2018-03-20 16:20:17 | On The Fly: Top stock stories for TuesdayU.S. stocks closed higher, rebounding from yesterday's losses as energy stocks saw gains due to an increase in oil prices, though technology stocks remained lower following Monday's selloff. Yesterday, stocks on Wall Street closed broadly and sharply lower as losses from markets overseas weighed on sentiment and Facebook (FB) dropped on reports that data of 50M users were misused. Meanwhile, investors are beginning to shift focus to an upcoming statement by the Federal Reserve, which is expected to announce a raise in its key interest rate on Wednesday. ECONOMIC EVENTS: The Redbook Index, which measures the growth in U.S. retail sales, was up 3.2% y/y in the latest week vs. the prior reading of 2.9% growth. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will preside over his first official Federal Open Market Committee meeting. A sixth rate hike by the FOMC since it started to normalize rates in December 2015 is widely expected. Chairman Powell will present the consensus forecast for overall economic growth. COMPANY NEWS: Following a sharp Monday sell-off, Facebook has seen increased scrutiny from investors amid calls by European and U.S. lawmakers for investigations into reports that the social media company's user data was accessed by Cambridge Analytica to assist President Donald Trump in winning the 2016 election, according to Reuters. The U.K.'s information and data privacy regulator is probing whether Facebook responded "robustly," NBC News reported, citing Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, while Bloomberg said Facebook is being investigated by the U.S. FTC. Facebook will hold an open meeting for all employees to let them ask questions about the data privacy scandal... Roku (ROKU) shares closed 2.6% higher after it announced that The Roku Channel, an AVOD app, is expected to be available this summer on select Samsung (SSNLF) smart TVs... Travel website Orbitz.com, a subsidiary of Expedia (EXPE), said it identified, and remediated, a data security incident in which personal user information was accessed. Expedia shares were 0.7% lower after the news... Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Toyota (TM) is temporarily halting its autonomous vehicle testing after a self-driving Uber test car hit and killed an Arizona pedestiran in the first known death involving a fully autonomous vehicle. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA), which surged 28.7% after it said that its ulcerative colitis drug met its primary, secondary, and clinical remission endpoints in a Phase 2 trial. Also higher was Stoneridge (SRI), which gained 16.2% after Stephens analyst Justin Long upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight. Among the notable losers was Group 1 Automotive (GPI), which slipped 10.4% after it said that its first quarter earnings will be negatively affected by weak market conditions. Also lower were Oracle (ORCL) and Duluth Holdings (DLTH), which fell a respective 9.4% and 10.8% after reporting quarterly results. In addition, Twitter (TWTR) was 10.4% lower after Bloomberg reported that Israel is weighing legal action against the company for online incitement. INDEXES: The Dow rose 116.36, or 0.47%, to 24,727.27, the Nasdaq gained 20.06, or 0.27%, to 7,364.30, and the S&P 500 advanced 4.02, or 0.15%, to 2,716.94. | |
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