Stocks opened in negative territory and moved lower during the first hour of trading. The early weakness was attributed to the UK’s Brexit controversy, as Cabinet defections followed the announcement by Prime Minister Theresa May that an exit agreement had been reached. The U.S. market struggled until the European markets closed, after which it reversed and moved higher. The move was led by the Nasdaq, which tacked on gains of more than 1.5%, followed by the Dow and S&P with gains of just below 1%.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., initial jobless claims rose 2,000 in the week ended November 10 to 216,000. The Philly Fed index plunged 9.3 points to 12.9 in November, which was much worse than forecast. The Empire State index rose 2.2 points to 23.3 in November from October's 21.1. Import prices rose 0.5% in October, while export prices grew 0.4%. In trade news, the Financial Times reported that the U.S. and China have intensified efforts to reach an accord at the G20 that would curb their trade war. Bloomberg reported, however, that U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said that the U.S. is still planning to raise China tariffs to 25% in January.
COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Walmart (WMT) fell 2% after the world's largest retailer reported Q3 earnings that topped expectations but sales that came in below the consensus forecast. Excluding currency impacts, however, revenue was $126.1B, an increase of 2.4% from the same period of last year.
Shares of Cisco (CSCO), meanwhile, rose 5.5% after the network equipment maker reported a positive fiscal Q1 that Piper Jaffray analyst James Fish said exceeded all metrics.
The New York Times reported last night that Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg allegedly ignored warning signs that the company's power could be used to disrupt elections and broadcast viral propaganda and then sought to conceal them from the public eye. In response, Facebook said that there were a "number of inaccuracies" in the story, though the board of the social media giant said in a statement to media outlets that while it backs the executives it also admits to pushing Zuckerberg and Sandberg to "move faster" to handle Russian interference.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was uniQure (QURE), which jumped 36% after it announced data from a dose-confirmation study of AMT-061. Also higher was Oracle (ORCL), which gained almost 4% after after Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) disclosed a new stake in the company taken during the third quarter.
Among the notable losers was PG&E (PCG), which fell 31% further after Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Byrd downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight. Also lower were Dillard's (DDS) and NetApp (NTAP), which declined a respective 15% and 12% after reporting quarterly results. In addition, RYB Education (RYB) plunged 53% in New York following news reports saying that China will not allow private kindergartens to sell shares to the public either by themselves or as part of asset packages.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 208.77, or 0.83%, to 25,289.27 , the Nasdaq gained 122.64, or 1.72%, to 7,259.03 , and the S&P 500 advanced 28.62, or 1.06%, to 2,730.20 .
Walmart
-1.96 (-1.93%)
Cisco
+2.42 (+5.46%)
Ticker changed to META
-0.39 (-0.27%)
uniQure
+8.21 (+36.02%)
Oracle
+1.8 (+3.69%)
Berkshire Hathaway
+1410 (+0.43%)
PG&E
-7.89 (-30.75%)
Dillard's
-11.01 (-14.95%)
NetApp
-9.21 (-11.80%)
Berkshire Hathaway
+1.465 (+0.68%)
RYB Education
-8.99 (-53.48%)