2018-06-20 16:25:49 | On The Fly: Top stock stories for WednesdayStocks opened higher as the market tried to rebound and the Dow tried to break its longest losing streak since March 2017. The Dow swung more than 170 points during the session and was unable to end its skid, though the Nasdaq was strong all day and closed with gains of roughly 0.7%. Oil prices moved higher ahead of Friday's OPEC meeting as Iran reportedly claimed it had not agreed to any production increases. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the current account deficit widened $26.7B to $124.1B in Q1, which was a little less than expected. Existing home sales slipped 0.4% to a rate of 5.43M in May, which was weaker than expected. COMPANY NEWS: Class A shares of 21st Century Fox (FOXA) gained 7.5% after Disney (DIS) raised its bid for the assets it had previously agreed to buy from the company to the equivalent of $38 per 21CF share, or over $71B. The new bid comes a week after Comcast (CMCSA) offered to acquire the businesses that 21CF has agreed to sell to Disney for $35 per share in cash. Fox Business' Susan Li reported that Comcast plans to counter Disney's increased bid with a boosted offer of $41 per share in cash and stock. That plan may face a new hurdle, though, as Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is close to approving Disney's bid for the assets. Disney and Comcast shares finished with gains of 1.1% and 1.8%, respectively, by the close... General Electric (GE), a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since it began in 1896, will soon be losing that membership after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) will replace GE in the blue chip index effective Tuesday, June 26... Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) fell 9% after the coffee giant announced a set of strategic priorities and operational initiatives to accelerate growth and create long-term shareholder value following recent performance that CEO Kevin Johnson called "not acceptable." Starbucks also cut its Q3 global comparable store sales growth view and lowered its FY18 adjusted EPS outlook... Amazon (AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) announced that Atul Gawande, a "surgeon, writer and public health innovator," will be the CEO of their partnership on U.S. employee healthcare. The three corporate giants reiterated that the new joint-venture company will operate as an independent entity "free from profit-making incentives and constraints." MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Intelsat (I), which jumped 20% after RBC Capital upgraded the stock to Outperform from Sector Perform and raised its price target to $30 from $5. Also higher was Synaptics (SYNA), which gained 11.5% after it confirmed that it is engaged in talks with Dialog Semiconductor (DLGNF) regarding the potential takeover of Synaptics by Dialog. Among the noteworthy losers was Oracle (ORCL), which fell 7.5% after several analysts expressed concern regarding the company's decision to discontinue the disclosure of detailed cloud revenue. Also sliding after its earnings reports last night is FedEx (FDX), which declined nearly 3%. INDEXES: The Dow fell 42.41, or 0.17%, to 24,657.80, the Nasdaq gained 55.93, or 0.72%, to 7,781.51, and the S&P 500 advanced 4.73, or 0.17%, to 2,767.32. | |
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