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Offshore drilling company Transocean Ltd. said Friday it will take an impairment charge of $1.4 billion in the third quarter to cover the costs of retiring six rigs. The ultra-deepwater rigs to be retired are GSF Jack Ryan, Sedco Energy, Sedco Express, Cajun Express, Deepwater Pathfinder, and the deepwater floater Transocean Marianas, the company said in a statement. The rigs will be put up for sale and recycled. Shares have fallen 38% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.

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Uber London Ltd.’s license to operate won’t be renewed, London’s transportation regulator said Friday. Transport for London said its review of the service found Uber demonstrated a lack of corporate responsibility in a number of issues, including its approach to reporting serious criminal offenses. “TfL has concluded that Uber London Limited is not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence,” TfL said in a statement. Uber’s license to operate as a private hire service is set to expire on Sept. 30. Uber may appeal the decision, said TfL.

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U.S. stock futures pointed to opening losses for Wall Street on Friday, after North Korea reportedly threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean. Speaking in New York at a United Nations meeting, North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said late Thursday his country might consider a nuclear test of “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid 61 points, or 0.3%, to 22,271, while S&P 500 futures lost 7.1 points, or 0.3%, to 2,493.75. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 27 points, or 0.5%, to 5,918.50. The losses were in line with weaker Asian markets, where the South Korean Kospi index fell 0.7%. Gold , an asset that grows attractive in times of geopolitical tension, pushed back above the $1,300-an-ounce level, gaining $6.80, while the Japanese yen, another haven asset, surged against the dollar to ¥111.76 from ¥112.47 in late North American trade on Thursday. U.S. stocks retreated from record levels on Thursday as the Dow industrials snapped a nine-day winning streak.

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North Korea’s foreign minister said late Thursday the country may test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Speaking in New York at a United Nations meeting, Ri Yong Ho said North Korea might consider a nuclear test of “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific, although he said he did not know leader Kim Jon Un’s exact thoughts. Ri’s comments came shortly after Kim released a statement threatening to make President Donald Trump “pay dearly” for his fiery speech to the U.N. on Tuesday, in which he threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea. North Korea has never tested a nuclear weapon outside its borders, and a blast in the Pacific could potentially threaten the U.S. and other countries with radioactive fallout.

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All 50 state Medicaid directors have come out against Senate Republicans’ latest bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, joining the chorus of opposition from health and insurance groups. In a statement Thursday, the bipartisan National Association of Medicaid Directors warned the so-called Graham-Cassidy bill would place a huge financial burden on states. “Taken together, the per-capita caps and the envisioned block grant would constitute the largest intergovernmental transfer of financial risk from the federal government to the states in our country’s history,” the group said. NAMD also said the bill vastly underestimates the ability of states to create their own health-care programs in just two years, as the bill requires. “The vast majority of states will not be able to do so within the two-year timeframe envisioned here, especially considering the apparent lack of federal funding in the bill to support these critical activities,” they said. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure next week. Almost every major health-care organization, key Republican governors and a major insurance lobby have come out opposing the bill.

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North Korea’s foreign minister said late Thursday the country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Speaking in New York at a United Nations meeting, Ri Yong Ho said North Korea might consider a nuclear test of “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific, although he said he did not know leader Kim Jon Un’s exact thoughts. The news sent the Japanese yen, a haven asset, surging higher. The U.S. dollar, which was as high as 112.55 yen before the announcement, fell as low as 112.20 yen after. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, the dollar was trading at 112.26 yen . The dollar rose against the South Korean won, last at 1,133.89 won from an earlier low of 1,131.28.

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

North Korea’s foreign minister said late Thursday the country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The news sent the Japanese yen, a haven asset, higher. The U.S. dollar, which was as high as 112.55 yen before the announcement, fell as low as 112.20 yen after. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, the dollar was trading at 112.26 yen .

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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Paul Manafort was placed under FBI surveillance after he left the Trump campaign in August 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing U.S. officials familiar with the matter. On Monday, CNN reported the FBI had wiretapped Trump’s former campaign chairman as late as this year, but did not say when the surveillance began. The Journal said the surveillance — which had been approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court — did not include listening to Manafort’s phone calls in real-time. Manafort’s spokesman told the Journal that he may have gotten caught in the crossfire of a politically motivated investigation. “It’s unclear if Paul Manafort was the objective,” Jason Maloni said. “Perhaps the real objective was Donald Trump.” Manafort’s home was raided by the FBI in July, and his his spokesman, Maloni, has been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election-meddling. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that while Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman, he had offered to give private campaign briefings to a Russian billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. plans to cut about 10% of its staff, or 5,000 workers, Bloomberg News reported Thursday evening based on anonymous sources. HPE has been in constant flux since Chief Executive Meg Whitman split the former Hewlett-Packard in two in 2015, creating the business-focused company she runs and HP Inc. , the consumer-focused printer and personal-computer business. After HPE’s most recent earnings report, which came on the heels of a spin-off of much of HPE’s software business, Whitman said HPE was about to enter into a new program called HPE Next to “simplify how we work.” HPE shares gained 0.7% in late trading Thursday, after closing with a 1.2% gain at $13.79.

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