Category Archives: Market Alerts
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Oil ends the week nearly 5% lower
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures ended the week nearly 5% lower on concerns about global growth and diminished demand for oil amid plentiful supplies. Oil for June delivery settled Friday $1.08 lower, or 1.2%, at $91.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas outpaced most commodities, with the June contract up 5.7% at $2.74 per million British thermal units. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Watchdog group warns on nutraceutical stock scams
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority warned Wednesday that investors should be on the lookout for “pump and dump” stock scams involving companies in the so-called nutraceutical business. Examples of nutraceuticals include alternative medications, energy-boosting drinks, and fortified foods. “The con artists behind nutraceutical stock scams may try to lure in investors with optimistic and potentially false and misleading information that in turn creates unwarranted demand for shares of small, thinly-traded companies that often have little or no history of financial success,” FINRA said in a statement. FINRA advised investors to check to out the legitimacy of a potential investment using the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR online database. Investors can also confirm whether a stock’s promoter is duly licensed by using FINRA’s BrokerCheck database. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Gold ends 1.1% higher, inches forward on week
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures continued their rebound Friday, edging up 0.5% on the week after two straight weeks of losses, according to FactSet Research. Gold for June delivery advanced $17, or 1.1%, to $1,591.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Obama: G-8 to focus on managing euro zone crisis
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Group of Eight leaders will focus on managing the euro zone crisis at their talks over the weekend, President Barack Obama said Friday. Obama’s comments came after a meeting with newly-elected French President Francois Hollande at the White House. The two leaders agreed that the crisis is important to the world economy, Obama said. The G-8 meeting will start this evening at the Camp David presidential mountain retreat, with discussions on the European debt crisis to take place Saturday morning. Hollande, a French Socialist, met earlier in the week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. After their meeting on Tuesday, Merkel and Hollande stressed their desire to keep the euro zone together. But tension exists because Germany has been focused on strict fiscal austerity measures, while Hollande won his election with a message of additional stimulus. White House officials have welcomed the new emphasis on growth and said Obama would seek to build a consensus between Merkel and Hollande. After the White House meeting, Hollande said that he and Obama share the same conviction that Greece should remain in the euro zone, according to AFP. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Merkel suggests Greek referendum on euro
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested to the Greek president that Greece hold a referendum on continued use of the euro when it votes next month, press reports cited the Greek government spokesman as saying. Speculation about Greece’s use of the euro has roiled financial markets this week. Merkel is due to join other world leaders in Camp David as the Group of Eight meets. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Pfizer recalls Advil bottles from distributors
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Pfizer Inc. has recalled about 650,000 bottles of its popular Advil Liqui-Gel pain reliever from its retail-distribution centers over concerns that they carry an unusual odor, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. None of the bottles had yet been made available to consumers. The recalled product was manufactured by Argentinian contract manufacturer, Catalent Argentina S.A.I.C. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Zynga halted after FB debut, 13% drop
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) – Shares of Zynga Inc. were halted in morning trades on Friday after the stock fell by more than 13%. Trading was halted after Facebook Inc. began trading in its much-awaited initial public offering. Other social networking shares were also down in morning trades. LinkedIn was trading down more than 5%, while Groupon was off 7.5% and Yelp Inc. tumbled more than 6%. Also in the red were shares of Renren Inc. , the China-based social networking company, which were down more than 12%. The social media shares sharply added to losses after Facebook’s trading debut. Shares of Facebook were trading mostly flat at $38. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Posen to leave BOE, head Peterson Institute
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Adam Posen will leave his post when his three-year term expires on Aug. 31, the Bank of England said Friday. Posen, a U.S. economist, has been named to serve as the next president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington, D.C. think tank, beginning Jan. 1. Posen was a strong advocate of the bank’s quantitative easing strategy. In April, he surprisingly refrained from a call to boost the size of the bank’s asset purchase program. But in an interview published by newswire MNSI earlier Friday, Posen said he may have been premature in thinking the bank’s QE efforts had been enough to avert a Japan-type downturn, Reuters reported. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Facebook shares rise, then slip, in IPO
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) – Facebook Inc. saw its shares rise more than 12% in its opening trades on the Nasdaq Friday morning, the slip back quickly in the first few minutes of trading following the social network’s $16 billion initial public offering. Facebook shares opened trading Friday at $43, but slipped down to $40.55 within 5 minutes, making for a gain of about 6% from the IPO price of $38 per share. The company priced its offering of 421.2 million shares on Thursday afternoon, making for the largest technology IPO ever. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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ECB, EU draw up Greek exit plans: trade chief
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — The European Commission and the European Central Bank are working on contingency plans in the event Greece exits the euro, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in an interview with a Belgian newspaper published Friday, news reports said. The ECB and the commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, are “working on emergency scenarios in case Greece does not make it,” De Gucht was quoted as saying. A commission spokeswoman denied any contingency plans for a Greek exit were being prepared, while an ECB spokesman said the bank doesn’t “engage in any speculations about any emergency plans or possible scenarios” and would therefore not comment on the statement, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
