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Peabody Energy Corp. led coal stocks lower Thursday after Moody’s Investors Service issued a weak forecast for the coal industry. “The outlook for the North American coal industry remains negative amid ongoing challenges for both metallurgical and thermal coal, including declining coal consumption and low met
coal prices,” said Moody’s in a report. Peabody shares slumped 8.8% to $18.88 while Arch Coal Inc. retreated 7.3% to $3.06 and Consol Energy Inc. dropped 5.8% to $9.25.

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Hurricane Joaquin remains a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but maximum sustained winds have strengthened to 125 miles per hour from 120 miles per hour earlier Thursday, the National Hurricane Center reported. The storm is already creating hurricane conditions in parts of the central and southeastern Bahamas, and is expected to hit the northwestern part of the islands by Friday, the NHC said in its latest advisory. After that, the storm’s path is unpredictable, although it is expected to affect parts of the southeastern coast of the United States later today. “Regardless of Joaquin’s track, a prolonged period of elevated water levels and large waves will affect the mid-Atlantic region, causing significant beach and dune erosion with moderate coastal flooding likely,” said the advisory. Other forecasters said Joaquin could still make landfall further north on the U.S. East Coast, and will certainly bring plenty of rainfall over the weekend. “The East Coast will see significant impacts from the larger scale weather pattern taking shape,” said Weather.com.

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General Motors Co. unveiled on Thursday a car-sharing program for a limited number of New York City residents, as part of the car maker’s plan to expand urban mobility options worldwide. The new program, called “Let’s Drive NYC,” is available to residents of The Ritz Plaza, a luxury apartment building with 479 units near Times Square owned by Stonehenge Partners. With periodic apartment lease payments, users will receive electronic credits valid for three hours of rental a month, and have access to parking in 200 garages in Manhattan managed by Icon Parking. On top of that, users will pay less than $10 an hour, or up to $75 for a 24-hour reservation. “We view evolving consumer preferences, such as car-sharing, as real business opportunities, where we can quickly build on our existing capabilities such as OnStar connectivity to very effectively meet customer needs,” said GM President Dan Ammann. GM’s stock rose 1.4% in morning trade, after reporting a 12.5% rise in vehicle sales for September. The stock has lost 7.8% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has declined 7.9%.

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Apple Inc. added former Boeing Chief Financial Officer James Bell to its board of directors on Thursday. Bell, who was a 38-year veteran of Boeing until he retired in 2012, served as the company’s head of finance for nearly nine years. In 2005, he briefly served as interim CEO in addition to his role as CFO. Earlier in his career, he oversaw Boeing Capital Corp. and Boeing Shared Services. In addition to Apple, Bell also serves as a member of the boards of JP Morgan Chase , Dow Chemical , CDW and a Trustee of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. Shares of Apple fell 2.3% to $107.71 in recent trade, following a broader market decline that had the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 100 points in late-morning trade. Its shares are down 15% over the last three months, versus an 8.7% decline for the broader Dow 30. “I’m confident that he will make many important contributions to Apple,” Apple Chairman Art Levinson said in a statement.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A rate rise in October is possible, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t see why not,” Lacker said. “We will have another labor market report. Presumably that will move us further toward labor market improvement.” Lacker dissented from the last Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates near zero, as they have stood since the end of 2008.

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Netflix Inc. said it will add seven new original series to its slate of kids programming, beginning in December. “Roughly half of our 65 million members around the world regularly watch kids content and with the addition of these seven diverse original series we are continuing our strong investment in kids programming,” said Netflix’s director of global kids content Andy Yeatman. The new shows Netflix will launch are “Lego Bionicle: The Journey to One” (2016), “Lego Friends: The Power of Friendship” (2016), “Buddy Thunderstruck” (2017), “Las Leyendas” (2017), “Dawn of the Groods” (Dec. 24), “Glitter Force” (Dec. 18) and “Lost & Found Music Studios” (2016).

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Shares of Twitter Inc. were down 3.5% Thursday, ahead of an expected announcement from the company naming Jack Dorsey as chief executive. Recode first reported Wednesday that Twitter could choose Dorsey, who is the interim CEO of Twitter and CEO of Square, as its CEO as soon as today. Nomura analysts said they are positive on the choice because naming Dorsey should mean that other executives, such as Chief Financial Officer Anthony Noto and Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain stay. But the analysts expressed concern over Dorsey acting as the CEO of two companies. “The notion that Jack Dorsey would serve as CEO of two public companies gives us pause, particularly given that concerns persist regarding Twitter’s user growth trajectory and ability to stem deceleration in monetization trends,” the analysts wrote.

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U.S. stocks opened slightly higher Thursday as better-than-expected data from China and rising commodity prices helped boost sentiment. The S&P 500 opened 4 points, or 0.2%, higher at 1,923. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 41 points, or 0.3%, to 16,328. The Nasdaq Composite began the day up 5 points, or 0.1%, at 4,624.

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Microsoft Corp. was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Thursday. The bank also raised its stock target on Microsoft to $46 from $39 previously, which implies a 4% improvement from Wednesday’s closing price. The upgrade reflects easier year-over-year comparisons in upcoming quarters and potential upside in its commercial cloud business. However, the analysts still have “a number of concerns,” notably with Windows 10 and the potential for a longer-than-expected transition to the cloud. Shares of Microsoft were up 0.9% to $44.66 in premarket trade. They are down 0.5% over the last three months, versus a 7.5% decline for the broader S&P 500.

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Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc.’s stock tumbled 8.7% in premarket trade Thursday, after the coffee and donut retail chain provided a disappointing third-quarter sales outlook. In a presentation prepared for its analyst day, the company said third-quarter U.S. same-store sales grew 1.1%. The estimates of the two analysts providing forecasts to FactSet were 2% and 2.7%. The company said it expects full-year 2015 earnings per share of $1.87 to $1.91, which is below the FactSet consensus of $1.92, and revenue growth of 6% to 8%, while the FactSet consensus of $808.1 million implies growth of 7.9%. Dunkin’ Brands said it plans to close 100 U.S. Dunkin’ Donuts stores in 2015 and 2016. The company said it would launch a test of mobile ordering in Portland in November, with plans to expand nationwide in 2016. The company will make Apple Pay available in its stores in 2016. The stock has lost 11% over the past three months through Wednesday, but was still up 15% year to date while the S&P 500 was down 6.7%.

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