2016-09-27 16:14:13 | On The Fly: Top stock stories for TuesdayStocks rose on Tuesday as investors responded to a report that consumer confidence is rising and to the fact that the first presidential debate was widely watched but didn't contain many bombshells that shook the market. With no clear answer on the "winner" of Monday night's debate, most agree that the debate may not have done much to move the needle clearly in favor of either candidate. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., Markit's services PMI rose 0.9 points to 51.9 in the September flash print. The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index improved to -8 in September from its prior reading of -11. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index improved further in September. The index now stands at 104.1, up from 101.8 in August. WTI crude oil for November delivery closed down about 3% near $44.50 per barrel after Iran rejected an offer from Saudi Arabia that would have seen the former limiting its output in exchange for the latter cutting supply, with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih telling reporters that he does not expect that an agreement will come out of the OPEC consultations tomorrow. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of American Express (AXP) ended the trading day up 1.4% at $64.28 after the U.S. appeals court weighing its steering case, a dispute over whether the company can legally prohibit merchants from steering customers to cheaper cards, ruled in favor of the company. Additionally, the company's board of directors approved the repurchase of up to 150 million common shares and a 3c, or 10%, increase in the quarterly dividend on its common stock... The board of directors of Wells Fargo (WFC) is said to be actively considering whether to claw back pay from CEO John Stumpf and the bank's former retail-banking head over the company's sales-tactics scandal, according to The Wall Street Journal... Ford Motor (F) responded to last night's claims by presidential candidate Donald Trump that the company planned to send "thousands of jobs" to Mexico. According to the automaker, the announced plan to move production of its Ford Focus to Mexico will have no impact on U.S. jobs. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Kite Pharma (KITE), which advanced about 9% after the cancer researcher reported data from an early analysis of its lead drug candidate KTE-C19, which met its goal of meaningfully shrinking tumors in a trial. Shares of competitor Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) also rose nearly 13% after Kite Pharma's news. Also higher was SYNNEX (SNX), which gained about 10% after reporting better than expected third quarter results and raising its quarterly dividend. Among the noteworthy losers was Caesars Entertainment (CZR), which dropped 19% after the company announced that it has struck a deal with most of its operating unit's creditors, paving the subsidiary's way out of a costly bankruptcy. Also lower were Avis Budget (CAR) and Hertz (HTZ), which slipped 8% and 10%, respectively, after Avis finance chief Dave Wyshner warned of disappointing summer sales in Europe amid terrorism concerns and other macro negatives, which he said negatively impacted pricing "across the industry." INDEXES: The Dow rose 133.47, or 0.74%, to 18,228.30, the Nasdaq gained 48.22, or 0.92%, to 5,305.71, and the S&P 500 advanced 13.83, or 0.64%, to 2,159.93. | |
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