News
Senate Republicans delay vote on health bill to replace Obamacare
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)- Republican Senate leaders postponed until after the July 4 holiday a vote on a controversial bill to replace Obamacare with a conservative alternative. The decision Tuesday to put off a vote this week reflects the difficulty Republicans face in lining up enough votes to approve the bill. Right now they lack enough support given their razor-thin majority in the Senate.
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From:: Stock Market News
SEC charges three with insider trading in cancer drug company
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought insider trading charges on Tuesday against two former senior employees and the spouse of a former employee of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc.[s:Aria] for allegedly trading in advance of announcements about U.S. Food and Drug Administration decisions that impacted the sales and marketing of the company’s main cancer drug. According to the SEC’s complaint, Harold Altvater, whose wife was an Ariad employee, allegedly made multiple illegal trades in Ariad stock on the basis of non-public information he learned from her. Maureen Curran, a former Ariad executive, sold Ariad stock in December 2012, after she had attended meetings with the FDA and had learned material nonpublic information regarding a forthcoming FDA decision. Susan Dubuc, another former executive, allegedly tipped relatives in October 2013, one day before Ariad publicly announced a pause in all clinical trials for its FDA-approved drug. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s allegations, Curran and Dubuc have settled with the SEC subject to court approval. Curran agreed to pay $20,248 in disgorgement, penalties and interest. Dubuc agreed to pay $6087. The charges against Altvater are still pending.
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From:: Stock Market News
Gold prices settle higher as U.S. dollar drops, equities weaken
Gold prices settled higher Tuesday, recouping a small part of the hefty losses from a day earlier. Investment demand for the metal got a boost from a sharp decline in the dollar as well as a broad fall in U.S. equities. But prices pared much of their earlier gains as Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen started speaking about global economic issues at an event in London in the minutes ahead of gold’s price settlement. August gold rose 50 cents, or less than 0.05%, to settle at $1,246.90 an ounce.
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From:: Stock Market News
Facebook reaches two billion users
Facebook Inc. announced Tuesday that the company has reached two billion people on its main platform. Facebook had 1.94 billion monthly users in March as well as 1.2 billion on WhatsApp as of February and 1.2 billion on its Messenger app as of April. Instagram had 700 million monthly users as of April. Facebook’s user numbers dwarf social competitor Twitter Inc. , which most recently reported 328 million monthly active users for the first quarter of 2017. Shares of Facebook were down 1% Tuesday. Facebook shares have gained 8% in the last three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 4%.
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From:: Stock Market News
5 Highest Appreciating Home Markets Include 3 Ds
Although two cities located in the Northwest consistently top the list of areas with the fastest-rising home values, a trio of D-cities recently rounded out the top five.
As of April, the Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index was 188.5. Not only were prices the highest they’ve ever been, it was the fifth consecutive monthly record.
A more closely watched index is the Case-Shiller Composite-20 Index, which was 197.19, rising 0.9 percent from March and escalating 5.7 percent from April 2016.
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From:: Financing
Nestle to spend up to $20.8 billion on share buybacks over the next 3 years
Swiss chocolate and snacks giant Nestle S.A. said Tuesday it will buy back up to 20 billion Swiss francs–the equivalent of about $20.78 billion–worth of its common stock starting July 4, 2017 through the end of June 2020. The buyback announcement follows the initiation of a review of the company’s capital structure and priorities to support its “value creation model,” which includes the recent announcement that it was exploring alternatives for its U.S. confectionery business. The company said if any “sizeable” acquisitions are made, the buyback program will be changed accordingly. The stock’s U.S.-listed shares were up 1% in midday trade, while the Swiss-based shares closed down 1.6%. Nestle’s U.S.-listed shares have run up 24% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.9%.
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From:: Stock Market News