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Shares of Macy’s Inc. rose Wednesday after Jeff Smith, chief executive of the hedge fund Starboard, said at the Delivering Alpha investment conference that the retailer was worth more than $125 a share. In a panel discussion, Smith cited Macy’s real-estate properties, including its stores in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Excluding the company’s credit-card operations and real estate, investors are getting “core operating profit for free,” he said. MarketWatch is live streaming all the market-moving developments from the Delivering Alpha event.

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Nike Inc. has inked the biggest apparel deal in college sports in an agreement with the University of Michigan, Jim Hackett, the school’s interim athletic director, announced at a press conference Wednesday. The $169 million deal begins August 1, 2016 – when Michigan’s deal with Adidas expires – and runs through 2027, with an option to extend to 2031. The deal beat out Under Armour Inc.’s agreement with Notre Dame signed last year, which was valued at $90 million for 10 years. Nike beat out Under Armour and Adidas for the deal.

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Shares of Facebook Inc. rose to their 52-week high on Wednesday after a J.P. Morgan analyst reiterated his overweight rating on the stock. “Facebook remains our top pick in 2015 as we believe it’s still early in monetizing Facebook’s base of 1.44 billion users and the company is building other strong franchises in Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp,” said analyst Doug Anmuth in a note. Anmuth also expects the social networking company to report ad revenue in excess of his $3.79 billion-estimate when it releases quarterly results on July 29. Analysts surveyed by FactSet project the company to post second-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share, up from 42 cents a share a year earlier. Facebook shares climbed 0.8% to $90.42 as of mid-day. Anmuth has a price target of $100 on the stock.

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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Oil prices continued to decline after the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported a drop of 4.3 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended July 10. Analysts polled by Platts forecasted a crude-stock fall of 1.8 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday said supplies declined by 7.3 million barrels, according to sources. Gasoline supplies rose 100,000 barrels and distillate stockpiles climbed by 3.8 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. August crude was at $52.24 a barrel, down 80 cents, or 1.5%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $52.40 before the report.

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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Ever since Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced in late June that Puerto Rico’s $72 billion in outstanding debt is “not payable”, the small U.S. territory has been at the spotlight of investors’ debates, along with Greece and China. On Wednesday, the question whether Puerto Rico is a danger or an opportunity divided members of a panel on global investing at the Delivering Alpha conference by CNBC and Institutional Investor. On the bullish side, Richard Perry, CEO of hedge fund Perry Capital, said that the U.S. territory has been mischaracterized as “the next Detroit” and in fact could be a good investment especially as its bonds are currently trading at a huge discount. Perry focused on Puerto Rico’s debt to GDP ratio, which currently stands at slightly over 70%, arguing that it is in fact much lower than most indebted municipalities and sovereign countries, including Greece. On the bearish side was Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, who claimed that from an economic growth standpoint and based on fundamentals, Puerto Rico’s economy looks much worse than Detroit’s – which in turn has the worst fundamentals in the entire U.S.

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U.S. stocks struggled to take flight Wednesday as investors assessed a batch of economic data and testimony from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who repeated her plan to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade sometime this year. The S&P 500 was marginally higher at 2,110, or up 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was switching between gains and losses, but mostly flat at 18,053, and the Nasdaq Composite began the day nearly 8 points higher at 5,112, up 0.1%.

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

U.S. stocks struggled to take flight Wednesday as investors assessed a batch of economic data and testimony from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who repeated her plan to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade sometime this year. The S&P 500 was marginally higher at 2,110, or up 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was switching between gains and losses, but mostly flat at 18,053, and the Nasdaq Composite began the day nearly 8 points higher at 5,112, up 0.1%.

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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Trian Partners founder Nelson Peltz said he’s holding on to DuPont stock after losing a high-profile proxy battle earlier this year. Noting the stock has fallen from around $80 a share at the time of the vote to around $59, Peltz told the Delivering Alpha conference sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor. “If the election was held today, what do you think the results would be?” Peltz asked during a panel discussion. Peltz said he was holding on to shares of DuPont, saying he would rather be “rich than right.”

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

Trian Partners founder Nelson Peltz said he’s holding on to DuPont stock after losing a high-profile proxy battle earlier this year. Noting the stock has fallen from around $80 a share at the time of the vote to around $59, Peltz told the Delivering Alpha conference sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor. “If the election was held today, what do you think the results would be?” Peltz asked during a panel discussion. Peltz said he was holding on to shares of DuPont, saying he would rather be “rich than right.”

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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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Industrial production rose 0.3% in June and capacity utilization continued to grow, according to data released by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 0.1% rise. The gain came despite a 3.7% drop in the output of motor vehicles and parts, as other durable goods and consumer energy products improved. Capacity utilization rose to 78.4% from an upwardly revised 78.2%, faster than the 78.1% expected.

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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