Wall Street News: HD, TWTR, and LOCK Are Moving Markets Today

Wall Street news today, May 20, 2014: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up on Monday despite the fact that a megadeal between the world's leading drug companies fell through. Tech and small-cap stocks saw the strongest performances on the day.
Here are the 10 things moving markets in the stock market today:

• Spring Expectations: This morning, Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) beat Wall Street earnings expectations, although the company missed revenue forecasts. Home Depot reported earnings of $1 a share, narrowly edging analyst expectations of $0.99 per share.

• Something to Tweet About: According to Re/code.net, Twitter Inc. (Nasdaq: TWTR) could purchase SoundCloud, a music and audio-sharing company. Based in Germany, SoundCloud allows its more than 250 million users to upload and share music online. SoundCloud is currently valued at $700 million, which would be more than double Twitter's largest acquisition.

• Life "Rocked": Consumer security company Lifelock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) earned "stock market crasher" status when it dropped 17.57% to $10.70 per share by close yesterday. Lifelock, heavily advertised on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," announced it would be halting its Wallet mobile payment application. Here's the full rundown on why shares plummeted.

• Banks Behaving Badly: This morning, the European Commission charged J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Credit Agricole SA (OTC: CRARY), and HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HSBA) for violating antitrust laws. According to reports, the banks are under investigation for conspiring to rig European Libor rates.

• Today's Economic Calendar: The U.S. economic calendar features a market-outlook speech by Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Possner and a weekly reading of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs Retail Chain Store Sales Index.

• Changing the Menu: Fast-food giant Burger King Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: BKW) hits today's Wall Street News as the company has eliminated its 40-year-old slogan: "Have It Your Way." Beginning last night, the company introduced its new marketing tagline "Be Your Way" in online and television advertising.

Garrett Baldwin

About the Author

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Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, and consultant with degrees from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Indiana University. He is a seasoned financial and political risk analyst, with a focus on stocks, hedge funds, private equity, blockchain, and housing policy. He has conducted risk assessment projects for clients in 27 countries, and consulted on policy and financial operations for some of the nation's largest financial institutions, including a $1.5 trillion credit fund, a $43 billion credit and auto loan giant, as well as two of the largest Wall Street banks by assets under management.

Garrett joined Money Map Press as an economist and researcher in 2011, specializing in alternative strategies with an emphasis on fundamental and technical analysis.

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