Tag: stock market

Shares of Visa Inc. rose 2% late Thursday after the credit-card company reported fiscal second-quarter results above expectations. Visa said it earned $430 million, or 18 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with 71 cents a share in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, including those related to its reorganization in Europe, the company earned $2.1 billion, or 86 cents a share, compared with 68 cents a share a year ago. Sales reached $4.5 billion in the quarter, compared with $3.6 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share on sales of $4.3 billion. The company also announced a $5 billion share buyback program.

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Stocks finished higher on Thursday as strong economic data and corporate earnings lifted the main benchmarks. The S&P 500 climbed 17.67 points, or 0.8%, to 2,355.84, with financials and industrials leading the rally. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones industrial Average advanced 174.22 points, or 0.9%, to 20,578.71, led by shares of American Express Co. , after the credit-card giant reported strong corporate earnings late Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 53.74 points, or 0.9%, to 5,916.78. Earlier, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans collecting unemployment checks fell to its lowest level in 17 years. Investors will be watching shares of Visa Inc. and Mattel Inc. , as both firms report earnings after hours.

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One police officer has died and another was wounded in the Champs-Elysees section of Paris, multiple press reports said. Reuters reported that a person who fired on police also has been killed.

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Oil prices fell Thursday, extending their declines over the past three sessions on persistent concerns that U.S. crude production will offset output cuts by other major producers. But losses were limited amid growing expectations that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will reach an agreement next month to extend its output-cut agreement into the second half of the year. May WTI crude fell 17 cents, or 0.3%, to settle at $50.27 a barrel on the contract’s expiration day. June WTI , the new front-month contract, finished at $50.71, down 14 cents, or 0.3%.

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U.S. steel makers and industry-related companies rallied Thursday following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a probe into whether foreign steel imports harm national security. Shares of U.S. Steel Corp. rallied 7.4% to $30.54, while shares of AK Steel Holding Corp. jumped 7.8% to $6.76. Shares of Steel Dynamics Inc. rose 5.1% to $34.38, Nucor Corp. shares gained 3.4% to $59.56, and Allegheny Technologies Inc. shares advanced 2.1% to $17.17. On Thursday, Trump met with steel executives at the White House and proposed using the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which allows emergency trade sanctions on national security grounds, to focus on foreign steel imports.

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Tesla Inc. shares turned lower Thursday after the Silicon Valley car maker said it was recalling 53,000 Model S and Model X vehicles built between February and October of 2016 due to a potentially malfunctioning gear in the vehicles’ electric parking brakes. Tesla said it has not seen any injuries or incidents relating to the problem. The vehicles being recalled may contain a small gear that may have been improperly made by a third-party supplier, the company said. If the gear were to break, the parking brake would still work, but could be stuck in place, Tesla said. The company said the defective gear may be in less than 5% of vehicles being recalled, but it put forth a broader recall “out of abundance of caution.” Tesla owners affected will receive a recall notice by mail and e-mails from the company, Tesla said.

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Shares of Ocwen Financial lost a quarter of their value as North Carolina ruled the company cannot acquire new mortgage service rights or originate new mortgages that it would service until it can show it is financially stable and that customer escrow funds are being properly collected, calculated and disbursed.

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President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration will detail its proposed changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement sometime in the next two weeks. Trump spoke in the Oval Office surrounded by steel executives, as he ordered a review of whether steel imports harm U.S. national security. Trump has stepped up criticism of Nafta, saying Tuesday he would scrap it if major changes aren’t made.

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Shares of industrial company Cemtrex Inc. jumped 5.6% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the company said it’s paying its first ever cash dividend of $1.00 per share per year. The Farmingdale, New York-based company said it made the decision to broaden its investor base and tap those mutual funds that only invest in dividend-paying stocks. The payout of a prorated portion of $1 a share —
or 25 cents — was made Wednesday to shareholders of the outstanding Series 1 preferred shares of record as of March 31. “We have sufficient cash flow and confidence in the future to give us comfort that we can afford to fund both a dividend and our ongoing acquisition program,” Chief Executive Saagar Govil said in a statement. Cemtrex shares have fallen 56% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.6%.

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The number and size of insurance claims against mergers and acquisitions is on the rise, underscoring the risk companies can take when negotiating deals. Insurer American International Group Inc. said a study of M&A claims filed between 2011 and 2015 found that 23% of deals with a value of more than $1 billion end in a claim. “The bigger and more complicated a deal is, the more likely there is an unknown liability lingering,” said Mary Duffy, Global Head of M&A Insurance, AIG. “We are paying sizeable claims, sometimes writing eight-figure checks in different geographies.” AIG shares are down 9% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.4%.

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