Tag: stock market

Crude-oil prices settled in negative territory on Tuesday, posting back-to-back session declines on renewed concerns about mounting U.S. crude production. March West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange finished off $1.06, or 1.5%, at $64.50 a barrel. The International Energy Agency said earlier this month that it expects U.S. production to surpass that of Saudi Arabia, climbing above 10 million barrels a day in 2018-topping a high last seen in 1970.

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The Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into whether Apple Inc.’s comments about battery slowdowns to see whether the company violated any disclosure rules, according to a report from Bloomberg. The story cites “people familiar with the matter” who said that it was too early to know whether there would be any “enforcement” as a result of the probe. The company admitted in December that its latest software updates slowed down older devices to preserve their batteries and slashed the price of replacement batteries. Apple shares are down 1.4% in midday trading Tuesday. The company has had a rough month, as it dealt with fallout from the battery issue and as numerous analysts wrote of production slowdowns for the flagship iPhone X model. The stock is up 36% over the past 12 months, compared with a 31% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that the Hawaii public employee who sent a message to everyone in the state warning of a ballistic missile threat believed there was a credible threat. “Because we’ve not been able to interview the day shift warning officer who transmitted the false alert, we’re not in a position to fully evaluate the credibility of their assertion that they believed there was an actual missile threat and intentionally sent the live alert. But it is worth noting that they accurately recalled after the event that the announcement did say ‘This is not a drill’,” said James Wiley, the FCC attorney advisor for cybersecurity and communications reliability. Wiley said the worker said they did not hear the standard recording used by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency say that it was an exercise. The initial belief was that the worker had simply pressed the wrong button. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked for an investigation following the event. On Tuesday he issued a statement on the preliminary findings of the report. “In my view, here are the two most troubling things that our investigation has found so far: (1) Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency didn’t have reasonable safeguards in place to prevent human error from resulting in the transmission of a false alert; and (2) Hawaii’s Emergency Management Agency didn’t have a plan for what to do if a false alert was transmitted,” Pai said in his statement. The worker who sent the threat warning was reassigned after the false alarm.

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S&P Global Ratings revised the outlook on its BB-minus rating on Wynn Resorts to negative from stable on Tuesday, and said the allegations of sexual misconduct against founder and CEO Steve Wynn could hurt the company’s ability to maintain or renew gaming licenses. The move “reflects the significant uncertainty surrounding the resolution of various investigations into the misconduct allegations against the company’s CEO,” the rating agency said in a statement. “This includes the extent to which these allegations impair Wynn Resorts’ brand and hurt cash flow, whether the company is able to maintain its gaming licenses, whether there will be a transition in leadership, and–if so–what form that might take.” Adding to the uncertainty, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is investigating the issue and other regulators may follow suit, said S&P. Wynn shares were slightly higher Tuesday, but are down 9% on the week, while the S&P 500 has lost 1.5%.

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Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbles toward the biggest price decline since May 2017, market internals suggest the selling may be broad-based and heavy, but is still no where near panic levels. The number of stock declining outnumber advancers by a 2,316-to-574 margin on the NYSE and by a 1,924-to-754 score on the Nasdaq exchange. Volume of declining stocks made up 87.1% of the total volume on the Big Board and 70.5% of the total on the Nasdaq. The Arms Index, a volume-weighted measure of breadth that tends to rise above 1.000 as the stock market falls, rose to 1.718 on the NYSE but was nearly flat at 0.958 on the Nasdaq. Many who follow the Arms believe it takes a rise above 2.000 to imply panic selling, or capitulation by bulls, which could suggest a bounce could be coming. At current readings, the Arms Indexes suggest the selling isn’t quite at capitulation levels, particularly on among Nasdaq stocks. The Dow was down 235 points, or 0.9%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.5% and the S&P 500 lost 0.7%.

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Shares of GrubHub Inc. fell 3.8% in Tuesday morning trading after analysts at Barclays downgraded the stock to underweight from equal weight. The analysts, led by Deepak Mathivanan, like GrubHub’s prospects in the long run but worry about the stock’s high valuation relative to internet peers and the “incremental competitive risks” brought upon by Uber Technologies Inc.’s and Amazon.com Inc.’s efforts in food delivery. GrubHub shares have performed better than the S&P 500 Index over the past three months, Mathivanan wrote. The stock now trades at 21 times estimates for 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, making it more expensive on that metric than several other internet stocks that Mathivanan tracks. He also thinks that competitor UberEats has been growing nicely over the last year or two. GrubHub shares are up 75% over the past 12 months, with the S&P 500 up 24% in that time.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of GrubHub Inc. fell 3.8% in Tuesday morning trading after analysts at Barclays downgraded the stock to underweight from equal weight. The analysts, led by Deepak Mathivanan, like GrubHub’s prospects in the long run but worry about the stock’s high valuation relative to internet peers and the “incremental competitive risks” brought upon by Uber Technologies Inc.’s and Amazon.com Inc.’s efforts in food delivery. GrubHub shares have performed better than the S&P 500 Index over the past three months, Mathivanan wrote. The stock now trades at 21 times estimates for 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, making it more expensive on that metric than several other internet stocks that Mathivanan tracks. He also thinks that competitor UberEats has been growing nicely over the last year or two. GrubHub shares are up 75% over the past 12 months, with the S&P 500 up 24% in that time.

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Shares of European meal-kit firm HelloFresh SE are up 4.9% in Tuesday trading after the company, which trades in Germany, announced preliminary revenue for its December quarter ahead of analysts’ expectations. HelloFresh said it generated between €250 million and €253 million in revenue for the December period. The FactSet consensus estimate, which consists of figures from two analysts, called for €238 million. The company also said that it grew its active-customer base by 69%, to 1.45 million, during the quarter. HelloFresh went public just a few months after fellow meal-kit firm Blue Apron Holidings Inc. sputtered following its own IPO. With shares of HelloFresh up 22% from their November IPO price, European investors have been more receptive to the meal-kit listing than U.S. investors have been to Blue Apron’s public debut. Whereas Blue Apron’s revenue is projected to have contracted during the December quarter, HelloFresh grew revenue by about 58% during the latest period. Blue Apron’s stock is down 70% from its June IPO price, including a 2.2% drop in Tuesday morning trading. The S&P 500 Index is up 18% since Blue Apron went public in June.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday that he will extend a debt issuance suspension period “into February” in order to be able to keep using extraordinary measures that allow the U.S. government to stay below the debt ceiling. The suspension period had been scheduled to expire on Jan. 31 but Congress has not yet acted to raise the debt limit. Mnuchin did not give a specific date for the end of the suspension period. In testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Mnuchin urged Congress to act “as soon as possible” to raise the debt limit. Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said he thinks Congress must act by early March to allow the Treasury to continue to borrow.

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Shares of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. rallied 1.9% toward a record high in morning trade Tuesday, bucking the sharp selloff in the broader market, after Morgan Stanley turned bullish on the company, citing an upbeat outlook for revenue growth and margins. Analyst Benjamin Swinburne raised his rating to overweight from equal weight, and boosted his stock price target by 74% to $40, which is 15% above current levels. Swinburne said the battle for eyeballs across TV and online has led to a rapid increase in content spending, particularly in the area of sports rights, which should accelerate WWE’s revenue growth over the next 2-to-3 years. And as WWE’s costs continue to grow at a “controlled pace,” Swinburne expects the increased revenue to boost margins and operating leverage. In addition, he believes WWE represents “a potentially interesting strategic asset in a rapidly consolidating media landscape.” While WWE’s stock rallied, the S&P 500 fell 0.8% in morning trade. Over the past three months, WWE shares have shot up 38%, while the S&P 500 has gained 10%.

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