Tag: stock market

Comcast Corp.’s new mobile phone service Xfinity Mobile is likely to help keep its customers wrapped up in its suite of services, mainly cable, said Instinet analysts. Lead analyst Anthony DiClemente wrote in a note to clients that Xfinity Mobile’s main value driver is its ability to reduce churn. “For now, Comcast plans to leverage its existing cutomer base and network infrastructure in order to provide a strong wireless customer experience that is profitable to Comcast on a standalone basis,” DiClemente wrote. DiClemente maintains his buy rating and $43 12-month price target for Comcast. With Xfinity Mobile’s $45 to $65 per month unlimited data plans and the cost of up to three lines totaling $135 a month at the high end, DiClemente said Comcast’s mobile offering is competitive and even cheaper than plans from Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. . “Overtime, we believe wireless could serve as an incremental tailwind to the already steadily improving fundamentals as Comcast,” DiClemente wrote. Shares of Comcast have gained more than 24% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 15% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 18% during the same time frame.

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Fitch Ratings on Friday cut its ratings on both South Africa’s foreign- and local-currency debt to junk, leaving Moody’s Investors Service as the only major ratings firm with an investment-grade rating on the country’s debt. South Africa’s currency, the rand, fluctuated between gains and losses after the decision. It recently traded at 13.79 to the dollar, little-changed from its late-Thursday level. Earlier in the week, S&P Global Market Intelligence cut its rating on the country’s foreign-currency debt to junk. The country’s currency, stocks and bonds sold off dramatically after President Jacob Zuma late last week fired respected Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

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U.S. stocks on Friday opened slightly lower as investors weighed a weaker-than-expected March employment data and President Donald Trump’s late-Thursday airstrike against Syria. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 19 points, or 0.1%, at 20,646, while the S&P 500 index declined 2 points, or 0.1%, at 2,355, while the Nasdaq Composite Index opened off 7 points, or 0.1%, at 5,871. The Labor Department report showed that the U.S.created just 98,000 new jobs in March, marking the smallest gain in almost a year, as hiring cooled. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 185,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. Among the bright spots were the unemployment rate which fell to 4.5% from 4.7%, marking its lowest level in about a decade. The moves for stocks come as investors await the conclusion of a closely watched summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In corporate news, shares of Raytheon Co. , maker of Tomahawk missiles used in the U.S.’s airstrike against Syria on Thursday, lead the S&P 500’s early gainers. Meanwhile, crude-oil prices were edging slight higher as attacks in Syria can foster concerns about disruptions of supplies in the region, which can push prices higher.

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Three people in Stockholm have been killed and several injured after a truck ran into a crowd on a street, according to news reports Friday. Shots have been fired in the area and a police task force is in place, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. Two weeks ago, a terrorist attack in London began with a car plowing into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. A Metropolitan Police officer in London also died after being stabbed by the terrorist, who was shot dead.

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Smithfield Foods, a $14-billion food company and a licensee of Nathan’s Famous Inc.’s hot dogs, announced Friday that Six Flags Entertainment Corp. has entered into a multi-year partnership with Nathan’s Famous to make its frankfurters the “Official Hot Dog of Six Flags.” Nathan’s Famous hot dogs will be served at 15 U.S. theme and water parts in 2017, with Chicago coming in 2018. The partnership also includes a marketing program to promote the partnership through the Six Flags mobile app, Six Flags TV and other initiatives. Six Flags shares are down 3.7% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 5.3% for the period.

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Eastman Kodak Co. said Friday that it has decided to retain its Prosper inkjet business after a review and discussions with prospective buyers. Prosper experienced a 40% increase in annuity sales in 2016 and the company expects its enterprise inkjet division to be profitable this year, said Chief Executive Jeff Clarke in a statement. Kodak will continue to invest in its Ultrastream inkjet technology, and expects products built with this technology to hit the market in 2019. Kodak had been accounting for Prosper as discontinued operations, but will reclassify it to continuing operations. Kodak shares are inactive in premarket trading and are up nearly 12% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 15.5% for the last 12 months.

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U.S. equity-index benchmarks on Friday retreated after the closely watched jobs report showed that 98,000 jobs were created in March, far below figures the market had anticipated. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 56 points, or 0.3% at 20,548, those for the S&P 500 index declined 7 points, or 0.3% at 2,347, while futures for the Nasdaq-100 index declined 12 points, or 0.2%, at 5,410. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast nonfarm payrolls to rise by 185,000 jobs in March, compared with February’s gain of 235,000 jobs. In one bright spot from the March employment report from the Labor Department, the unemployment rate fell to 4.5% from 4.7%–its lowest level in a decade. The moves for stocks also come as Wall Street reacts to the U.S.’s Thursday night airstrike in Syria. Investors also are looking to the conclusion of a closely watched summit between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 14.80 points at 20,662.95, while the S&P 500 index finished up 0.2% at 2,357, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3% at 5,878.95.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. created just 98,000 new jobs in March to mark the smallest gain in almost a year, as hiring cooled off after a strong start in 2017. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 185,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. Yet the unemployment rate fell to 4.5% from 4.7% – the lowest level in almost 10 years – as the number of people who found work outstripped the increase in the labor force, the government said Friday. Average wages rose 0.2% to $26.14 an hour. Hourly pay increased 2.7% from March 2016 to March 2017, down from 2.8% in the prior month. Hours worked totaled 34.3 a week, the same as in February. The government cut its estimate of new jobs created in February to 219,000 from 235,000. January’s gain was reduced to 216,000 from 238,000.

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Bank of Montreal said Friday that Chief Operating Officer Darryl White has been chosen to succeed Bill Downe as chief executive officer, effective Nov. 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Downe will retire on Oct. 31 after a decade as CEO. He will remain with the bank in an advisory capacity for a brief period, the bank said. Prior to his role as COO, White was group head of BMO Capital Markets and spent time in the U.S. working on strategy and expanding the bank’s footprint. Over the past 10 years, Bank of Montreal’s U.S. footprint has doubled. BMO shares are up 29.1% for the past year while the S&P 500 index was up 15.5% for that period.

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Defense and energy stocks dominated the list of premarket gainers on the S&P 500 Friday, after U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airbase overnight. The news sent oil prices to $52.80 a barrel, up 2.1% in the Globex electronic session, while June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 1.9% to $55.94. Prices often jump when tensions rise in the Middle East, where almost 40% of the world’s crude oil is produced. Raytheon Corp. , the maker of the Tomahawk missiles that were used in the attack, led the gainers with a 2.4% rise. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. jumped 1.8%, Lockheed Martin Corp. rose 1.8% and Chesapeake Energy Corp. was up 1.4%. S&P 500 futures were flat.

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