Tag: stock market

Shares of Nvidia Corp. sank 7.4% on heavy volume in midday trade Wednesday, as they suffered a third-straight loss following Friday’s record close. Volume swelled to 16.3 million shares, already more than the full-day average of 12.6 million shares. The stock has now plunged 10.1% during its losing streak, the biggest three-day selloff since it tumbled 10.6% during the three-day stretch ending Feb. 8, 2016. On Tuesday, shares of Nvidia and rival graphics chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. took a hit after Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh warned that the cryptocurrency market could become less meaningful for chip companies. AMD’s stock slid 3.2% on Wednesday. The stocks’ selloff comes amid broad weakness in the chip sector, with the PHLX Semiconductor Index shedding 4.4%. The chip sector tracker has now lost 5.7% since closing at a record high on Friday.

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Susquehanna Financial Group analysts led by Bill Dreher have come to the conclusion that a problem with International Business Machines Corp. servers caused the credit card problems that Macy’s Inc. had on Black Friday. Analysts had a conference call with a credit card processing expert they call Tom P. that led Susquehanna to believe that the servers stopped working for cards that weren’t private label. “We believe that it is highly likely that this interruption will have a financial impact on the company’s business, but believe that sales could have been running ahead of conservative guidance provided prior to the interruption, preventing a miss but offsetting a gain,” analysts wrote. “While the specifics of the impact will not be detailed until post-holiday commentary from the company, we are increasingly confident that the processing issue will be a headwind during FQ4, possibly much worse if it affects core customer goodwill.” Macy’s said Friday that the problem was “due to a capacity-related issue that caused some transactions to take longer to process.” IBM did not comment on the problem by press time. Macy’s shares are up 6% in Wednesday trading, but down more then 34% for the year so far. IBM shares are down 8.1% for the year to date. And the S&P 500 index is up 17.3% for 2017 so far.

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Retail stocks jumped in early Wednesday trading after data showing the long Thanksgiving weekend has gotten the holiday shopping season off to a good start. Macy’s Inc. shares spiked 5.7%, Target Corp. shares rose 5.6%, Nordstrom Inc. shares were up 5% and Kohl’s Corp. stock climbed 4.1% for the day so far. Adobe data shows that Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day in history, with sales totaling $6.59 billion, up 16.8% year-over-year. Despite the steep increase in e-commerce activity, brick-and-mortar stores held their own, with ShopperTrak data showing that traffic declined just 1% on Black Friday, and for the week, from Sunday, Nov. 16 to Sunday Nov. 26, the rate of shopper visit decline was 2%, the same as 2016. This indicates, according to ShopperTrak’s general manager for the Americas, Bill McCarthy, “that the era of steep year-over-year declines in shopper visits around [Black] Friday may be coming to an end.” The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is up 12.3% for the past three months, but down 5% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 19.3% for the last 12 months.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed that domestic crude supplies fell by 3.4 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 24. That was a bit higher than the forecast for a decline of 3 million barrels from analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday had reported an increase of 1.8 million barrels, according to sources. Gasoline stockpiles were up 3.6 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles added 2.7 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a supply rise of 1.1 million barrels for gasoline and an increase of 160,000 barrels for distillates. January crude fell 20 cents, or 0.3%, from Tuesday to $57.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, little changed from $57.77 before the supply data.

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Uber revealed on Wednesday that 2.7 million U.K. users were affected by a security breach that hit the ride-hailing app last year, but were only brought to light in early November. The ride-hailing service acknowledged on Nov. 21 that it had paid hackers a ransom of $100,000 in an effort to conceal a data breach that affected 57 million accounts. However, Uber — which now faces multiple investigations over the breach — did not disclose at that time how many drivers and customers in the U.K. were affected. “We do not believe any individual rider needs to take any action. We have seen no evidence of fraud or misuse tied to the incident. We are monitoring the affected accounts and have flagged them for additional fraud protection,” Uber said.

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Shares of Rite Aid Corp. rocketed on heavy volume Wednesday for a second-straight session, after the drugstore chain said it had completed the “pilot closing” of its amended asset purchase deal with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. . The stock shot up 14% to a 2-month high. Volume hit 39 million shares, enough to make it the most active stock on major U.S. exchanges, and already about double the full-day average. On Tuesday, after the stock shot up 16% on volume of 51.5 million shares. Rite Aid said late Monday that the pilot closing resulted in the transfer of 97 stores and related assets to Walgreens. Under the amended agreement announced in September, Rite Aid will sell a total of 1,932 stores, three distribution centers and related inventory for $4.38 billion in cash. Rite Aid expects to use the bulk of the proceeds from the deal to repay debt. Despite the stock’s surge this week, it was still down 73.9% year to date, while Walgreen shares have lost 11.5% and the S&P 500 has gained 17.4%.

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Snap Inc. unveiled a redesign of its Snapchat app on Wednesday, in an attempt to spur user growth and make it easier to discover content. The new, simpler design separates content made by friends and content made by publishers. “This will provide a better way for publishers to distribute and monetize their stories, and a more personal way for friends to communicate and find the content they want to watch,” CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in an Axios op-ed. The change could make Snap more accessible to content creators who’ve so far chosen to post to Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube platform. Snap first announced the overhaul on its third-quarter earnings call, after the company grew its user base just 3% from the prior quarter. Snap shares were down 0.8% in Wednesday morning trading and are down 20% from their March IPO price of $17. The S&P 500 was slightly higher.

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Stocks traded modestly higher in early action, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials notching all-time highs. Stocks built on Tuesday’s record finish after an upbeat revision to third quarter gross domestic product data as investors await congressional testimony by outgoing Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and weigh progress on corporate tax-cut legislation. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% at 2,629.08, while the Dow advanced 66 points, or 0.3%, to 23,903 as it closed in on the psychologically important 24,000 milestone. The Nasdaq Composite lagged behind, slipping 0.2% to 6,902.

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Domino’s Pizza Inc. shares rose 1.6% in Wednesday premarket trading after the stock was upgraded to buy from neutral at Instinet based on the international possibilities for the restaurant chain. Analysts maintained their $201 price target. Instinet says global franchisees could buy rival global pizza chains to convert them to the Domino’s brand, “which helps Domino’s unit growth without corporate commitment of capital.” Domino’s expansion puts pressure on the competition on both a local and regional level. “These chains simply lack the scale and resources to effectively compete with Domino’s as digital ordering has become increasingly important to customers ordering pizza for delivery or takeout,” analysts led by Mark Kalinowski wrote. Instinet also notes the drop in stock price, which makes shares more attractive. Domino’s shares are down 3.4% for the last three months, but up 8.2% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 17.3% for 2017 to date.

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Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in its history, with orders surpassing that of Prime Day. The e-commerce giant said customer orders for the “Turkey 5”–the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday–were in the “hundreds of millions” of products, while orders from small businesses alone reaching nearly 140 million items. Amazon App orders on Cyber Monday increased more than 50%, with the Echo Dot the best selling item. Separately, lower prices on turkeys for Amazon Prime members helped Whole Foods Market break its record for turkeys sold during the Thanksgiving season. Amazon’s stock slipped 0.1% in premarket trade. It has rocketed 25% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.4%.

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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