Tag: stock market

Shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. dropped 7.2% in active afternoon trade Friday, after Credit Suisse turned bearish on the car rental company, citing a lackluster growth environment that is exacerbated by operational struggles. Analyst Anjaneya Singh downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral, and slashed the stock price target to $15, which is 25% below current levels, from $27. “In an environment that presents weak volume growth, flattish pricing and inflationary fleet costs, we see [Hertz] struggling to generate profit growth reflected in consensus estimates,” Singh wrote in a note to clients. Avis Budget Group Inc.’s stock slumped 5%, after Singh downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform, citing Avis’s the surprise negative volume growth Avis reported for the fourth quarter. Hertz’s stock has tumbled 41% over the past 12 months, while Avis shares rallied 15% and the S&P 500 climbed 22%.

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Shares of T-Mobile US Inc. rose more than 4% in afternoon trade on Friday after a Reuters report that Softbank Group plans to approach the wireless phone carrier to talk about merging with Sprint Corp. . Sprint, which Softbank owns, saw shares rise more the 3%. Shares of Sprint are up nearly 212% in the trailing 12-month period, while T-Mobile is up 72% during the same time frame and the S&P 500 Index is up almost 22%.

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Oil futures added a few pennies on Friday, but ended the week with a loss for the first time in three weeks. Traders weighed pressure from rising U.S. crude production and supplies against support from sizable production cuts among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. March West Texas Intermediate crude rose 4 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $53.40 a barrel. Prices lost roughly 0.9% for the week, according to FactSet data.

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Aetna Inc. shares declined as much as 2.94% on heavy volume Friday afternoon after the company announced it was authorizing up to $4 billion for share buybacks and would double its quarterly cash divided to 50 cents per share. Aetna shares have declined 0.3% over the last three months, compared with a 7.2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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President Donald Trump said Friday the U.S. is seriously looking at a “big order” of Super Hornet fighter jets from Boeing . Trump made the comment while speaking at a Boeing facility in South Carolina, during which he said he wanted more products to be made by American workers at U.S. factories. Boeing shares were trading up 1.2% Friday afternoon and were unchanged as Trump spoke.

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Gold prices fell Friday, but tallied a third straight weekly gain with political uncertainty fueling demand for the precious metal. April gold declined by $2.50, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,239.10 an ounce. Futures prices, which settled Thursday at a more than three-month high, gained roughly 0.3% for the week.

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Data from Baker Hughes Friday revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 6 to 597 rigs this week. That marked the fifth weekly increase in a row. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, also rose by 10 to 751, according to Baker Hughes. March West Texas Intermediate crude held onto earlier declines after the figures, trading down 15 cents, or 0.3%, at $53.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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The Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday. Two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, joined Republicans to confirm him, while Republican Susan Collins of Maine voted against him. The vote was 52-46.

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Shares of Mondelez International Inc. shed 1.4% in midday trade, as Kraft Heinz Co.’s bid to buy Unilever PLC might reduce the likelihood that Mondelez gets acquired. Analyst Pablo Zuanic at Susquehanna said that although Unilever has rejected Kraft Heinz’s bid, he believes “a deal to eventually happen.” For now, Zuanic said the bid “should lower the probability of a bid for [Mondelez],” as the focus seems to be more on grocery than snacks. He said the bid should also pressure the stocks of a number of U.S.-heavy food companies, including General Mills Inc. , Campbell Soup Co. and Kellogg Co. . General Mills shares dropped 3.3% after cutting its sales outlook, Campbell’s stock shed 6.7% after reporting disappointing quarterly sales and Kellogg’s shares slumped 2.9%. Kraft’s stock soared 7.6% and Unilever’s U.S.-listed shares climbed 11%, while the S&P 500 eased 0.2%.

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Shares of UnitedHealth Group Inc. tumbled 4% in morning trade Friday to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average decliners, after the Department of Justice joined a whistleblower’s lawsuit against the health care giant for overcharging Medicare. The stock, which is on track to suffer the biggest one-day percentage decline in 15 months, is heading toward the lowest close since Nov. 28, 2016. The price decline of $6.50 is shaving about 45 points off the Dow, which is down 58 points. On Thursday, law firm Constantine Cannon made public its lawsuit filed in 2011, after the DoJ joined the suit, that alleges UnitedHealth defrauded the Medicare program of “hundreds of millions of dollars” by claiming its members were treated for conditions they either did not have or were treated for. The allegations are against Texas-based WellMed, which UnitedHealth acquired in 2011. UnitedHealth’s stock was still up 33% over the past 12 months, while the Dow was up 25%.

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