Baker Hughes shares rally on report of GE buyout talks

Baker Hughes Inc. shares jumped in the extended session Thursday following a report that General Electric Co. was in talks to acquire the oil-field services company. Baker Hughes shares rallied 15% to $62.50 after hours, while GE shares slipped 1.4% to $28.22. Late Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that talks to acquire Baker Hughes, which has a market cap of $23 billion, were ongoing, citing people familiar with the matter. At Thursday’s close, Baker Hughes shares were up 18% year to date, but were off 28% from a five-year high set back in July 2014.

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Amazon’s stock drops below 8 1/2-month long uptrend line and 50-day moving average

Amazon.com Inc. bulls beware, because the 5.1% after-hours tumble in the stock, after the e-commerce giant missed earnings expectations, may have marked the end of an 8 1/2-month long uptrend. The stock had closed Thursday at $818.36, right at an uptrend line that started at the Feb. 9 closing low, and also connected the closing lows in mid-September and last week. The break of an uptrend line suggests a new downtrend may be starting. The stock was trading around $777 after the close, which would also put it below its 50-day moving average, which extended to $799.05. The last time the stock closed below the 50-day MA, which many chart watchers use to track the short-term trend, was March 21. The stock had run up 70% while above the uptrend line through Thursday, and 46% while it has been above its 50-day MA. In comparison, the S&P 500 has climbed 15% since Feb. 9.

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McKesson shares drop on earnings miss, weak outlook

McKesson Corp. shares dropped in the extended session Thursday after the healthcare services company’s quarterly results and forecast fell short of Wall Street estimates. McKesson shares dropped 7.8% to $148 after hours. The company reported adjusted fiscal second-quarter earnings of $2.94 a share on revenue of $50 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $3.04 a share on revenue of $51.2 billion. For the year, McKesson said it expects adjusted earnings of $12.35 to $12.85 a share, while analysts forecast earnings of $13.56 a share.

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Amgen beats profit expectations and raises its outlook

Shares of Amgen Inc. fell 1.3% in after-hours trade Thursday, after the biotechnology company beat third-quarter earnings expectations and raised its profit outlook, but kept its sales outlook virtually unchanged. Earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to $2.01 billion, or $2.68 a share, from $1.86 billion, or $2.44 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to $3.02, above the FactSet consensus of $2.79. Revenue rose 2% to $5.81 billion from $5.72 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $5.73 billion, although sales of its top two selling drugs–Enbrel and Neulasta–fell shy of estimates. For 2016, Amgen boosted its adjusted EPS outlook to $11.40 to $11.55 from $11.10 to $11.40, compared with the FactSet consensus of $11.36. The revenue outlook was revised slightly to $22.6 billion to $22.8 billion from $22.5 billion to $22.8 billion; the FactSet consensus is $22.8 billion. The stock had slipped 1.1% year to date through Thursday’s close, while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF tumbled 19% and the S&P 500 gained 4.4%.

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Expedia shares slide on disappointing quarterly earnings

Shares of Expedia Inc. fell in Thursday’s extended session after the online travel company posted weaker-than-expected earnings. Expedia reported its third-quarter earnings slipped to $279.3 million, or $1.81 a share, from $283.2 million, or $2.12 a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned $2.41 a share. Revenue rose 33% to $2.58 billion while gross bookings grew 21% to $18.59 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $2.47 a share on revenue of $2.54 billion. Expedia shares dropped more than 2% after hours.

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Google parent Alphabet beats earnings forecast

Alphabet Inc. gained slightly in late trading Thursday after the web giant reported better-than expected earnings and revenue. Google’s parent company reported net income of $5.06 billion, or $7.25 a share on revenue of $22.45 billion. After adjustments for stock-based compensation and other effects, the company said profit was $9.06 a share, and revenue without traffic-acquisition costs was $18.27 billion. Analysts on average expected Alphabet to report adjusted profit of $8.62 cents a share with ex-TAC revenue of $18 billion. Alphabet shares initially jumped about 2.5% after the report hit, but then retreated to a smaller gain of less than 1%.

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Amazon.com shares fall 5% on earnings miss

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. fell more than 5% late Thursday after the e-commerce giant reported earnings below analyst expectations and sales that were merely in line with forecasts. Amazon.com said it earned $252 million in the third quarter, or 52 cents a share, compared with $79 million, or 17 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2015. Sales rose 29% to $32.7 billion, compared with $25.4 billion a year ago, the company said. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected the e-commerce giant to report earnings of 77 cents a share on sales of $32.69 billion. Shares of Amazon.com had ended the regular trading session down 0.5%.

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UPS’s ORION on pace for up to $350 million in savings

There’s no wonder United Parcel Service Inc.’s has sped up the implementation of its own route optimization and navigation software, known as ORION–it saves the company a lot of miles, and miles are money. Chief Financial Officer Richard Peretz said in a post-earnings conference call with analysts that while third-quarter U.S. delivery stops and volume increased 5.7% from a year ago, with the help of ORION, delivery miles traveled rose just 1.4%. He told MarketWatch in a phone interview, that for each mile saved per day, on average, annualized savings are about $50 million. “Orion is saving us about six and seven miles per driver per day,” Peretz said, which translates to annual savings of about $300 million to $350 million. While it’s not fully implemented yet, the company said 100% of eligible U.S. drivers will be utilizing ORION during the peak season–from Thanksgiving to News Year’s Eve–compared with 70% last year. Given that deliveries in the peak season are expected to increase by about 17% to 700 million, ORION should help save a lot of miles and money. The stock, which slipped 1.1% in afternoon trade, has climbed 12% year to date, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average has climbed 6.5% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%.

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Twitter to shutter Vine video app

Twitter.com Inc. plans to shut down its Vine mobile video app within a few months, according an announcement posted to Medium Thursday. This comes on the same day that Twitter announced it would cut 9% of its workforce, or roughly 350 jobs. Vine said it will keep the website active so that creators can continue to watch their vines, which are short clips that circulate on loops similar to GIFs. Earlier on Thursday, Twitter reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue and said its user base increased 3% to 317 million monthly active users, compared with the FactSet consensus estimate of 316.3 million. Shares of Twitter rose 1.1% to $17.50 in afternoon trade. While they’re up 11% in the past three months, they’re off more than 44% from 12 months ago. The S&P 500 , meanwhile, is down 1.2% in the past three months but has risen 3.6% in the past year.

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The FCC adopts privacy rules to protect sensitive consumer internet data

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday said it has adopted new privacy rules for internet service providers that give consumers increased choice, transparency and security for personal data. Under the new rules broadband internet service providers have to have consumers opt-in to use and share internet browsing information, such as history, app usage, geo-location, financial information and health information. For other “non-sensitive information consumers would need to opt-out to not have such information like an e-mail address, for example, gathered, used and shared. The scope of the FCC limits the rules to internet providers and other telecommunications carriers and not websites, such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

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