36 Major Stories Telling What’s Happening in the World of Finance Today

1. U.S. Stock Market:

“U.S. and European stocks fell on Thursday, along with the U.S. dollar, while U.S. Treasury yields reversed earlier declines, as political uncertainty in the United States sent investors in search of safer investments like gold and the Japanese yen. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 17.31 points, or 0.08 percent, to 20,925.8, the S&P 500 lost 4.83 points, or 0.20 percent, to 2,394.8 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 10.54 points, or 0.17 percent, to 6,118.60.”

(Reuters)

“U.S. equities traded mostly lower on Thursday as retail stocks fell sharply on the back of Macy’s weak quarterly results. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 15 points after briefly dropping more than 100 points, with Home Depot contributing the most losses. Helping the index cut losses were shares of Caterpillar, which rose more than 1 percent after Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. The Nasdaq composite pulled back about 0.2 percent.”

(CNBC)

“U.S. stock index futures edged lower Thursday as Snap lost nearly a quarter of its value after earnings. The Dow futures was off 0.09% at 06:30 ET. The DJI closed up 0.16% overnight. The S&P 500 futures off 0.16%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.17%. Investors are looking for fresh catalysts as doubts raised about Trump’s economic agenda after FBI chief sacking.”

(Investing.com)

“U.S. stocks opened modestly lower on Thursday, continuing a trend of tight trading ranges as the main equity benchmarks hover around record levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.42% fell 42 points, 0.2%, to 20,904. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.50% lost 6 points, or 0.3%, to 2,393. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.55% shed 19 points to 6,110, a decline of 0.3%.”

(Market Watch)

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2. U.S. Bond Market:

“U.S. government debt prices traded mixed on Thursday as investors digested key economic data and awaited a Treasury Department sale. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was marginally lower at 2.409 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond rose to 3.044 percent. Yields move inversely to prices. Yields had traded lower across the board the U.S. government released economic data.”

(CNBC)

“U.S. Treasury yields turned flat on Thursday, paring their earlier decline, as the latest data on domestic jobless claims and producer prices reinforced the view of diminishing labor slack, and inflation accelerating in the second quarter. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was last at 2.402 percent, down 0.8 basis point from late on Wednesday, after being at 2.393 percent shortly before the release of reports on weekly jobless claims and the producer price index for April.”

(Reuters)

“Treasury yields rose sharply. As of 8:45 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note was 2.42%, 3 basis points higher than before the report was released.”

(Barron‘s)

3. FX Markets:

“The dollar was a touch lower against the yen on Thursday after notching an eight-week high overnight, while the New Zealand dollar weakened after the country’s central bank reiterated that it would keep rates on hold for a considerable period. USD/JPY dipped 0.1% to 114.16 by 07.41 GMT, after touching a high of 114.37 overnight, its strongest level since March 15. The euro edged higher, with EUR/USD rising 0.1% to 1.0877. Sterling was flat ahead of the Bank of England’s interest rate decision and inflation report later in the day, with GBP/USD at 1.2934. The BoE was expected to keep monetary policy on hold.”

(Investing.com)

“The pound has take a dramatic drop against the dollar this morning. At 6:30am it was sitting at highs of $1.29476 – a figure it has been hovering around for the past week. However, at 11am the exchange rate dropped dramatically to a week-low of $1.28798. It is currently sitting at $1.28641 (at the time of writing).”

(Daily Star)

“THE pound has slipped against the euro and the dollar this afternoon, following the Bank of England announcement that it may need to raise interest rates earlier than expected. While the central bank held its main interest rate at a record low of 0.25 per cent, it said that it may need to raise rates before the late 2019 date markets had been expecting. The sterling/dollar exchange rate fell from $1.292 to $1.287. The sterling/euro exchange rate fell from €1.189 to €1.184.”

(The Sun)

4. Commodities:

“Crude futures gained on Thursday as investors became more positive that production cuts made by major oil producers are finally making a dent on global crude stocks. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.3% to $50.86 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 1.3% at $47.93 a barrel.”

(Fox Business)

“Gold prices are firmer in early U.S. trading Thursday, supported by some short covering by the shorter-term futures traders and on perceived bargain hunting in the cash market. Weaker U.S. stock indexes ahead of the day session in New York are also a positive for the gold market. June Comex gold was last up $4.90 an ounce at $1,223.80. July Comex silver was last up $0.133 at $16.34 an ounce.”

(Kitco News)

“Crude futures pushed higher Thursday as investors are interpreting the latest hefty decline in U.S. crude inventories to be a harbinger of future demand. Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June CLM7, +1.12% climbed 64 cents, or 1.4%, to $47.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. May Brent crudeLCON7, +1.10% on London’s ICE Futures exchange picked up 60 cents, or 1.2%, to $50.82 a barrel.”

(Market Watch)

5. Market Movers:

Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M) first-quarter earnings miss shows just how far the retailer has to go before it can turn things around. Here’s what the company reported before the bell Thursday vs. what the Street was expecting: Earnings per share: 24 cents adjusted vs. estimate of 35 cents, Thomson Reuters analysts said. Revenue: $5.34 billion vs. estimate of $5.47 billion, according analysts. Same-store sales: decline of 4.6 percent, versus a forecast of a 2.7 percent drop, according to FactSet. Shares of the stock fell more than 10 percent in premarket trading Thursday following the disappointing report, which showed further deterioration over recent quarters. At one point, the stock fell below $26 for the first time in more than 5½ years before regaining some of the lost ground. Volume of shares changing hands was heavy.

(CNBC)

Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) SNAP 19.15% shares are trading lower by $4.82 (20 percent) at $18.20 in Thursday’s session. Investors are abandoning the stock after its first-ever earnings report since becoming public on March 2. After Wednesday’s close, the company reported Q1 EPS loss that was $2.17 more than expected; The fact that sales were $149.64 vs. $38.79 million in the prior year period doesn’t really seem to matter. Following a lower open, Snap’s stock continued in that direction but found support ahead of the pre-market low ($17.04), only reaching before mounting a rebound. The initial surge off the low took it to $18.50, but retreated to the $18.00 area.

(Benzinga)

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) dropped in New York trading after abandoning its efficiency targets and announcing $4 billion in cost cuts in the wake of its bogus-account scandal. Shares of the company fell 2.3 percent, the most in the KBW Bank Index, after the firm said slowing loan growth would prevent it from meeting goals that management has pursued for years. It boosted a plan to save $2 billion annually by the end of next year, saying it now will cut twice as much by 2019, according to a presentation Thursday on the company’s website.

(Bloomberg)

“At NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)‘s GPU Technology Conference, the company announced a new product known as the Tesla V100, which is expected to ship in the third quarter of this year. The Tesla V100 is a graphics processing unit (GPU) built specifically for the artificial-intelligence and high-performance-computing markets. From a financial perspective, revenue from NVIDIA’s Tesla products is counted under the company’s “data center” reporting segment. NVIDIA’s data-center business has been on fire over the past year or so, growing 145% year over year in fiscal 2017, as GPU-accelerated computing has gone from a relatively niche technology used in supercomputers to a viable replacement for traditional central processing unit-based computing in many data-center applications.”

(The Motley Fool)

Shares of Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:HIMX) inclined 1.03% to $6.85. The share price of the stock plunged -33.51% for the year. Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, declared its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2017.

(Journal Finance)

Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGMO) and Pfizer Inc announced an exclusive, global collaboration and license agreement for the development and commercialization of gene therapy programs for Hemophilia A, including SB-525, one of Sangamo’s four lead product candidates, which Sangamo expects will enter the clinic this quarter. Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGMO) shares fell -1.14% to $4.35 on Wednesday.

(Benchmark Monitor)

Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) distinguished its stores from rival retailers by beating profit and inventory expectations in the first quarter, ended April 29. Despite the positive surprise, KSS stock holder pushed down the shares more than 4% this morning. Earnings per share were 39 cents compared with 31 cents in the comparable quarter last year, according to a company announcement. Wall Street analysts’ average forecast was for 29 cents. KSS sales of $3.84 billion fell short of analysts estimates of $3.9 billion, as did comparable-store sales, which decline 2.7%.

(Investor Place)

What happened: Shares of New York REIT Inc (NYSE:NYRT) are down about 11% as of 11:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday after the company reported first-quarter earnings complete with an estimated liquidation value for its shares. So what: The real estate investment trust is currently in the process of liquidating its portfolio of commercial real estate in New York City. In its first-quarter 2017 earnings report, it said that its assets would result in liquidating distributions of $9.25 per share.

(The Motley Fool)

Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) have been on a tear since the company reported first quarter financial results Tuesday morning that were worse than expected, but included improved forward guidance. The stock, which closed Monday at $9.71, was at $13.91 by late Thursday, a 43% run up.

(Barron’s)

Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) shares saw a recent bid of $33.14 and 8.9M shares have exchanged hands in the recent trading session, yielding a 3.82% gain over the past week. The stock price increased 2.38% or $-0.77 versus $32.37 at the end of the prior session. This change led market cap to move at $20.55B, putting the price 1.81% below the 52-week high and 106.69% above the 52-week low. The company’s stock has a normal trading capacity of 5.54M shares while the relative volume is 1.61.

(StockNewsMagazine)

The stock of Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) is a huge mover today! About 3.36 million shares traded or 279.02% up from the average. Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) has declined 32.04% since October 4, 2016 and is downtrending. It has underperformed by 43.62% the S&P500.The move comes after 6 months positive chart setup for the $2.78B company. It was reported on May, 11 by Barchart.com. We have $23.82 PT which if reached, will make NYSE:XON worth $83.40 million more. Since December 1, 2016, it had 2 buys, and 0 insider sales for $1.20 million activity. Hassan Fred bought 6,900 shares worth $200,266. Another trade for 34,606 shares valued at $1.00 million was bought by KIRK RANDAL J.

(San Times)

Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ:PEGA), the software company empowering customer engagement at the world’s leading enterprises, today announced it has been named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center (1) report. This marks the eighth consecutive year Gartner has named Pega a leader in this report. Gartner evaluated CRM solutions from 15 vendors – five of which were named leaders. In the report, Gartner describes what it takes to be positioned as a Leader: “Leaders demonstrate market-defining Completeness of Vision and the Ability to Execute that vision through products, services, sales figures and solid new references for multiple geographies and industries.

(EconoTimes)

The stock of Straight Path Communications Inc (NYSEMKT:STRP) is a huge mover today! About 1.68M shares traded or 125.03% up from the average. Straight Path Communications Inc (NYSEMKT:STRP) has risen 746.09% since October 4, 2016 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 734.50% the S&P500.The move comes after 5 months negative chart setup for the $2.16B company. It was reported on May, 11 by Barchart.com. We have $169.39 PT which if reached, will make NYSEMKT:STRP worth $108.00 million less.

(Bibey Post)

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNAT) CNAT 19.57% shares tumbled 22.5 percent to $5.44. Conatus Pharmaceuticals priced its underwritten public offering of 5,200,000 shares at $5.50 per share.

(Benzinga)

Dillard’s, Inc. (NYSE:DDS) is down 16.63 percent trading at $48.27 in Thursday trades. That is a $9.63 drop, according to Google Finance. Dillard’s even beat earnings expectations today. Macy’s (NYSE: M) is down 15 percent. Macy’s has seven Phoenix-area stores and a credit and call center in Tempe. Dillard’s has seven department and two outlets stores in the Phoenix market. Dillard’s and Macy’s are both at Scottsdale Fashion Square, Superstition Springs Mall, Chandler Fashion Center, San Tan Village and other malls.

(Phoenix Business Journal)

Aralez Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ARLZ) shares are moving today on volatility 10.50% or $0.19 from the open. The TSX listed company saw a recent bid of 2.00 and 50745 shares have traded hands in the session. Now let’s take a look at how the fundamentals are stacking up for Aralez Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARZ.TO). Fundamental analysis takes into consideration market, industry and stock conditions to help determine if the shares are correctly valued. Aralez Pharmaceuticals Inc currently has a yearly EPS of -1.74. This number is derived from the total net income divided by shares outstanding. In other words, EPS reveals how profitable a company is on a share owner basis.

(The Tuckerman Times)