Loeb’s Third Point adds half a million shares of Google parent Alphabet

Dan Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point LLC bought more than a half a million Class A share position of Google parent Alphabet Inc. , according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Friday. Third Point created the new position of 534,030 Alphabet shares, while eliminating positions in Ace Ltd. , eBay Inc. , and Morgan Stanley . The hedge fund also cut its positions in Allergan PLC and Amgen Inc. by more than half. Third Point also created new positions in VMWare Inc. , 21st Century Fox Inc. , and Lowe’s Cos. , according to the filing.

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S&P 500, Dow sell off, log 3rd straight weekly drop

U.S. stocks sold off on Friday despite stronger-than-expected retail sales data. The S&P 500 and Dow industrials posted their third consecutive weekly declines. The S&P 500 closed down 17.62 points, or 0.9%, to 2,046.49 and booked a 0.5% weekly loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 185.18 points, or 1.1%, to 17,535.32 and ended the week 1.2% lower. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite ended the session down 19.66 points, or 0.4%, at 4,717.68 and recorded a 0.4% weekly drop, its fourth in a row.

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Bridgewater sells off Amazon, Coke and Gap holdings while adding new stakes in Alphabet and McDonalds

Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates sold off its entire stakes in Amazon.com Inc. , Coca-Cola Inc. and Gap Inc. during the first quarter, while adding new stakes in Alphabet Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. according to the latest regulatory filings. Among other moves made by the fund, which had $7.9 billion in equity assets as of March 31, during the quarter, it slashed his holding of Apple Inc. by two-thirds, his PepsiCo Inc. stake by about 80% and his Facebook Inc. holdings nearly in half, the funds 13F filing shows. Bridgewater also more than tripled his stake in Intel Corp. and added new stakes in United Parcel Service Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. and D.R. Horton Inc. . Separately, he increased his holdings in a number of oil and gas stocks, while reducing his exposure to gold miners.

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Oil futures gain 3.5% for the week

Oil futures fell on Friday but gained 3.5% for the week, buoyed by expectations that declines in global output and stronger demand for crude will help ease the world’s glut of supplies. June WTI crude lost 49 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $46.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The weekly gain was WTI oil’s fifth in six weeks.

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Pepsi’s stock accelerates lower after Trian disclosed it dumped its stake

PepsiCo Inc.’s stock accelerated lower in afternoon trade Friday, after Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management disclosed in a filing that it had sold its entire 18.3 million share stake in the beverage and snack giant during the first quarter. Pepsi shares were recently down 2%, compared with a 1% loss just prior to the release of Trian’s filing. Pepsi’s stock had gained 2.6% during the first quarter, and was up 3.5% since then through Thursday. Trian’s disclosure of its common stock holdings, as of March 31, also showed that it cut its stake in General Electric Co. to 74.2 million shares, from 77.8 million shares as of Dec. 31. Meanwhile, Trian boosted its stakes in Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to 31.8 million shares from 30.9 million shares, in DuPont Co. to 20.5 million shares from 20.2 million shares, in Pentair PLC to 14.3 million shares from 13.7 million shares and in Sysco Corp. to $43.3 million shares from 42.7 million shares.

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Gold ends higher, but still posts a loss for the week

Gold futures settled higher on Friday, helping to pare their loss for the week. Overall strength in the U.S. dollar has put pressure on prices, but losses for the U.S. equities market this week provided some safe-haven support for gold. June gold added $1.50, or 0.1%, to settle at $1,272.70 an ounce on Friday. It was down nearly 1.7% from the week-ago settlement.

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Baker Hughes reports U.S. oil-rig count down eighth straight week

Oil futures continued to trade lower after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 10 to 318 as of Friday. The oil-rig count has now fallen for eight weeks in a row. The total U.S. rig count fell 9 to 406. June crude was at $46.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 57 cents, or 1.2%. It was trading at $46.06 before the data.

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Oncobiologics shares down 20% in public market debut

Oncobiologics Inc. , a biotechnology company, was trading at $4.81 Friday on its first day of trade, below its issue price of $6. The company sold 5.8 million units lat Thursday to raise about $34.8 million. Each unit is made up of one share of common stock, one-half of a Series A warrant and one-half of a Series B warrant. The common stock, series A and series B warrants are trading separately on the Nasdaq under the symbols “ONS,” “ONSIW” and “ONSIZ.” Jefferies and Barclays acted as the lead underwriters.

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Acacia Communications shares up 36% in market debut

Acacia Communications Inc. opened at $29 Friday, above its issue price of $23. The stock continued an upward climb Friday morning, with shares up 36%. The optical networking company sold 4.5 million shares to raise $103.5 million. The offering was underwritten by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities.

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U.S. stocks open lower after retail-sales report

U.S. stocks opened mostly lower Friday after official data showed sales at U.S. retailers grew at a surprisingly strong clip last month. Though stock futures trimmed an earlier drop after the data, which was seen bolstering the Federal Reserve’s case for raising interest rates twice this year. The S&P 500 gained tk points, or tk%, to TK. The Dow industrials added tk points, or tk%, to tk. The Nasdaq Composite rose TK points, or TK%, to TK. The drop comes after stocks finished flat on Thursday, on track to finish the week little-changed.

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