Tag: stock market

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. are up 0.4% in Wednesday morning trading after analysts at Cowen and Co. raised their 12-month price target on the stock to $2,650, the highest among estimates tracked by FactSet. The analysts, led by Kevin Kopelman, previous had a price target of $2,300 for Booking, which changed its name from Priceline Group last month. Over the next 24 months, the analysts see the potential for Booking’s stock to reach $3,000. The stock currently trades at $2,149. The analysts point to strong contribution profit, which is growing two times as fast as it is at Expedia Inc. . They predict that share repurchases will be “game changing” and bring EPS growth back up to a rate in the high teens. Shares are up 23% in the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 16%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Booking Holdings Inc. are up 0.4% in Wednesday morning trading after analysts at Cowen and Co. raised their 12-month price target on the stock to $2,650, the highest among estimates tracked by FactSet. The analysts, led by Kevin Kopelman, previous had a price target of $2,300 for Booking, which changed its name from Priceline Group last month. Over the next 24 months, the analysts see the potential for Booking’s stock to reach $3,000. The stock currently trades at $2,149. The analysts point to strong contribution profit, which is growing two times as fast as it is at Expedia Inc. . They predict that share repurchases will be “game changing” and bring EPS growth back up to a rate in the high teens. Shares are up 23% in the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 is up 16%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Exchange-traded funds that track the home-building sector rallied on Wednesday, as existing-home sales snapped a two-month losing streak. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF rose 1% while the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF jumped 1.4%. The PowerShares Dynamic Building & Construction Portfolio rose 0.7%. The rise came as data showed sales of previously-owned homes jumped 3% in January, and the rate was higher than 2017’s full year total of 5.51 million. Among specific stocks, D.R. Horton rose 2.8% while Beazer Homes USA Inc. was up 2.9% and PulteGroup Inc. rose 2.3%. Toll Brothers Inc. gained 2.1%. All easily outperformed the broader market; the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1% while the S&P 500 was up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 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.

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United Technologies Corp.’s Kidde unit said Wednesday it is recalling 425,000 sensor smoke alarms, because of the risk that they will fail to alert their owners to a fire. “A yellow cap left on during the manufacturing process can cover one of the two smoke sensors and compromise the smoke alarm’s ability to detect smoke, posing a risk of consumers not being alerted to a fire in their home,” the company warned in a statement. Customers are advised to remove the alarm and check whether a yellow cap is visible through the opening on the side. They are advised not to take the alarm apart or attempt to remove the yellow cap themselves, but rather to immediately contact the company and request a replacement. Kidde has set up a toll-free number at 833-551-7739 that will be available from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday to Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the weekend. An additional 40,000 units were sold in Canada, the company said. The units in question were sold at stores from Sep. 10, 2016 through Oct. 13, 2017, including Menards, The Home Depot Walmart . They were sold on ShopKidde.com and other websites through Jan. 2018 for $20 to $40 a piece. United Tech shares were slightly lower Wednesday, but have gained 13% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 16% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 19%.

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.

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Oil prices extended earlier gains on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude supplies fell by 2.6 million barrels for the week ended March 16. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a climb of 2.6 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a decline of 2.7 million barrels, according to sources. Gasoline stockpiles fell by 1.7 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles decreased by 2 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast supply declines of 1.8 million barrels each for gasoline and distillates. May crude rose $1.01, or 1.6%, to $64.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from $64.23 before the supply data.

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Shares of Deutsche Bank AG slumped 6.2% on Wednesday after the lender’s finance chief warned that headwinds will reduce first-quarter revenue by 450 million euros ($550 million). The bank’s chief financial officer James von Moltke said a stronger euro would shave off about 300 million euro in revenues, while higher funding costs would be a 150-million-euro drag, according to media reports. Deutsche Bank shares are now down 25% year-to-date and off 7.3% for the week so far. In comparison, the wider Stoxx Europe 600 Banks Index has lost 3% on 2018 so far and slipped 1.6% this week.

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.

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Shares of Micron Technology Inc. rose 0.5% in Wednesday morning trading after analysts at BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock to $63 from $43 in a note titled “We Are Playing Catch Up.” The analysts, led by Ambrish Srivastava, now have an enhanced view of the memory-price landscape. “Memory industry fundamentals, especially for DRAM, remain strong,” Srivastava wrote, raising his estimates for Micron’s fiscal second quarter, which the company is due to report results for on Thursday afternoon. Earlier this week, Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini raised his target price to $80 from $60. Micron shares are up 38% in the past month, compared with a 0.5% gain for the S&P 500 and a 6.5% rise for the PHLX Semiconductor Index . Shares of Micron have jumped 141% over 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.

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Shares of General Mills Inc. plunged 9.6% toward a 5-year low in morning trade Wednesday, enough to pace the S&P 500’s decliners, after the consumer foods company reported a fiscal third-quarter profit that beat expectations but slashed its outlook. The stock hit an intraday low of $44.79, the lowest level seen since Feb. 19, 2013. A close at current levels would mark the biggest one-day percentage decline since it shed 11.2% on March 18, 2009, also following fiscal third-quarter results. The stock has now plummeted 24.5% over the past 12 months, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF has lost 5.4% and the S&P 500 has climbed 15.9%.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

Dropbox said in a filing Wednesday morning that it was raising the expected range for its IPO pricing to between $18 and $20 a share. The prior range was between $16 and $18 a share. Reuters reported Monday that demand was strong and that Dropbox’s IPO was oversubscribed. Dropbox is expected to price late Thursday and begin trading on Friday. Cloud-based security firm Zscaler Inc. priced its own public offering above its elevated range last week, and shares proceeded to double in their first day of trading Friday. Spotify Technology is expected to complete its public listing in early April.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stock-indexes traded slightly weaker at the open on Wednesday, with traders hesitant to make any big moves ahead of the end of an important policy update from the Federal Reserve due at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The Fed is widely expected to deliver a rate rise, and its forecasts could give investors clues to the pace of future increases. The Dow Jones Industrial Average [: DJIA] was trading flat at 24,727, the S&P 500 index retreated about 2 points or less than 0.1% at 2,715. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index declined 12 points, or 0.1, at 7,354. Meanwhile, Facebook Inc. was trading lower, down 1.5%, for a third straight day amid mounting concerns about how the social network has managed user data. The co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, said late Tuesday it was now time to delete Facebook because of its failures to guard user information. Facebook has shed about $50 billion in market value this week alone.

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.

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From:: Stock Market News