Gold pushes higher to log best settlement in 3 weeks

Gold futures logged sharp gains Monday, registering their third straight session advance, as investors’ expectation for lower interest rates helped prop up the commodity amid higher prices in stocks and oil. A weaker dollar helped play its part to keep the dollar-denominated commodity buoyant. A weaker dollar makes the asset less expensive to buyers using other currencies. June gold finished $14.20, or 1.1%, to close at $1,258 an ounce. Gold’s sister metal, May silver also enjoyed a healthy jump, advancing 60 cents or, 3.9%, to end at $15.98 an ounce. Both contracts for gold and silver logged their highest settlement levels since March 17, according to FactSet.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Tesla to recall Model X due to faulty back-row seats

Tesla Motors Inc. voluntarily has recalled 2,700 Model X SUVs, saying back-row seats could collapse forward in some accidents, the company said. The company knows of no specific incidents, but following a crash test determined that a hing could fail in some cases. The back-row seats will be replaced and the third-party supplier will bear the costs. Tesla launched the The Model X, its latest vehicle, in late September. Shares of Tesla rose 1.3% Monday, nearly two weeks after it unveiled its next vehicle, Model 3, a cheaper sedan expected to roll off the factory floor in late 2017.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

SEC sues Texas attorney general over stock sale compensation

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, for not disclosing the compensation he’s received for promoting a stock. Paxton allegedly raised $840,000 in funds for Servergy Inc. and received 100,000 shares in return while in the Texas House of Representatives without disclosing his commissions. A former Servergy director, Caleb White, settled with the SEC on similar charges. The SEC also announced fraud charges against Servergy Inc. and its founder, William E. Mapp III, for saying in private offerings that its servers could compete with IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard without disclosing that the products could not in reality compete. Servery agreed to pay a $200,000 fine while the case against Mapp, who the company cut ties with, continues. Servergy and White neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s charges in their settlements.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Gold mining stocks surges, as upgrades at RBC give a boost

Gold mining stocks surged Monday, helped by a surge in gold prices and an upbeat research note on the sector at RBC Capital. the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF climbed 4.5%, with all 39 of its equity components gaining ground. Shares of Kinross Gold Corp. ran up 8.3%, and was the biggest gainer among North America-based miners, after the company was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital, with cited valuation, amid an improving outlook for gold prices. RBC also raised its 2016 gold price forecast to $1,250 an ounce from $1,150 an ounce. Shares of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. rose 4.6%, after the company was upgraded at RBC, while Goldcorp Inc.’s stock gained 3% despite being downgraded at RBC on valuation concerns. Elsewhere, shares of Barrick Gold Corp. advanced 5%, of Newmont Mining Corp. rose 4.5% and of Yamana Gold Inc. rallied 6.1%. Meanwhile, April gold futures jumped 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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks open higher ahead of earnings season kickoff

U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, as a recovery in the dollar against the yen helped lift the main indexes. Investors are bracing for the first-quarter earnings season that kicks off with the results from Alcoa Inc. after the market close. The S&P 500 climbed 9 points, or 0.4%, to 2,056. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 71 points, or 0.4%, to 17,646. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 26 points, or 0.5%, to 4,877 at the open.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

PulteGroup founder makes another plea for immediate removal of CEO

PulteGroup Inc. founder Bill Pulte sent another letter Monday to the home builder’s board, calling for the immediate removal and replacement of Chief Executive Richard Dugas. Pulte said Dugas’ current “value creation strategy” has done the opposite for the company, which has lost over $530 million in the 12 years Dugas has been in charge. “In Richard Dugas’ hands, PulteGroup’s ‘value creation’ means ‘value destruction,'” Pulte’s letter said. Pulte also said Dugas “couldn’t be more wrong” to characterize the disagreement between Pulte and Dugas as a “family squabble,” and said it was not in the best interest of shareholders to allow Dugas to remain as a “lame duck” CEO for another year. Pulte had sent a letter to the board last week calling for Dugas’ immediate removal, after the company said Dugas would retire effective May 2017. The stock, which slipped 0.1% in premarket trade, has tumbled 20% over the past year, compared with a 3.8% decline in the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF and a 2.6% drop in the S&P 500.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

AdvancePierre Foods Holdings files to go public

AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., a national food producer and distributor, filed to go public Monday. The company set a placeholder offering amount of $100 million. AdvancePierre Foods reported sales of $1.61 billion in 2015 and $1.58 billion in 2014 and swung to a profit of $37.1 million in 2015 after a loss of $37.9 million in 2014. The company is backed by investment firm Oaktree Capital Group LLC and said the firm would continue to “exert significant influence” on the company after the IPO. The offering is being underwritten by Barclays, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Walgreens to make overdose antidote Naloxone available in Pennsylvania without a prescription

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said it’s making the opioid antidote Naloxone available without a prescription in more than 120 pharmacies across Pennsylvania. Naloxone can be used in cases of heroin and other opioid overdoses, and is administered through a nasal spray or injection. Walgreens previously committed to making the antidote available without a prescription in 35 states and Washington D.C., and has since done so in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Indiana and Ohio. The pharmacy chain will also be installing medication disposal kiosks in more than 500 locations in 40 states, including Pennsylvania, by later this year. They will allow people to rid themselves of unwanted and expired prescriptions. Walgreens shares are inactive in premarket trading, and down 11.6% for the past year. The S&P 500 is down 2.6% for the past 12 months.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Valeant acknowledges CEO Pearson has been subpoenaed by Senate committee

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. acknowledged Monday that Chief Executive J. Michael Pearson has been subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Aging, which is investigating price increases in certain prescription drugs. “The board has requested Mr. Pearson’s cooperation in connection with a subpoena for deposition from the Senate Committee on Aging prior to the Committee’s scheduled April 27 hearing,” The company said in a statement. The committee will be examining how Valeant dramatically raised the price of certain life-saving drugs that it acquired. Valeant’s stock, which climbed 2% in premarket trade, has plunged 67% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.2%.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

SiriusXM adds 465,000 new subscribers in the first quarter

SiriusXM , the satellite radio service, said Monday that it gained 465,000 net new subscribers in the first quarter of 2016, to reach 30.1 million total subscribers. Self-paying subscribers, or the number of subscribers who don’t get the service as part of a promotion, increased 348,000 to reach 24.6 million. The company will report earnings on April 28. Shares of Sirius were up 0.5% in pre-market trade Monday.

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.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News