Tag: stock market

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with major indexes finishing at all-time highs again after the December jobs report showed that the labor market remained strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 210 points, or 0.8%, to 25,289. The S&P 500 gained 19 points, or 0.7%, to 2,743. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 59 points, or 0.8%, to 71,37. All three closed at records, and have yet to have a negative session in 2018. Friday also marked the fourth straight record close for the S&P and the Nasdaq. For the week, the Dow gained 2.3%, the S&P was up 2.6%, and the Nasdaq was up 3.4%. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq had their biggest weekly percentage gain since November 2016. Technology stocks were among the day’s biggest gainers, with Microsoft Corp. up 1.2% and Facebook gaining 1.4%. In the latest economic data, the U.S. created 148,000 jobs in December. This was the slowest pace in three months, and below the 198,000 increase that economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted. However, the report isn’t likely to alter Federal Reserve policy with respect to interest rates.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday was rallying by nearly 200 points with less than a half hour remaining in trade, putting the benchmark a quarter of the way from breaching 26,000, just 24 hours after marking a round-number milestone at 25,000. The Dow was up about 193 points, or 0.8%, at 25,268, with the S&P 500 index rising 0.6% at 2,739 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 0.7% at 7,126. All three main benchmarks are set to end the session at all-time highs, with the trio ringing up gains in the first week of trade in 2018.

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Netflix Inc. confirmed on Friday that it has signed “Planet of the Apes” and “Cloverfield” director Matt Reeves to an exclusive multi-year deal. Under the deal, Reeves, who recently took over directing Warner Bros. next solo Batman film for Ben Affleck, will give Netflix first-look rights for any feature films he wants to produce and, or direct under the banner of his 6th & Idaho production company. Reeves’s most recent film, 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes,” received critical acclaim and pulled in $490.7 million at the global box office. Reeves previously had a deal with 21st Century Fox Inc.’s film division. The deal is one of the first of its kind at Netflix, which has made recent efforts to lock down filmmakers to create content exclusively for the platform. Netflix has entered deals with Shonda Rhimes, Jenji Kohan and Shawn Levy. Shares of Netflix have gained nearly 59% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index has gained close to 21% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 26%.

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 fell Friday, pulling back from their highest levels in three years, but still scoring a third-straight weekly gain. Prices have recently found support from concerns about potential crude output disruptions in the wake of unrest in Iran. U.S. data released Thursday showed a seventh-weekly decline in domestic inventories, but also bigger-than-expected gains in gasoline and distillate stocks. February West Texas Intermediate crude fell 57 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $61.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was up 1.7% for the week.

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Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chuck Grassley of Iowa have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Christopher Steele, a former British spy who compiled a dossier containing salacious and unverified material on President Donald Trump. A statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Grassley leads, said information reviewed revealed “significant inconsistencies” in statements Steele provided.

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Gold prices bounced back from earlier losses on Friday to finish modestly higher. The precious metal stretched its streak of gains to an eleventh session and tallied a weekly gain of roughly 1% as some downbeat U.S. economic data helped feed expectations for a slower Federal Reserve interest-rate hike policy. February gold rose 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,322.30 an ounce, marking another finish at the highest level since mid-September. The weekly gain was also gold’s fourth such rise in a row.

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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A popular exchange-traded fund focused on the technology sector on Friday was set to mark its best weekly climb since late December of 2016, highlighting investors appetite for a buzzy sector that underscored equity benchmarks appetite for growth stocks and risk taking. The Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF was on pace for a weekly gain of 3.6% which would represent the best weekly advance since the period ended Dec. 9, according to FactSet data. On the day the tech-focused ETF was up 0.9%, holding at an all-time high, led by gains in Xilinx Inc. , Electronic Arts. Inc. and eBay Inc. , which were all up by at least 3%. The climb for technology shares coincides with a stellar start to 2018 for the broader stock market, which has seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 index all hit records without one session in negative territory so far in 2018. Technology stocks helped to underpin much of the recent and persistent rally higher for Wall Street last year, with recent moves suggesting that investors remain focused on growth in light of an administration that bills itself as favorable to business, and a global economy that appears to be on firmer footing.

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Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil was down 5 to 742 this week. The oil-rig count had seen no changes over the previous two weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, also fell by 5 to 924, according to Baker Hughes. February West Texas Intermediate crude was down 55 cents, or 0.9%, from Thursday, to $61.46 a barrel, up from $61.40 shortly before the rig data.

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Denali Therapeutics Inc. shares surged 3.6% in moderate morning trade Friday on news of the company’s $150 million partnership with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. on up to three therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. The agreement also makes Denali eligible for up to $90 million in other payments, and the companies will split global profits equally. Denali will be responsible for development activities and costs, while Takeda will have the option to co-develop and co-commercialize the three therapies, in which case the two companies will work together on clinical development and split costs. Takeda and Denali also plan to jointly commercialize the therapies in the U.S. and China, with Takeda taking on commercial activities exclusively in all other markets. Denali, which is focused on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), was founded by several executives formerly at Genentech — which is now a subsidiary of Roche — and the biotech completed its initial public offering in early December. Denali shares have surged 6.3% over the week-to-date to $16.63, compared with a 2.2% rise in the S&P 500 and a 1.4% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker said Friday he thinks the central bank will only raise interest rates twice this year, one fewer than the central bank’s median forecast of three moves. In a speech at the American Economic Association meeting in Philadelphia, Harker said the central bank will be in “monitoring mode” this year. “There is a lot to watch generally, and much of it, in some form or another, is new territory,” Harker said. The Philadelphia Fed president said he expects growth a little below 2.5% this year. He forecast that inflation will rise above the Fed’s 2% target in 2019. “If soft inflation persists, it may pose a significant problem,” he said. Harker is not a voting member of the Fed’s interest-rate policy committee this year.

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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