Closing Bell
Stocks rose on Thursday, April 5, as worries about a full-blown trade war between the U.S. and China eased with the focus now turning to negotiations.
The U.S. and China will now follow a timeline stretching over the next half year, during which the two sides will seek to negotiate, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
Pershing Square Feels Pressure
Pershing Square, Bill Ackman's private hedge fund, is in trouble, according to a Wall Street Journal report that says investors pulled out about two-thirds of the funds available to be withdrawn from the fund at the end of last year.
Blackstone Group has been a long time investor, and they are pulling out while JPMorgan Chase's asset-management group is telling clients it can no longer recommend the fund, according to the Journal.
Total assets are reportedly down to $8.2 billion, less than half the $20 billion the fund had in 2015.
A big bet on Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) ultimately cost the fund $4 billion.
BlackRock Offers ETF Product That Excludes Gunmakers
BlackRock (BLK) is getting serious about the gun debate, planning to offer and ETF that excludes retailers that sell guns.
Walmart Inc. (WMT) , Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) and Kroger (KR) would all be ruled out from the new funds, a spokesperson for BlackRock told the Wall Street Journal.
The move comes as the gun debate was renewed after the school shooting in Parkland Florida in February.
Zuckerberg Apology Tour Seems to be Working for Investors
Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talkative in the days since user data privacy concerns suddenly became a media concern.
Zuckerberg held a question and answer session Wednesday where he expressed remorse for the mistakes the world's most popular social media network has made in protecting its user's privacy.
The session was lauded by Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter who said that he handled the situation with "contrition and grace."
Facebook shares were up 2.3% Thursday afternoon.
Hewlett Packard Boosts Dividend 50%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced that it is declaring a regular cash dividend of 11.25 cents per share, a 50% increase from its previous dividend.
The dividend will be payable July 4 to shareholders of record on June 13.
Hewlett Packard shares were rising 0.2% in afternoon trading Thursday.
Spotify Shares Get Back on the Right Track in Third Day of Trading
Spotify (SPOT) shares were rising more than 4% Thursday morning after declining more than 3% in the previous session.
The music streaming service debuted to much fanfare on Tuesday in an IPO that raised no capital and issued no new shares.
The move comes after Stifel analyst John Egbert initiated coverage of the company with a "buy" rating.
"We think Spotify can deliver meaningful operating profits and cash flow within the constraints of its current licensing structure, with additional upside if the company is successful with its endeavors in demand creation and/or non-music content," Egbert wrote.
The firm has a $180 price target on the stock.
NYSE Parent Company Acquires Chicago Stock Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) , the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, reached a deal to purchase the 136-year-old Chicago Stock Exchange.
The purchase comes after a two-year courtship from a Chinese-led investor group fell through. The CSE tried to sell itself for $20 million to that group.
Intercontinental Exchange did not disclose the particulars of the deal. ICE did say that the deal would not be material to the company, which has a market cap of about $42 billion.
AT&T's Vrio to Raise $653 Million from IPO
Vrio, the holding company for AT&T's (T) DirecTV Latina America business, is expected to price its initial public offering between $19 and $22 per share.
Vrio will offer 29.68 million shares in the offering and could raise up to $653.05 million, or up to $751.01 million if all options to buy additional shares are exercised.
JPMorgan, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are the joint book-running managers.
Saudia Arabia Gives AMC First Cinema License in 35 Years
AMC Entertainment (AMC) has been awarded the first cinema license Saudi Arabia has given out since it banned movie theaters 35 years ago.
AMC will open between 30 and 40 cinemas in approximately 15 cities across the country over the next five years with plans to open between 50 and 100 cinemas in 25 cities by the year 2030.
The cinema industry in Saudi Arabia is expected to grow to around $1 billion in size over the coming years, according to AMC.
Delta, Sears Customers Payment Data Exposed in Cybersecurity Breach
Software service provider [24]7.ai. hosts data from Delta Air Lines (DAL) and Sears (SHLD) and customer payment information from those two companies was exposed in a data breach, they said Wednesday.
The data was exposed on or after September 26, 2017, and was found and resolved on October 12. However, the firm didn't tell the two companies about the breach until last week.
"At this point, even though only a small subset of our customers would have been exposed, we cannot say definitively whether any of our customers' information was actually accessed or subsequently compromised," Delta said in a statement.
Sears said that the incident led to the unauthorized access to the credit card information on under 100,000 customers.
Premarket
U.S. futures were hoping to build off the afternoon momentum that helped propel the Dow to rise 700 points over its session low in Wednesday's session.
Dow futures were rising 0.24%, indicating an open 59 points higher, while Nasdaq futures were gaining 0.84%, indicating an open 55 points higher, and S&P futures were rising 0.44%, indicating an open 12 points higher.
Asian markets had a mixed session, with the Nikkei being the lone major index to rise, climbing 1.53% on the day. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite declined 2.19% and 0.18% respectively.
European markets were green across the board, led by the DAX in Germany, which was rising 2.11%. The CAC 40 and FTSE 100 were both well above 1% with about four hours left in trading.
