The major averages spent most of the session in the green ahead of the critical G20 meeting between the presidents of the U.S. and China that most likely will determine how stocks kick off the second half of the year when trading resumes on Monday. There may be some added volatility at the close due to the yearly rebalancing by Russell of its U.S. indexes.
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. In energy news, Baker Hughes reported that the U.S. rig count is unchanged from last week at 967 rigs.
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." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple will manufacture its new Mac Pro computer in China.
Nike (NKE) shares were in focus following 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.
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.
Meanwhile, CNBC reported that Dish (DISH) is in talks with the U.S. Department of Justice, Deutsche Telekom (DTEGY), and SoftBank (SFTBF) to acquire Boost Mobile from T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) as part of their proposed merger and use the network of the newly combined entity to host its spectrum. The talks are currently revolving around the economic terms of a revenue-sharing agreement and how long that contract may last, according to CNBC.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Sarepta (SRPT), which rose 17.1% after Pfizer (PFE) presented "preliminary data drawn from a small number of participants" in an ongoing Phase 1b study of PF-06939926, an investigational gene therapy to potentially treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD. Also higher were Progress Software (PRGS) and CalAmp (CAMP), which gained a respective 7.4% and 12.3% after reporting quarterly results.
Among the notable losers was Arrowhead (ARWR), which slid just over 8% after Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Elemer Piros downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight. Also lower was PG&E (PCG), which fell 4.1% after the Sacramento Bee reported that fines could be "considerable" against the company over its role in the 2017 wine country wildfires.
INDEXES: The Dow rose 73.38, or 0.28%, to 26,599.96, the Nasdaq gained 38.49, or 0.48%, to 8,006.24, and the S&P 500 advanced 16.66, or 0.57%, to 2,941.58.
Apple
-1.88 (-0.94%)
Nike
+0.37 (+0.44%)
Acquired by UBS
-0.04 (-0.33%)
Deutsche Bank
+0.08 (+1.06%)
Merged into SATS
+0.215 (+0.56%)
Deutsche Telekom
+ (+0.00%)
Use SFTBY
+ (+0.00%)
T-Mobile
+0.74 (+1.01%)
SentinelOne
+0.05 (+0.76%)
Sarepta
+22.53 (+17.36%)
Pfizer
-0.07 (-0.16%)
Progress Software
+3.07 (+7.55%)
CalAmp
+1.29 (+12.39%)
Arrowhead
-2.24 (-7.77%)
PG&E
-1.42 (-5.94%)