Tag: stock market

Treasury prices gained ground, pulling yields lower Friday morning, as investors looked past a stronger-than-expected rise in nonfarm payrolls to focus on subdued January wage growth. The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in January, topping the consensus forecast of 197,000. But hourly wages rose just 0.1%, which analysts said could make the Federal Reserve more cautious about raising interest rates in March. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note fell 1.2 bsis points to 1.189% versus around 1.237% ahead of the jobs data. The 10-year yield dropped 2.2 basis points to 2.448% versus 2.502% before the release.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. generated 227,000 new jobs in January to mark the biggest gain in four months. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 197,000 increase in new nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate rose a tick to 4.8%, the government said Friday. Average wages edged up 0.1% to $26 an hour. Hourly pay increased 2.5% from January 2015 to January 2016, down from 2.8% in the prior month. Hours worked was unchanged at 34.4 after December’s figure was revised up slightly. Combined employment gains for December and November, meanwhile, were 39,000 lower than previously reported. The government said 157,000 new jobs were created in December instead of 156,000. November’s gain was chopped to 164,000 from 204,000.

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Pfizer Inc. has agreed to buyback $5 billion of its common stock as part of an accelerated repurchase program, the company said early Friday. The about 126 million shares will be received on Feb. 6. The buyback agreement was made with Citibank and is part of Pfizer’s existing share repurchase authorization, the company said. Pfizer shares were up 0.7% in pre-market trade Friday. Shares have risen 6.2% over the last three months, compared with a 9.2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Kimbell Royalty Partners L.P. said it priced its initial public offering of 5 million shares at $18 a share, to raise $90 million. The new shares will begin trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “KRP.” The Texas-based oil and gas mineral master limited partnership said it has granted the underwriters of the IPO a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 750,000 shares. Raymond James is the lead book-running manager, and RBC Capital Markets and Stifel are joint book-running managers.

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Nordstrom Inc. will stop selling the Ivanka Trump brand, a decision that came as a result of lackluster sales, according to a late-Thursday Bloomberg report. The retailer was also the target of the Grab Your Wallet campaign, which urges consumers to boycott goods and retailers that have business ties to the Trump family. The co-founder of the group, Shannon Coulter, has tweeted about the news, saying “You did this.” Company executives addressed the controversy over the brand, according to an email obtained by Fortune in Nov. 2016, and tweeted about the issue saying that selling certain products shouldn’t be “misunderstood as us taking a political position; we’re not.” Nordstrom shares down nearly 14% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 19.3% for the same period.

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The Madison Square Garden Co. said Friday it had net income of $57.7 million, or $2.39 a share, in its fiscal second quarter to December 31, up from $43.5 million, or $1.74 a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The sports and entertainment venue said revenue rose to $445.2 million from $410.8 million. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of $1.99 and revenue of $440 million. Chief Executive David O”Connor said growth was driven by stregth across the company’s entertainment and sports business. “In addition to a strong quarter for our core operations, we took an important step in expanding our live offerings with our purchase of a majority interest in TAO Group, which adds a complementary world-class entertainment dining and hospitality group that generates substantial adjusted operating income, with significant growth potential,” he said. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are up 17% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 19%.

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Hershey Co. reported fourth-quarter net income of $116.9 million, or 55 cents per share, down from $227.9 million, or $1.04 per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings were $1.17, beating the $1.08 per share FactSet estimate. Sales totaled $1.97 billion, up from $1.91 billion last year and just below the $1.99 billion FactSet forecast. Hershey sees full-year 2017 EPS of $4.54 to $4.65 and adjusted EPS in the range of $4.72 to $$.81. The FactSet consensus is $4.64. Hershey’s shares are not active in Friday premarket trading, and up nearly 19% for the last year. The S&P 500 index is up 19.3% for the same period.

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Clorox Co. reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $149 million, or $1.14 a share, compared with $149 million, or $1.13 a share, in the same period a year ago. The consumer and household products giant’s results include an 11-cents-per-share noncash asset impairment charge related to the Aplicare skin antisepsis business. The FactSet earnings-per-share consensus was $1.22. Revenue rose to $1.41 billion from $1.35 billion, topping the FactSet consensus of $1.40 billion, as better-than-expected household and international sales offset misses in cleaning and lifestyle sales. Volume grew 8%. The company cut its fiscal 2017 EPS outlook to $5.23 to $5.38 from $5.23 to $5.43. “As we look to the remainder of fiscal year 2017, incremental investment behind our brands remains a priority, with promising innovation launching across our portfolio,” said Chief Executive Benno Dorer. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has lost 8.3% over the past 12 months, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF has gained 5% and the S&P 500 has rallied 19%.

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Shares of Banco Popular Espanol SA fell 5% on Friday after the Spanish lender swung to a net annual loss of €3.48 billion ($3.75 billion) in the fourth quarter from a €104 million profit in the year-ago period. The company attributed the massive loss to bad loans and higher provisions in the period. The bank said that the results reflected provisions it had to take that totaled €5.69 billion, including non-recurring provisions for credit and real estate and goodwill writedowns on its Targobank unit, among other items.

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Global investment demand for gold jumped 70% year on year in 2016 to the highest level in four years, buoyed in part by the uncertain path of future interest-rate increases and the U.S. election, according to a report from the World Gold Council released Friday. Investment demand of the yellow metal rose to 1,561.1 metric tons in 2016, from 918.7 metric tons a year earlier, and inflows of gold into exchange-traded funds for the year were at their strongest since 2009, the WGC said. Overall, global gold demand climbed by 2% in 2016 to 4,308.7 metric tons, which was the highest since 2013. “2016 saw an unprecedented degree of political upheaval, which underpinned huge institutional investor flows into gold,” said Alistair Hewitt, head of market intelligence at the WGC, in a statement. April gold was last down $4.30, or 0.4%, at $1,215.10 an ounce in electronic trading after settling Thursday at $1,219.40.

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