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SoftBank offers to buy Uber shares at discounted $48 billion valuation: report

A group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp. will seek to buy Uber Technologies Inc. shares that price the company 30% below its most recent valuation of $69 billion, Bloomberg News reported late Monday. The SoftBank-led effort is seeking at least a 14% stake in the ride-hailing company, according to previous reports. The current tender offer to shareholders values Uber at $48 billion, Bloomberg said, and the Japanese tech conglomerate will also seek to invest at least $1 billion in Uber at its $69 billion valuation. Bloomberg said that while the deal is not done, a number of Uber shareholders favor the plan.

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Roku stock continues rampage, closes up 18% after analyst raises price target

Roku Inc. stock surged Monday during the regular session to close up 18% to $46.52, a new record for the streaming device and operating system company. In a note to clients Monday, Needham analyst Laura Martin raised her Roku price to $50 up from $28. Martin rates Roku a buy. In the note to clients, Martin wrote that she views Roku as a pure streaming play, as such services become more popular in the U.S., but without the associated risks of being in the content business. Martin wrote that Netflix Inc. is the closest comparable company because at its core Roku is not an ad-driven business in the same way Facebook Inc. is, or other internet companies that must pay “the Google tax” to generate traffic. Roku stock has jumped 148% in the last month, compared with the S&P 500 index which has gained less than 1%.

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UnitedHealth shares decline following 2018 outlook

UnitedHealth Group Inc. slipped in the extended session Monday after most of the health insurer’s forecast earnings range for next year fell below the Wall Street consensus. UnitedHealth shares declined 1.1% to $210 after hours. The health insurer forecast adjusted earnings of $10.55 to $10.85 a share for the year on revenue of $223 billion to $225 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet estimate earnings of $10.82 a share on revenue of $219.06 billion. The company also affirmed its 2017 outlook of adjusted earnings “approaching” $10 a share on revenue that’s “expected to exceed $200 billion.” Analysts estimate $9.99 a share on revenue of $200.36 billion.

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Airstream parent Thor posts record sales, beats earnings expectations

Shares of Thor Industries Inc. jumped 7% late Monday after the maker of Airstream, Dutchmen, and other RV subsidiaries reported fiscal first-quarter 2018 earnings and sales above Wall Street expectations. Thor said it earned $128.4 million, or $2.43 a share, in the quarter, compared with $78.7 million, or $1.50 a share, in the year-ago period. Sales rose 31% to $2.23 billion, compared with $1.71 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of $1.84 a share on sales of $1.99 billion.

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Alphabet stock closes at record high

Alphabet Inc. Class A stock closed at a record high Monday, up 1.5% to $1,072.01. Shares were flat after hours. Google stock also set an intraday record Monday with shares touching $1,072.18. Of the 43 analysts that cover Alphabet, 37 have a buy or overweight rating and six have a hold, according to FactSet. The average price target is $1,175.65 and the company has beaten analyst models for the past six quarters in a row, according to FactSet. Google Class A stock is up 35% this year, with the S&P 500 index up 16%.

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Dow ekes out gain as energy weakness weighs on stocks

Stocks struggled to gain ground Monday, as a slump by energy shares offset gains for retailers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average bucked the negative backdrop, eking out a gain of around 23 points, or 0.1%, to close near 23,581–just shy of the record close of 23,590.83. The S&P 500 ended less than 0.1% lower near 2,601, while the Nasdaq Composite finished 0.2% lower near 6,879. (An earlier version of the market bulletin incorrectly said the Dow closed at a record. It has been corrected.)

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Reports Address Social Media Use, Risk

One of two recent reports highlights online and social media usage growth among mortgage shoppers. The other looks at some of the risks faced by consumers who use social media.

A recent publication from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Portland, Oregon, division warned consumers about making posts to social media when on vacation.

According to the FBI, in addition to alerting burglars they are away, consumers’ location information can be used to fool family members into paying ransoms. Consumers also can become phishing and malware targets through fake travel alerts.

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New-Home Sales Surge in October

By Susanne Dwyer

New-home sales rose in October, with sales of new, single-family homes up 18.7 percent to 685,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The average new-home sales price was $400,200, while the median was $312,800. New-home listing inventory was 312,800—4.9 months supply.

“In the strongest year-over-year growth we’ve seen since 2017’s first quarter, increasing sales in all four regions drove U.S. new home sales up strongly in October—6.2% from September and 18.7% from one year ago,” said realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “Although there are more new homes for sale, a strong increase in demand favors suppliers, not new home buyers. The month’s supply of new homes for sale is 4.9 months, lower than both September and October 2016 (5.2 months), and substantially lower than the nearly six months of supply we saw in new homes in July and August.

“The pick-up in new home sales should improve builder confidence and lead to more home construction, offering home buyers additional options and creating opportunities for current owners to trade into new homes, potentially unleashing existing home inventory,” Hale continued. “The number of existing homes for sale according to realtor.com data are down 8 percent from a year ago in October and increasing availability of homes for sale would be welcomed by home shoppers.”

Quicken Loans Executive Vice President Bill Banfield offered the following comments on the report: “Especially given the increase in the number of properties sold in which construction hadn’t yet started, we should feel confident that residential building will accelerate in coming months. That said, the high average selling prices pose a hurdle for younger homebuyers entering the market for the first time. A stable job market and sustained low mortgage interest rates continue to increase property prices.”

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

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Seth Meyers will host the 2018 Golden Globes

Comcast Corp.-owned TV network NBC confirmed on Monday that late-night host Seth Meyers will serve as MC of the 75th annual Golden Globe award ceremony on Jan. 7. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association said last week that the NBC host of “Late Night with Seth Meyers” would take the reigns from Jimmy Fallon, who hosted the awards show last year. The Golden Globes, which serve as a kickoff to Hollywood’s awards season, will air on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sunday Jan. 7. The Golden Globe nominations will be announced Monday, Dec. 11.

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WTI oil prices end lower, but off the session’s worst levels

U.S. oil prices settled lower Monday, as traders awaited the outcome of the much-anticipated meeting of major oil producers in Vienna Thursday. But prices finished off the session’s worst levels, finding some support after a report that oil workers in Brazil are set to strike later this week. Oil labor union workers approved a strike starting Wednesday, Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group said, citing a report from Bloomberg. The strike “may not even happen” but the news still helped oil trade off the day’s “correction low,” said Flynn. January West Texas Intermediate crude declined by 84 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $58.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a low at $57.55.

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From:: Stock Market News