37 Major Stories Summarizing What’s Happening In The Financial Markets Today

1. U.S. Stock Market:

“U.S. stock benchmarks on Thursday were switching between small gains and losses, as the energy sector tumbled in sync with a drop in crude oil. Meanwhile, a House panel took a step to begin rolling back Dodd-Frank reforms and Obamacare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.10% which had traded down by as many as 110 points, earlier in the session, was down 12 points, or less than 0.1%, to 20,938. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.00% was trading flat at 2,388, as six of its 11 sectors were in positive territory, led by gains in consumer-staples and health-care shares. The broad-market index had been down as many as 8 points. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.01%  was little-changed at 6,075, following an 18-point deficit earlier in the session.”

(Market Watch)

“Equities fell on Thursday after the House of Representatives successfully passed a bill aimed at repealing and replacing Obamacare. Energy stocks also pressured the broader market as oil hit a five-month low. The Dow Jones industrial average traded 40 points lower, with on Chevron contributing the most losses. The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent, with energy dropping more than 2 percent. Health care, meanwhile, was among the best performers. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1 percent.”

(CNBC)

“U.S. stock index futures were higher on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and expressed confidence in the strength of the economy. Futures snapshot at 6:58 a.m. ET: Dow e-minis were up 55 points, or 0.26 percent, with 14,303 contracts changing hands. S&P 500 e-minis were up 6.25 points, or 0.26 percent, with 82,323 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 17 points, or 0.3 percent, on volume of 16,997 contracts.”

(Reuters)

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2. U.S. Bond Market:

“The U.S. Treasuries traded lower ahead of the country’s labor market report for the month of April, scheduled to be released on May 5. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury jumped 3-1/2 basis points to 2.34 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields also climbed nearly 3-1/2 basis points to 2.98 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year note traded 1-1/2 basis point higher at 1.31 percent.”

(EconoTimes)

“The U.S. bond market’s gauges on inflation expectations turned higher on Thursday as encouraging data on trade and jobless claims intensified a selloff in the Treasuries market, pushing benchmark yields to session highs. The 10-year inflation breakeven rate, or the yield difference between 10-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and regular 10-year Treasury notes, was last at 1.88 percent, up 0.45 basis point from Wednesday, Tradeweb and Reuters data showed.”

(Reuters)

“U.S. government debt prices were lower on Thursday after the Federal Reserve left its interest rate unchanged. Traders are betting the central bank will hike rates at their next meeting in June. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was higher at around 2.35 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also higher at 2.986 percent. Yields move inversely to prices.”

(CNBC)

3. FX Markets:

“The euro surged toward 6-month highs around $1.0950 on Thursday as support for the dollar from Wednesday’s Federal Reserve statement faded and investors took heart from French centrist Emmanuel Macron’s performance in a TV presidential debate. The dollar had gained against a number of major currencies in early trade in Europe but buying faded as major European names judged the Fed’s meeting gave was no reason for further ramping up bets on rises in U.S. rates this year. That rethink knocked around half a cent off the dollar’s value against the euro to leave it trading 0.4 percent lower on the day at $1.0928 by 1130 GMT. The dollar continued to perform well, however, against the yen – reaching 113 yen for the first time in seven weeks – and the bloc of commodity-linked currencies headed by the Australian dollar.”

(Reuters)

“The dollar extended its Federal Reserve-inspired advance against the Japanese yen on Thursday, but struggled against European rivals, as investors grew increasingly convinced the central bank could raise interest rates again as soon as next month. Against the yen, the dollar USDJPY, +0.16% advanced to a six-week high at ¥112.88, compared with ¥112.75 late Wednesday in New York. In other trading, one euro EURUSD, +0.3766% bought $1.0936, up from $1.0887 late Wednesday. The pound GBPUSD, +0.2254% traded at $1.2904 from $1.2867 late Wednesday.”

(Market Watch)

“The Pound is seen trading 0.29% lower against the euro, quoted at 1.17880 on Thursday 4th May. However the US Dollar began to slide against the Pound this morning following an upbeat Services PMI from the UK. According to data released by IHS Markit, Britain’s private sector saw activity rise from 55.0 to 55.8 last month, beating initial expectations that it would fall to 54.5 and reaching its best levels in 2017.“

(ExchangeRates.org.uk)

4. Commodities:

“Oil fell to its lowest since late November on Thursday, as concern over rising global supply and stubbornly high inventories effectively wiped out most of the gains made since OPEC announced its first supply cut in eight years. Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 broke below $50 a barrel for the first time since late March, hitting an intraday low of $49.69, the lowest level since Nov. 30. The July contract was down 82 cents on the day at $49.97 by 1252 GMT (8.52 a.m. ET), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 fell 92 cents to $46.90 a barrel.”

(Reuters)

“Gold prices are solidly down and hit a six-week low in early U.S. trading Thursday. Rallying world stock markets and minimal risk aversion in the marketplace are keeping buyers of the safe-haven metal scarce. Silver continues to take a beating as prices hover near this week’s four-month low. June Comex gold was last down $13.70 an ounce at $1,234.70. July Comex silver was last down $0.056 at $16.485 an ounce.”

(Kitco News)

“Oil prices attempted to rally after coming under pressure following the EIA inventories report, but there was resistance on approach to the $48.00 p/b area and strong interest in selling rallies with prices retreating back towards $47.50 into the US close.”

(Economic Calendar)

5. Market Movers:

What happened: Shares of electric-car and sustainable energy company Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) fell as much as 6.5% on Thursday following the company’s first-quarter earnings report Wednesday afternoon. The stock is down 5.7% at the time of this writing. So what: Though its first-quarter earnings report included record revenue, the company missed the mark when it came to earnings. Tesla posted an adjusted loss per share of $1.33 for its first quarter. While the loss per share was narrower than its adjusted loss of $1.46 per share in the year-ago quarter, it was a more significant loss than analysts anticipated. On average, analysts expected an adjusted loss per share of $0.83.

(The Motley Fool)

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) FB 0.65% addressed an ongoing concern among many of its users and investors: the very real dangers the platform poses to society. Facebook said it will hire 3,000 people across the world who will be tasked with monitoring videos for violent and criminal acts. The company faced backlash after a murder and suicide were shown live on its platform for essentially anyone and everyone to see. “If we’re going to build a safe community, we need to respond quickly,” Bloomberg quoted Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying in a Facebook post. “We’re working to make these videos easier to report so we can take the right action sooner — whether that’s responding quickly when someone needs help or taking a post down.”

(Benzinga)

What happened: Shares of Entellus Medical Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTL), a device maker focused on sinus relief, are getting thumped after the company announced first-quarter earnings yesterday. Lighter-than-expected sales figures have incited the market to shave about 19.9% from the stock price as of 12:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday. So what: It’s been a rough year for Entellus Medical. Including today’s beatdown, the stock has given up about 33.2% in 2017. Although first-quarter sales rose a healthy 13% over the prior-year period, operating expenses increased a bit faster.

(The Motley Fool)

Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA), Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB), (VIA -6.8%, VIAB -5.8%) is sharply lower after the company logged a beat with its fiscal Q2 earnings, but took a hit on the distribution front as cableco Charter shuffled five networks to its top tier. The company faces likely lower affiliate fee revenues after Charter’s move of MTV, VH1, Spike, BET and Comedy Central to its most expensive programming tier. Those affiliate revenues rose 2% in Q2, part of overall revenues that rose nearly 9% with help from Paramount Pictures. Revenue by unit: Media Networks, $2.39B (up 1%); Filmed Entertainment, $895M (up 37%).

(Seeking Alpha)

What happened: Shares of Snapchat operator Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) have jumped today, up by 6% as of 12 p.m. EDT, after the company introduced a set of ad-buying tools. So what: Snap has just unveiled a self-serve platform, dubbed Snapchat Ad Manager, for advertisers to purchase ads on its mobile platform. Previously, prospective advertising customers had to work with a Snap account manager and commit to high levels of ad spending, often hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(The Motley Fool)

Traders are taking a second look at how shares of MYR Group Inc (NASDAQ:MYRG) have been performing lately. A favorite tool among technical stock analysts is the moving average. Moving averages are considered to be lagging indicators that simply take the average price of a stock over a specific period of time. Moving averages can be very useful for identifying peaks and troughs. They may also be used to help the trader figure out proper support and resistance levels for the stock. Currently, the 200-day MA is sitting at 34.87, and the 50-day is 40.25. The 14-day ADX for MYR Group Inc (MYRG) is currently at 13.04. In general, and ADX value from 0-25 would represent an absent or weak trend. A value of 25-50 would support a strong trend.

(Piedmont Register)

Flotek Industries, Inc. (NYSE:FTK) shares are struggling to make any headway in today’s session. In early trading, the stock has dipped -12.14% on steady volume. The action so far has landed shares on the top loser list for the morning session.Flotek Industries, Inc. (NYSE:FTK) is seeing declines so far in today’s trading session.  Shares are moving -12.14% lower on solid volume. The stock has landed on the top loser list for the day according to Finviz data. Stocks whose market prices drop the most during the trading day are bluntly referred to as losers.  Stocks that lose the most value relative to their price at opening are called percentage losers, and the stocks that lose the greatest number of points are called net losers or, sometimes, dollar losers.

(Aiken Advocate)

The stock of Unit Corporation (NYSE:UNT) is a huge mover today! About 1.36M shares traded or 110.88% up from the average. Unit Corporation (NYSE:UNT) has risen 38.58% since September 27, 2016 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 28.02% the S&P500.The move comes after 7 months negative chart setup for the $966.19 million company. It was reported on May, 4 by Barchart.com. We have $16.86 PT which if reached, will make NYSE:UNT worth $67.63M less. Unit Corporation is an oil and natural gas contract drilling company. The company has market cap of $966.19 million. The Firm has activities in the exploration and production and mid-stream areas. It currently has negative earnings. The Firm operates through three divisions: Oil and Natural Gas, Contract Drilling and Mid-Stream.

(Herald KS)

Many investors may be looking to track stock price momentum by looking at different historical information. Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI) currently has a 6 month price index of 1.80972. The six month price index is simply measured by dividing the current share price by the share price six months ago. A ratio above one indicates an increase in share price over the six month period. A ratio below one indicates that the price has decreased over that specific period. Traders might also be keeping an eye on the Piotroski Score or F-Score. The score is named after its developer Joseph Piotroski who created a ranking scale from 0-9 to help determine the financial strength of a company. Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI) currently has a Piotroski Score of 8.

(Providence Standard)

Shares of TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) have seen the needle move -12.17% or $-10.60 in the most recent session. The NYSE listed company saw a recent bid of 76.50 on 3022386 volume. Now let’s take a look at how the fundamentals are stacking up for TreeHouse Foods Inc (THS). Fundamental analysis takes into consideration market, industry and stock conditions to help determine if the shares are correctly valued. TreeHouse Foods Inc currently has a yearly EPS of -4.04. 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 Hiram Herald)

With Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) reporting positive earnings yesterday, after the bell, it appears that their turnaround is beginning to gain traction. In pre-market trading, the stock is already up more than 7%, trading at $6.12 per share, and I believe there is much more upside ahead. Quarter Results: Yesterday, FIT reported better than expected earnings, beating on the top and bottom lines. FIT reported revenue of $298.94 million, beating expectations by $18.18 million and Q1 EPS of -$0.15, beating estimates by $0.03 per share.

(Seeking Alpha)

Shares of Square Inc (NYSE:SQ) gained more than 9 percent Thursday morning and hit an all-time high of $19.99 in reaction to a better-than-expected first-quarter report. BTIG’s Mark Palmer maintains a Buy rating and $20 price target on Square’s stock after the company delivered solid results in spite of high expectations. According to the analyst, Square’s report was “impressive,” most notably led by a 36 percent year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA to $27 million, which came in ahead of his own estimate of $18.1 million. In addition, the company guided to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8 percent, but it delivered a superior 13 percent.

(Benzinga)

Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) stock is down 7.5% in early morning trading after announcing disappointing earnings. The cosmetics company announced a loss of $0.10 per share. This is an improvement from the loss of $0.38 per share for the same quarter a year earlier. However, the adjusted EPS of -$0.07 was below the expected EPS of $0.01. Revenue rose 2% this quarter, coming in at $1.33 billion. Avon expects revenue to grow less than 10% this year. AVP stock is trading at $4.65 for a loss of 7.7% year to date (YTD).

(Money Morning)

AmpliPhi Biosciences Corporation (NYSE:APHB) announces a new strategic emphasis on precisely targeted and personalized medicines designed to address the surging global threat posed by bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. Under existing compassionate-use guidelines, AmpliPhi expects to provide personalized phage therapies to patients suffering from severe, multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections who have failed prior therapies. AmpliPhi Biosciences Corporation (NYSE:APHB) shares shed -10.10% to $1.78 on Wednesday. In addition to offering hope to patients and families in dire need, the clinical data from these compassionate-use cases are expected to support the potential validation of the clinical utility of phage therapy and inform discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on defining a potential path to market approval.

(Benchmark Monitor)

CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL) currently has an Average Broker Rating of 2.53. The ABR rank within the industry stands at 10. This number is based on the 15 sell-side firms polled by Zacks. The ABR is provided by Zacks which simplfies analyst ratings into an integer based number. They use a one to five scale where they translate brokerage firm Buy/Sell/Hold recommendations into an average broker rating. A low number in the 1-2 range typically indicates a Buy, 3 represents a Hold and 4-5 represents a consensus Sell rating. Analysts on a consensus basis are expecting that the stock will reach $28.82 within the year.

(Aiken Advocate)

Commscope Holding Company Inc (NASDAQ:COMM) announced its most recent quarterly financial results on Thursday, May-4-2017. COMM reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the analyst consensus estimate by $-0.01. Analysts had a consensus of $0.53. The company posted revenue of $1137.30 million in the period, compared to analysts expectations of $1138.45 million. COMM’s revenue was down -.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Based on several research reports , Company shares were Reiterated by Barclays on Apr 12, 2017 to “Overweight”, Firm has raised the Price Target to $ 47 from a previous price target of $42 .

(Highland Mirror)

Investors are watching BioTelemetry, Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAT) ahead of the market open as shares are gapping down -4.82% with the stock currently sitting at $31.60. A gap is a space between prices that occurs when the price of a stock makes a move down or up when there is no trading happening in between. Recent Price History: BioTelemetry, Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAT)’s performance this year to date is 48.55%. The stock has performed 0.00% over the last seven days, 17.11% over the last thirty, and 43.72% over the last three months. Over the last six months, BioTelemetry, Inc.’s stock has been 87.57% and 114.19% for the year.

(Aiken Advocate)