2018-07-16 12:24:51 | Fly Intel: Wall Street's top stories at middayStocks are little changed, but slightly lower, as the market appears to be in limbo ahead of the start of the earnings season. The early economic data had little effect as the market has been focused on the summit between the presidents of Russia and the U.S. Crude oil is down about 4% to trade near $68 per barrel as traders worry that President Trump may convince President Putin to increase production to help rein in prices. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., retail sales rose 0.5% in June from the prior month, as expected. The Empire State manufacturing index fell 2.4 points to 22.6, reversing about half of the 4.9 point increase to 25.0 in June. Business inventories rose 04% in May, with sales up 1.4%, as forecast. In China, data was mixed, as a report on Q2 GDP growth was in-line with expectations, June retail sales came in better than expected and June's industrial production fell short of estimates. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Bank of America (BAC) advanced 2% after the bank's headline earnings and revenue topped analysts' consensus forecasts. Additionally, share of Deutsche Bank (DB) trading in New York are up 8% after the German lender announced earlier this morning that it expects to report second quarter results that are "considerably above the average consensus estimate"... FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sunk shares of Tribune Media (TRCO) with his announcement that he has "serious concerns" about the company's proposed deal to be acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI). The FCC has now drafted an order that would designate issues involving certain proposed divestitures for a hearing in front of an administrative law judge, Pai stated. Shares of Tribune are down 12% following Pai's announcement, while Sinclair shares have declined 5%. MAJOR MOVERS: Arconic (ARNC), which rose 10% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has received interest from private equity firms including Apollo Global Management (APO). Also higher was Novocure (NVCR), which gained 7% after Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar initiated coverage of the stock with an Outperform rating and $46 price target. Among the notable losers was OraSure (OSUR), which slipped 6% after Stephens analyst Drew Jones downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. Also lower was Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), which fell 6% after Nature Biotechnology published a study whose lead author said that the DNA chaos that Crisper brings has been "seriously underestimated," according to STAT. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was down 11.00, or 0.04%, to 25,008.41, the Nasdaq was down 14.29, or 0.18%, to 7,811.69, and the S&P 500 was down 4.96, or 0.18%, to 2,796.35. | |
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