Tag: stock market

Shares of Snap Inc. were initiated with a reduce rating, which is a bearish outlook equivalent to a sell rating, at Instinet Thursday, hours after the stock debut. Analyst Anthony DiCliemente set a 12-month price target on the stock of $16, which would mark a decline from Thursday afternoon trading prices. The stock soared more than 51% to $25.70 in recent trade after pricing at $17 a share Wednesday night. DiClemente cited slowing user growth, slowing monetization growth and “fierce competition from larger rivals,” such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, all Facebook Inc. properties, for the bearish rating. Earlier on Thursday, Pivotal initiated coverage on Snap with a sell rating and $10 target, saying it believed Snapchat was “significantly overvalued.”

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he has “total” confidence in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Associated Press reported, as some Democrats call for Sessions to resign over reports he had contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during Trump’s campaign despite earlier denials. Sessions has said he will recuse himself “whenever it’s appropriate” from investigating ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

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The average loan amount for a new vehicle reached a record of $30,621 in the fourth quarter, Experian said Thursday. The average loan amount for a used vehicle also reached a record, from $18,850 in the fourth quarter of 2015 to $19,329 in the same period in 2016. The report also showed more buyers went for longer-term loans: the number of consumers opting for auto loans with terms of 73 to 84 months on their new vehicles increased from 29% in the fourth quarter 2015 to 32.1% in the fourth quarter. In the used car market, there was an increase in 73- to 84-month loans from 16.4% in the fourth quarter of 2015 to 18.2% in the same quarter in 2016. The need for affordability drives consumer purchasing behavior, Melinda Zabritski, Experian’s senior director of automotive finance, said in a statement. There’s an $11,000 gap between the average loan amount on a new and on a used vehicle, the widest Experian has recorded, she said. “This upward trend is causing many consumers to find alternative methods like extending loan terms, getting a short-term lease or opting for a used vehicle to get what they want while staying within their monthly budget,” Zabritski said.

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Gold futures finished Thursday at their lowest level in more than two weeks, pressured by growing expectations for a U.S. interest-rate increase this month and strength in the dollar, which eased investment demand for the metal. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index tapped its highest levels in about two months. April gold lost $17.10, or 1.4%, to settle at $1,232.90 an ounce. That was the lowest finish for a most-active contract since Valentine’s Day, according to FactSet data.

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Shares of Caterpillar Inc. were down almost 5% Thursday afternoon amid reports that federal officials were searching three of the company’s offices, including its Peoria, Ill., headquarters. A report from the Wall Street Journal said search warrants were being executed at Caterpillar facilities in East Peoria and Morton. “Law enforcement is present in various Peoria-area Caterpillar facilities executing a search warrant,” a CAT spokeswoman told the WSJ. “Caterpillar is cooperating,” she said. Shares of Caterpillar were down nearly 5%, marking its worst one-day decline in about eight months and cutting about 30 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average of which it is a component. The Internal Revenue Service, the Commerce Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., are a part of the investigation. According to WSJ, the probe is believed to be tied to an investigation overseen by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois.

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Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser threw some cold water on Snap Inc.’s hot IPO, initiating coverage of the social media darling with a sell rating. His stock price target of $10 is 41% below the initial-public-offering price of $17, and 60% below current levels. Snap’s stock opened at $24 on the NYSE, and was recently up 46% at $24.75. “Snap is a promising early stage company with significant opportunity ahead of itself,” Wieser wrote in a note to client. “Unfortunately, it is significantly overvalued given the likely scale of its long-term opportunity and the risks associated with executing against that opportunity.” He said Snap is an “upstart” facing aggressive competition from much larger companies, with a core user base that is not growing by much. Wieser also expressed concerns over an inexperienced management team, high expenses and cash costs, potential dilution from “aggressive share issuances to employees” and the lack of voting rights for shareholders. While Snap’s stock soared, the broader market fell, with the S&P 500 down 0.5%.

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Shares of Snap Interactive Inc. , which trades over the counter on the OTCQB exchange, soared 13% in active morning trade Thursday. Volume of 22,500 shares was nearly six times the full-day average. The company, which provides social networking and dating applications, has not released any news since Feb. 14, when it said Chief Executive Alex Harrington was named to the Global Dating Insights 2017 Power Book list of the most influential people in the online dating industry. The surge in the stock comes as investors wait for shares of Snapchat parent Snap Inc. to debut on the NYSE. Snap’s initial public offering priced at $17 late Wednesday, and is currently indicated to open between $23.50 to $24.50.

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Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell said the case for March interest-rate hike “has come together,” saying the balance of risks has not only shifted from the downside but is arguably to the upside. Powell, in an interview with CNBC, said the momentum in the U.S. economy is solid. He also didn’t put much attention on the recent cuts to gross domestic product estimates by forecasters, saying GDP isn’t measured well in real time. Powell, who gets a vote at every Federal Open Market Committee meeting, joins several officials in talking about the possibility of a rate hike later this month.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas rose by 7 billion cubic feet for the week ended Feb. 24. Analysts expected inventories to fall by just 2 billion cubic feet, on average, for the week, following milder winter weather that dulled demand for the fuel, according to S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 2.363 trillion cubic feet, down 187 billion cubic feet from a year ago, but 295 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. April natural gas fell 3 cents, or 1.1%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.769 per million British thermal units. It traded at $2.786 before the data.

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Taubman Centers Inc. said Thursday it was raising its quarterly dividend by 5% to 62.5 cents a share from 59.5 cents a share. The mall real estate investment trust said the new dividend will be paid March 31 to shareholders of record on March 15. Based on current share prices, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 3.62%, compared with the average dividend yield of the Real Estate Select Sector ETF’s components of 4.06%, and the aggregate S&P 500 dividend yield of 1.99%, according to FactSet. Taubman’s stock, which slipped 0.2% in morning trade, has lost 4.3% over the past three months, while the real estate ETF has gained 7% and the S&P 500 has climbed 9.1%.

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