Stocks are rising to end the week, and the quarter, as investors brace for news from the G20 summit, during which U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping plan to meet to discuss trade. While the biggest event of the weekend, from a markets perspective, will certainly be the G20 meeting, China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for June will also be reported on Sunday morning and EU leaders will meet again to seek agreement on senior positions, including a successor to ECB President Mario Draghi.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., personal income rose 0.5% in May, with spending up 0.4%. The Chicago PMI dropped 4.5 points to 49.7 in June. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey for June was upwardly-revised to 98.2 from 97.9, but that was still down from an 8-month high reading of 100.0 in May.
TOP NEWS: Apple (AAPL) announced last night that Chief Design Officer Jony Ive will depart the company as an employee later this year to form an independent design company. Apple added that "while he pursues personal projects, Ive in his new company will continue to work closely and on a range of projects with Apple." Jony Ive is perhaps the second most important person at Apple, behind only CEO Tim Cook, in terms of impact to the company's success, Deutsche Bank analyst Jeriel Ong told investors following the announcement. However, while admitting Ive's contributions to Apple products were central to the company's design-centric strategy, Ong said he is confident that Apple can find others internally to fill some of his responsibilities.
Nike (NKE) shares are not showing much reaction to the company's Q4 report, which pointed to ongoing North America sales strength, but with a "margin pause" that resulted in earnings that missed consensus expectations. Though its EPS missed estimates due to investments, Morgan Stanley analyst Lauren Cassel said she sees Nike "investing from a place of strength" and believes its underlying revenue and gross margin drivers are still "impressive," joining a group of mostly bullish Wall Street analsyts reacting to the report.
Last night, the Federal Reserve Board announced following its annual examination that its board is not objecting to the capital plans of any of the 18 largest U.S. banks. However, the regulator is requiring one firm, Credit Suisse (CS), to address "limited weaknesses identified from the test." Deutsche Bank (DB), while avoiding a warning that some had expected from the Fed, is said to be pondering the possible elimination of at least "one in six full-time positions globally," according to a report from The Wall Street Journal's Jenny Strasburg
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA), which rose 8% after Piper Jaffray analyst Joseph Catanzaro raised his price target on the stock to $30 from $20. Also higher were Progress Software (PRGS) and CalAmp (CAMP), which gained a respective 11% and 14% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Arrowhead (ARWR), which slid 8% after Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Elemer Piros downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight. Also lower was UnitedHealth (UNH), which slipped 1% after naming Dirk McMahon its next CEO.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 69.15, or 0.26%, to 26,595.73, the Nasdaq was up 29.49, or 0.37%, to 7,997.24, and the S&P 500 was up 10.74, or 0.37%, to 2,935.66.
Apple
-1.18 (-0.59%)
Nike
-0.74 (-0.89%)
Deutsche Bank
+0.155 (+2.05%)
Acquired by UBS
+0.005 (+0.04%)
Iovance Biotherapeutics
+1.63 (+7.22%)
Progress Software
+4.45 (+10.95%)
CalAmp
+1.38 (+13.26%)
Arrowhead
-2.12 (-7.36%)
UnitedHealth
-3.66 (-1.49%)
Bank of America
+0.83 (+2.94%)
Morgan Stanley
+0.88 (+2.02%)
Goldman Sachs
+4.69 (+2.35%)
Wells Fargo
+1.35 (+2.92%)
JPMorgan
+3.24 (+2.98%)