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L Brands Inc. shares fell 2.2% on Friday after the company announced that Sharen Jester Turney, chief executive of Victoria’s Secret, resigned. Turney has been with the company for almost 16 years, joining as CEO of Victoria’s Secret Direct and taking over the brand in 2006. She will continue as an adviser. Leslie Wexner, CEO of L Brands, will lead Victoria’s Secret. The brand’s sales have increased more than 70% to $7.7 billion during Turney’s time as CEO, Wexner said in a statement. L Brands shares are down 14.2% for the year so far while the S&P 500 is down 9.2% for the same period.

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Oil’s advance accelerated late Friday morning. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped nearly 12%. Prices found support from comments late Thursday from the United Arabia Emirates’ energy minister who said that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is willing to cooperate on possible production cuts. The market is taking the comments from the UAE minister “seriously because the UAE is doing an about face,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. The country was “saying a month ago a cut was going to be over their dead body basically,” said Flynn. “Well, maybe hell froze over.” March West Texas Intermediate crude jumped $3.13, or 11.9%, to $29.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where it was poised to log a weekly loss of about 5.3% on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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U.S. stocks opened higher on Friday, aided by a jump in oil prices and better-than-expected retail sales data. The main indexes, however, were on track for weekly losses after four consecutive days of losses this week. The S&P 500 opened 15 points, or 0.7%, higher at 1,845. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100 points, or 0.7%, at 15,766 shortly after the open. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite began the day up 40 points, or 1%, at 4,307.

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Shares of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. are up 4.7% in premarket trading after it reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Street estimates and a $100 million share repurchase program. The restaurant chain had net income of $11.7 million, or 84 cents per share, up from $3.9 million, or 28 cents per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were 86 cents per share, beating the FactSet consensus of 81 cents. Revenue totaled $286.3 million, up from $282.1 million last year, but missing the FactSet consensus of $289 million. Same-store sales for the quarter were down 2%, versus a FactSet estimate of a 1.4% decline. The company sees fiscal 2016 revenue growth between 8.5% and 9.5% with same-store sales growth in the low-single digits. Red Robin shares are down 24.6% for the past 12 months while the S&P is down 12.4% for the same period.

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Netflix Inc. was downgraded Friday at FBR & Co., which cited concerns over slowing subscriber growth, increasing competition and cash burn. Analyst Barton Crockett cut his rating on the video streaming service to market perform, after being at outperform for the last 10 months. He slashed his stock price target to $100, which is 16% above Thursday’s closing price of $86.35, from $125. “Slowing subscriber growth is possible if the U.S. market nears saturation,” Crockett wrote in a note to clients. He said competition could come from other streaming video-on-demand providers, such as Amazon Inc. and Hulu, which also offer services with subscription-based models. Crockett also expressed concern that cash spending will be accelerated as Netflix ramps up original hours, driving up negative cash flow this year and in 2017. “Netflix could seek to raise more debt financing for this cash burn, stocking investor concerns about cash burn,” Crockett wrote in a note to clients. The stock, which rose 0.8% in premarket trade, has tumbled 25% so far this year, while the S&P 500 has lost 11%.

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Shares of Square were up 13% Friday after the company disclosed that Visa Inc. had taken a 9.99% ownership stake. With the stake, Visa owns 3,520,210 shares of class A common stock, according to regulatory filings

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Square were up 13% Friday after the company disclosed that Visa Inc. had taken a 9.99% ownership stake. With the stake, Visa owns 3,520,210 shares of class A common stock, according to regulatory filings

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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Deutsche Bank AG on Friday unveiled a multi-billion euro and dollar bond buyback program, confirming media reports from earlier this week. The bank said it is tendering for the purchase of up to 3 billion euros of euro-denominated bonds from five separate series, and up to $2 billion of dollar-denominated bonds from eight series. “The bank’s strong liquidity position allows it to repurchase these securities without any corresponding change to its 2016 funding plan,” the bank said in a statement. The news sent the bank’s shares up 9% in premarket trade, and comes after heavy selling of its stocks and bonds this week on fears about the bank’s financial strength. The selling was so intense that co-CEO John Cryan on Tuesday made a public statement reassuring investors that the bank was ‘rock-solid’.

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IAC/InterActiveCorp was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel on the belief that the company is entering another period of share repurchases. The bank has a price target of $52. Analysts said in a Friday note that the greatest returns at the company were between 2009 and 2012 when the company repurchased almost half of its outstanding shares. IAC is also looking at acquisition opportunities. Since the offer for Angie’s List was rejected and the stock price turned down after, analysts say buybacks are a priority. IAC shares are inactive in premarket trading, but down 37.2% for the past 12 months. The S&P 500 is down 12.4% for the past year.

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Boeing Co.’s stock slipped 0.4% in premarket trade Friday, after the aerospace giant was downgraded at J.P. Morgan in the wake of reports of an accounting probe. Analyst Seth Seifman cut his rating to neutral, after being at overweight for at least the last 3 1/2 years, and slashed his stock price target to $120 from $142. He said he believes the chief risk of a probe into program accounting on the 787 and 747 aircraft, is potential for impaired 787 cash flow expectations. While Seifman believes that outcome is unlikely, “787 cash is central to our investment case and not, therefore, an area where we want to take an incremental risk,” Seifman wrote in a note to clients. He said the probe also saps investor confidence, which has already been running low. Boeing’s stock had tumbled $7.91, or 6.8%, on Thursday–the 2nd-biggest price decline since the company want public in 1972–after Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources, that the SEC was investigating whether Boeing properly accounted for the costs and expected sales of its 787 and 747 aircraft. Boeing declined Thursday to comment on the report. The stock has plunged 25% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 10%.

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