Tag: stock market

U.S. stocks finished lower Thursday with the Dow industrials falling a fifth straight session as investors exercised caution ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 72.32 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 19,732.40, with shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Merck & Co. leading decliners. The S&P 500 index closed down 8.20 points, or 0.4%, at 2,263.69, with the real-estate and utilities sectors the weakest performers. The Nasdaq Composite index finished down 15.57 points, or 0.3%, at 5,540.08.

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Shares of Western Union Co. tumbled 3.1% in active afternoon trade Thursday, reversing earlier gains of as much as 1.3%, after the provider of money movement services admitted to money laundering and consumer fraud violations, and agreed to pay $586 million. Volume spiked to 11.3 million shares, nearly triple the full-day average of 3.9 million shares, according to FactSet. “In its agreement with the Justice Department, Western Union admits to criminal violations including willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program and aiding and abetting wire fraud,” the Department of Justice said in a statement. The company said it also agreed to implement an anti-fraud program and enhanced compliance obligations. “Western Union owes a responsibility to American consumers to guard against fraud, but instead the company looked the other way, and its system facilitated scammers and rip-offs,” said Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. The stock has run up 29% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 20%.

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Shares of TCF Financial Corp. slumped 2.9% in active afternoon trade Thursday, after the Minnesota-based regional bank disclosed that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had filed a civil lawsuit against the company related to its overdraft opt-in practices from 2010 through April 2014. Volume jumped to 3.3 million shares, more than double the full-day average. TCF said it plans to “vigorously defend” against the CFPB’s complaint, given its belief that the overdraft protection program “complied with the letter and spirit of all applicable laws and regulations,” and that customers were treated fairly. TCF said the CFPB’s allegations that customers were misled by its employees into enrolling into overdraft protection programs pointed out that 60% of the customers who opened accounts without person-to-person interactions opted in to the programs. In addition, TCF said it received only 341 complaints from 2010 to 2015 related to customers’ decision to opt in, from a total of 2.6 million customers. TCF’s stock has soared 50% over the past 12 months, while the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF has surged 49% and the S&P 500 has climbed 20%.

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Gold futures settled lower on Thursday, with their largest one-day dollar and percentage loss of the year so far, as the U.S. dollar strengthened. The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged as expected and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Wednesday said the Fed expects a few rate hikes a year until 2019, providing support for the greenback-in turn pressuring prices for dollar-denominated gold. February gold lost $10.60, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,201.50 an ounce.

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Kaleo Inc. said midday Thursday that its Auvi-Q allergic reaction treatment, a competitor to Mylan’s EpiPen, will be available starting Feb. 14 for $360. The company said the product would be available to many patients with commercial insurance, including high-deductible health plans, for no out-of-pocket cost, and that it would have a $360 cash price for those without insurance. Forbes reports that the product’s list price will be $4,500, several times higher than the cost of Mylan’s EpiPen, due to a complicated scheme through which Kaleo pays patients’ out-of-pocket costs directly to insurers. Mylan’s authorized generic EpiPen product became available in late December for around $300. The Auvi-Q was voluntarily recalled in 2015 over concerns about incorrect dose delivery, which the company told MarketWatch in October it has fixed. Mylan shares tumbled 26.3% over the last 12 months, compared with a 20.6% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Communications company Avaya Inc. has filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company said it has secured a committed $725 million debtor-in-possession loan, special loan used in bankruptcy cases, underwritten by Citibank. “We have conducted an extensive review of alternatives to address Avaya’s capital structure, and we believe pursuing a restructuring through chapter 11 is the best path forward at this time,” Chief Executive Kevin Kennedy said in a statement. The company has decided not to sell its contact center business after evaluating expressions of interest in various of its assets in favor of addressing its debt. The company was spun off from Lucent, a former AT&T unit, in 2000.

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Oil futures pared some of their gains on Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an unexpected rise in domestic crude-oil supplies of 2.3 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 13. The American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday reported a drop of 5 million barrels, according to sources, while analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a decline of 900,000 barrels. Gasoline supplies also climbed by 6 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 1 million barrels, according to the EIA. February crude was up 30 cents, or 0.6%, at $51.38 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange from Wednesday’s settlement. It’s down from $52.50 before the data.

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Natural-gas futures turned higher Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of natural gas fell by 243 billion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 13. That was a higher than the decline of 238 billion cubic feet expected by analyst polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 2.917 trillion cubic feet, down 431 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 77 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas rose 2.4 cents, or 0.7%, to $3.326 per million British thermal units. It traded at $3.263 before the data.

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Target Corp. was downgraded Thursday to sell from neutral at Goldman Sachs on concerns that the retailer’s efforts to compete with Amazon.com Inc. will lead to “stagnating” sales and profits. Target’s price target was cut to $67 from $77. Analysts believe Target “has fared better than most in the face of” the shift to e-commerce, with margins falling less than other retailers. But the company is facing growing competition with Amazon in apparel and consumables. A proprietary Goldman Sachs survey found that Target customers are more likely than customers of other discounters to have a Prime membership, with penetration reaching more than 50% in the last six quarters. “Customers who indicated they prefer shopping at Target also marked that they often shop for apparel, books, health and wellness and cosmetics online – most of which are in Target’s ‘Signature Categories,'” the note said. “As Amazon’s offerings in these categories continue to expand, we are concerned about Target’s ability to maintain its growth rates and market share given high Prime penetration of the customer base.” Target stores are located in places that analysts believe are at risk for “Amazon encroachment”: densely populated markets. Target stores are also overlapping with high-end grocers like Whole Foods Market Inc. , putting the retailer’s grocery business at risk. Target stock is down 0.4% in Thursday trading, and down nearly 4% for the past year, while the S&P 500 index is up 20.7% for the 12-month period.

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Railroad stocks gained on Thursday, bolstered by CSX Corp. which is poised for its best percentage gains since November 1980. CSX soared on reports that it is being targeted by activist investors after two days of losses following subdued results. Union Pacific Corp. also posted better-than-expected earnings, suggesting that slumping demand for freight on the back of weak commodities may be easing. Norfolk Southern Corp. and Kansas City Southern traded higher, pushing the S&P 500’s industrials sector to outperform the broader market. The S&P 500 is off 2 points to 2,269.

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