Tag: stock market

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 362 as of Friday. Meanwhile, the total U.S. rig count fell 14 to 450, which is another record low. May crude was at $36.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.44, or 3.8%. It traded at $36.80 before the data.

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Airline shares fell across the board on Friday following an analyst downgrade of several carriers, citing a more challenging environment this year. Michael Linenberg, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, lowered ratings of American Airlines Group , Delta Air Lines Inc. , United Continental , and Hawaiian Holdings Inc. to hold from buy. “We have observed a slowdown in U.S. corporate profits which is a concern given that they are a leading indicator of economic activity, and therefore, could lead to reduced demand for corporate travel,” he said in a note. Still, consumer spending remains healthy, which could lead to steady demand for leisure travel, he said. As a result, the analyst said he favors domestic airlines that are less dependent on corporate travel such as Southwest Airlines Co. , Alaska Air Group Inc. , JetBlue Airways Corp. , Spirit Airlines Inc. , and Skywest Inc. . United was the biggest laggard among S&P 500 airline stocks, falling 6%, followed by American which fell 3.6%. Delta dropped 3.4% and Southwest shed 1.5%. JetBlue shares rose 1.1% but Alaska, Spirit and Skywest all traded lower.

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The New York Stock Exchange on Friday suspended trading of eight securities, including Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet Inc., due to “market data” issues, a NYSE spokeswoman told MarketWatch. Trading in Amazon Inc., , Alphabet Inc. class A and C shares , Markel Corp. , Intuitive Surgical Inc. , and Autzone Inc. are among the securities that the exchange operator suspended for the day. The so-called Big Board discovered the glitch early Friday and said it has affected the exchange’s ability to “receive and disseminate market data” on those names. Those securities will be trading on other exchange platforms, however. The NYSE is hoping to resolve the issue by Monday, the spokeswoman said, declining to provide further detail. Such halts are unusual but follows an unprecedented four-hour halt of the entire NYSE back in July 2015.

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U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday, weighed down by losses in the energy sector thanks to another drop in oil prices. Market reaction to a solid jobs report appears to be negative. Continued strength in the labor market may force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again this year. The S&P 500 was down 9 points, or 0.5%, at 2,050. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 93 points, or 0.5%, to 17,594. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 29 points, or 0.6%, to 4,840 at the open.

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Ford Motor Co. said Friday that U.S. sales rose 8% to 254,711 vehicles, its best march sales result since 2001. Lincoln sales grew 11%, while Ford F-Series sales rose 9%. “Total Ford brand SUVs are off to their best start in company history, with first quarter total sales of 188,100 — up 15 percent versus a year ago,” the company said in a statement. Shares fell 1.5% in premarket trade, and are down 4% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.8%.

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Online and mobile food ordering company Grubhub Inc. on Friday joked that it is launching a ride-sharing business with a new product extension called Gruber. The company later said the release was an April Fool’s joke.

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Short-dated U.S. Treasury yields spiked after a better-than-expected jobs report, though long-dated bond yields were climbing down to the levels ahead of the release. The U.S. created 215,000 new jobs in March, above economists’ expectations. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose a notch to 5% from 4.9%, as more Americans joined the labor force. Robust job gains are likely to reassure the Federal Reserve that the economy is growing at a healthy pace and may warrant more rate hikes this year. The yield on a 2-year Treasury note , which is more sensitive to rate hikes, was up 3 basis points to 0.752%. The 10-year Treasury yield was up 1 basis point to 1.78% while the 30-year Treasury yield was flat at 2.614%.

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The dollar strengthened against most of its developed and emerging-market rivals Friday after data from the Labor Department showed U.S. jobs growth in March was strong than economists had expected. The U.S. economy added 215,000 new jobs in March, better than the 205,000 new jobs forecast in a survey of economists conducted by MarketWatch. The dollar rose to 112.30 yen after the report, up from 112.03 yen shortly before the data. The euro fell to $1.1397 from $1.1430 beforehand. The pound weakened to $1.4262 from $1.4304 beforehand. In emerging-market trading, the Russian ruble weakened to 67.93 to the dollar from 68.17 shortly before.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. created 215,000 new jobs in March, showing an economy that’s still expanding at a moderate pace despite some rocky moments earlier in the year. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected an increase of 203,000 nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate rose a tick to 5% from 4.9%, as more people joined the labor force, the Labor Department said Friday. Average hourly wages climbed 0.3% to $25.43. Hourly pay rose 2.3% from March 2015 to March 2016, unchanged from the prior month. The amount of time people worked each week was flat at 34.4 hours. The labor-force participation rate rose a notch and reached 63% for the first time in two years. Employment gains for February and January, meanwhile, were essentially unchanged. The government said 245,000 new jobs were created in February instead of 242,000. January’s gain was trimmed to 168,000 from 172,000.

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Online and mobile food ordering company Grubhub Inc. on Friday said it is launching into to the ride-sharing business with a new product extension called Gruber. When customers need and request a ride, one of Grubhub’s delivery drivers will show up and drop them off before delivering someone else’s food, the company said in a news release. Grubhub is entering a space already dominated by the likes of Uber, but that is seeing more and more new entries. Shares of Grubhub are up 3.8% in the year so far, outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which is up less than 1%.

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