The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat on Friday as the market looks ahead to a critical succession vote by Pro-Russian loyalists in the Ukraine. Unimpressive jobs data also played a factor in the markets' performance.
Here are the closing numbers:
DOW: 16,583.34, +0.2%
S&P 500: 1,878.47, +0.15%
NASDAQ: 4,071.87, +0.5%
Now here are the top stories from today's trading session:
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An Overvalued Buy: Shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) slid more than 1% on rumors that the company would purchase Beats Electronics, a headphone and music streaming service, for $3.2 billion. Concerns have been raised about the valuation of the deal, given that eight months ago, Carlyle Group invested in Beats on a valuation of $1 billion. The deal is expected to make recording artist and company founder Dr. Dre a billionaire.
- Further Weakness in the Job Market: Yesterday's comments by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on the "considerable slack" in the labor market foreshadowed today's economic calendar. Friday's JOLTS report showed a decline in available job positions across the country (we're down more than 100,000 openings in three months), suggesting a fundamental weakness in the U.S. economy.
- Banks Behaving Badly: Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) dipped lower on Friday after the bank announced that its quarterly reports drew government inquiries into high-frequency trading activities and concerns that its foreign hiring practices violated U.S. anti-bribery laws.
- End to Bond Buying: The President of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank announced his support to end the central bank's bond-purchasing program in October. Richard Fisher said the bank should continue to reduce the pace of QE3 at $10 billion per FOMC meeting, until it reaches a final balance of $15 billion in October. At that point, Fisher would advocate that the central bank end the program, setting a fresh start for the markets to walk on their own as the year ends.
- Higher Streaming Fees: Shares of Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) increased by 1.70% today on news that the company would raise monthly streaming fees on new subscribers to $8.99. However, the price hike will not affect existing customers yet, who will have two years of their previous monthly fee before it is raised. The company has charged $7.99 since its 2010 launch. The company will likely use the new revenue to upgrade its operations and infrastructure. Hopefully, the company will also use a few dollars to improve the search functionality on its interface.
- Minimum Wage Change: Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced he supported a hike to the minimum wage this morning. He is the third former GOP presidential contender to split with the party on the issue.
- Time to Turn High-Tech "Rust" into Gold: In his more than three decades of working with Silicon Valley companies, Michael Robinson found high-tech "rust" may be a lot less obvious and much more insidious. But while this "rust" often takes down companies, it happens to be setting up three cash-generating firms that offer big opportunities today...
- This One Factor Will Isolate Huge Winners... Quickly: If you're a do-it-yourself type of investor you might be overwhelmed trying to make heads or tails of all the information at your disposal. But let's take a moment to demystify how to use a stock screen - and then we'll finish up with a "cherry on the top." It's an additional input that will take you quickly to tremendous gains...
- The Emerging Market Game Changer Is Here: Many observers thought the BRICS nations would encounter too many obstacles to collaborate effectively in creating an institution to take on the IMF. But after announcing such plans just over a year ago, the next BRICS summit in July is likely to see the official launch of these institutions. The implications are huge for investors...
About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.