Here’s How This Week Has Started For The Financial Markets

1. U.S. Stock Market:

“U.S. stocks rose on Monday, boosted by technology shares and by defense companies, which rose after the United States and Saudi Arabia signed a multi-billion dollar arms deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was up 88.01 points, or 0.42 percent, to 20,892.85, the S&P 500 .SPX had gained 11.17 points, or 0.47 percent, to 2,392.9 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC had added 43.77 points, or 0.72 percent, to 6,127.48.”

(Reuters)

“U.S. stocks rose on Monday as President Donald Trump continued his first trip abroad since taking office. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced about 90 points, with Boeing and 3M contributing the most gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent, with information technology leading advancers. Tech has been the best-performing sector in the S&P this year, rising 17.9 percent. The Nasdaq composite outperformed, gaining 0.76 percent.”

(CNBC)

“U.S. stocks on Monday tried to claw back from last week’s sharp loss, as Wall Street’s long-term uptrend appeared mostly intact, albeit, on weaker-than-average volume. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.42% rose 89 points, or 0.4%, to 20,895, led higher by more than 1% gains in Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, +1.99% Boeing Co. BA, +1.48%  and 3M Co. MMM, +1.28%. The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.48% rose 11 points to 2,392, a gain of 0.5%. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.72% rose 39 points, or 0.6%, at 6,122.”

(Market Watch)

2. U.S. Bond Market:

 

“Treasury yields rose as investors watch to see if the Federal Reserve will stay on track to hike rates amid tepid first quarter economic numbers. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.62% gained 1.2 basis points to 2.247%. Bond prices move inversely to yields; one basis points equals one hundredth of a basis point. The yield for the policy-sensitive 2-year noteTMUBMUSD02Y, +0.33% added 0.4 basis point to 1.279%, and the yield for the 30-year bond TMUBMUSD30Y, +0.39% rose 0.9 basis point to 2.906%.”

(Market Watch)

“The U.S. Treasuries lost ground at the start of the week on Monday in reaction to strong cues from the Wall Street ahead of a host of speeches by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members Harker and Kashkari, scheduled to be held later in the day. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury, which moves inversely to its price, climbed 1/2 basis point to 2.25 percent, the super-long 30-year bond yields traded flat at 2.90 percent while the yield on short-term 2-year note traded 1-1/2 basis points higher at 1.29 percent by 11:40GMT.”

 (EconoTimes)

“U.S. government debt prices were relatively flat on Monday as President Donald Trump tours the Middle East on his first foreign trip. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was slightly higher at around 2.252 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond held at 2.908 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.”

(CNBC)

 

3. FX Markets:

 

“The Russian ruble is rallying as oil prices climb ahead of OPEC’s meeting in Vienna later this week. The petrocurrency was up by 0.4% at 56.6961 per dollar as of 7:55 a.m. ET. The Japanese yen is little changed at 111.34 per dollar after data showed Japan’s trade surplus narrowed to 481.7 billion yen in April as exports to China rose by 14.8% versus a year ago. The euro is up by 0.3% at 1.1242 against the dollar and trading at its best level since November 9, the day following Trump’s election win. The British pound is little changed at 1.3020 against the dollar.”

(Investing.com)

“The U.S. dollar moved higher against the pound Monday, with the British currency under pressure after a big lead by the Conservative Party in polls has been cut heading into next month’s U.K. general election. The euro EURUSD, +0.4462% climbed to $1.1233 from $1.1207 late Friday, trading at six-month highs, after Merkel said the shared currency is “too weak”, according to Bloomberg. Tory troubles: The pound GBPUSD, -0.0537% was buying $1.2991, down from $1.3037 late Friday in New York. Elsewhere, the dollar USDJPY, -0.11% was buying 111.42 Japanese yen, up from ¥111.26.”

(Market Watch)

 

4. Commodities:

“Oil prices swung from one-month highs to session lows in volatile trading on Monday as investors awaited a signal on output policy from OPEC’s two biggest producers. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped to $51.06 a barrel in early trading, its highest level since April 19, on signs that consensus among OPEC members is forming around extending coordinated production curbs. But WTI futures gave up gains after sources told Dow Jones Saudi Arabia and Iraq remain at an impasse over the length of that extension.”

(CNBC)

 

“Gold Today –New York closed at $1,255.00 Friday after closing at$1,248.90 Thursday. London opened at $1,255.25 today. Silver Today –Silver closed at $16.84 Friday after $16.61 at New York’s close Thursday. LBMA price setting: The LBMA gold price was set today at$1,255.25 from Friday’s $1,251.85. The gold price in the euro was set at€1,117.17 after Friday’s €1,120.68. Ahead of the opening of New York the gold price was trading at $1,256.80 and in the euro at €1,118.65. At the same time, the silver price was trading at $17.02.”

(Gold Seek)

5. Market Movers:

 

Shares of Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) rose to the highest in 18 months after the private equity firm laid out plans for a $40 billion infrastructure fund. The stock jumped as much as 7.1 percent Monday to $31.99, the highest since November 2015. It traded at $31.64 as of 11:06 a.m. in New York. Citigroup Inc. analysts led by Bill Katz upgraded their rating on the shares Monday to a “buy,” saying the infrastructure initiative could drive up Blackstone’s valuation. Other analysts, including Credit Suisse Group AG’s Craig Siegenthaler and William Blair & Co.’s Chris Shutler, said they anticipate Blackstone’s fee income to rise and become less volatile as the firm raises and begins investing the new mega-fund.

(Bloomberg)

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) AMD 3.26% shares sold off by 12.1 percent last Wednesday after investors were disappointed the company didn’t announce a new GPU licensing deal with Intel Corporation INTC 0.43%. Earlier in the week, IT news website Fudzilla had reported that Intel had signed a licensing deal with AMD after a prior deal with NVIDIA Corporation NVDA 1.78% expired in March.

(Benzinga)

Puma Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ:PBYI) pulled back slightly at the open of trade Monday, but has suddenly spiked sharply to the upside in the last few minutes on increased volume. Shares are now up 17.35 at $55.15. Puma Biotechnology has suddenly surged to a 7-month high.

(RTT News)

Oclaro, Inc. (NASDAQ:OCLR) is having an incredibly strong day in the market today, and for good reason. Ultimately, it all boils down to the China mobile build-out and what it means for the company. Of course, positive news led to excitement among investors who pushed the stock upward. This led to an alert from our partners at Trade Ideas. At the moment (10:44), OCLR is trading at $9.32 per share after a gain of $0.82 per share or 9.65% thus far today.

(CNA Finance)

Earlier this year, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) began shipping its Snapdragon 835 applications processor for premium smartphones. The chip offered numerous performance, feature, and efficiency improvements over its predecessor, the Snapdragon 821, with an updated design and a transition to Samsung‘s (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF) 10-nanometer LPE manufacturing technology. Chinese website MyDrivers recently published a purported set of specifications of the successor to the Snapdragon 835, called the Snapdragon 845. Let’s examine whether those specifications could be legitimate or if they contain obvious enough errors to be deemed “fake.”

(Madison.com)

Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) and UCB announced Sunday that the EVENITY (romosozumab) ARCH study met both primary endpoints and the key secondary endpoint. At the primary analysis, treatment with EVENITY for 12 months followed by alendronate significantly reduced the incidence of new vertebral fractures through 24 months, clinical fractures (primary endpoints) and non-vertebral fractures (key secondary endpoint) in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fracture, compared to alendronate alone. An imbalance in positively adjudicated cardiovascular serious adverse events was observed as a new safety signal (2.5 percent EVENITY versus 1.9 percent alendronate at 12 months). Amgen gapped open sharply lower Monday morning and is now down 2.83 at $153.68. The stock has dropped to nearly a 4-month low.

(RTT News)

Biocept Inc (NASDAQ:BIOC) is having an incredibly strong time in the pre-market trading hours this morning, and for good reason. The company has been awarded a new patent. Of course, this caused excitement among investors who pushed the stock upward. As is almost always the case, our partners at Trade Ideas were the first to alert us to the gains. At the moment (9:04), BIOC is trading at $1.73 per share after a gain of $0.30 per share or 20.98% thus far today.

(CNA Finance)

Share of Nutanix Inc (NASDAQ:NTNX) NTNX, +10.19% soared 11% in midday trade Monday, after Goldman Sachs turned bullish on the cloud computing company, saying the sharp selloff in the stock this year has provided an “attractive entry point” for new investors. Analyst Simona Jankowski raised her rating to buy, after starting coverage of the recent IPO at neutral on Oct. 25. After being one of the hottest IPOs of 2016, closing its second-day of trading at $44.46 on Oct. 3, or nearly triple the $16 IPO price, the stock tumbled to a low close of $14.46 on May 1, in the wake of a disappointing fiscal second-quarter earnings report and concerns over competition in the hyperconverged market, particularly following Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s HPE, +1.48% acquisition of SimpliVity.

(Market Watch)

Cheetah Mobile Inc (ADR) (NYSE:CMCM) CMCM 7.51% shares are trading higher by $0.82 (7.4 percent) at $11.37 in Monday’s session. The catalyst for the rally is a Q1 adjusted EPS beat of nine cents along with a $2.02 million beat for revenues. The company sees Q2 2017 sales in the $173-$180 million range vs. $170.97 million estimates. After a higher open, Cheetah Mobile’s stock continued in that direction before peaking at $12.50 and reversing course. That high is just shy of its March 21 high of $12.59. The ensuing decline has easily breached its opening print of $12.04, so far taking the stock to $11.31 as of 10:30 a.m. EST.

(Benzinga)

Radius Health Inc (NASDAQ:RDUS) surged on the news but was well off session highs after popping 20% early. Radius’ osteoporosis drug Tymlos was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April.

(Investor’s Business Daily)

Insurer AEGON N.V. (ADR) (NYSE:AEG) has agreed to sell its two largest U.S. runoff businesses, the payout annuity business and the bank owned/corporate owned life insurance business to its peer, Wilton Re. The transaction is consistent with the company’s stated strategic objective to reduce the amount of capital allocated to its runoff businesses, it said. Under the terms of the agreement, Aegon’s Transamerica life subsidiaries will reinsure $14 billion of liabilities to affiliates of Wilton Re U.S. Holding Inc.

(Market Watch)

Shares of Orbotech Ltd (NASDAQ:ORBK) is moving on volatility today -7.76% or -2.85 rom the open. The NASDAQ listed company saw a recent bid of 33.87 on 4586595 volume. Taking a deeper look into the technical levels of Orbotech Ltd (ORBK), we can see that the Williams Percent Range or 14 day Williams %R currently sits at -50.07. The Williams %R oscillates in a range from 0 to -100. A reading between 0 and -20 would point to an overbought situation. A reading from -80 to -100 would signal an oversold situation. The Williams %R was developed by Larry Williams. This is a momentum indicator that is the inverse of the Fast Stochastic Oscillator.

(Concord Register)

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) gained 4.87% to $10.89 in the current trading session. The company’s price range for the trading day is $10.40 to $10.89. The company’s market capitalization is $5.90 billion with the total outstanding shares of 531.44 million. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares has displayed a low EPS growth of -24.80% in last 5 years. Its share price has grown 38.58% in three months and is up 11.02% for the last five trades. The average analysts gave this company a mean recommendation of 2.90.

(WallStreetNews24)

Inphi Corporation (NYSE:IPHI) is an interesting player in the Technology space, with a focus on Semiconductor – Broad Line. The stock has been active on the tape, currently trading at $38.39, up from yesterday’s close by 3.50%. Given the stock’s recent action, it seemed like a good time to take a closer look at the company’s recent data. Fundamental Analysis: This company has been competing with others in the Technology space and offers its own combination of interesting factors Inphi Corporation (IPHI) currently trades with a market capitalization of $1.60 Billion.

(Stock News Journal)

In early session trading, shares of Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT) have slipped lower. Company stock has moved down -5.48% since the open, landing shares on today’s list of top losers. Investors will be watching to see if the stock can change direction heading into the second half of the session.Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT) is seeing declines so far in today’s trading session.  Shares are moving -5.48% lower on solid volume. The stock has landed on the top loser list for the day according to Finviz data. Stocks whose market prices drop the most during the trading day are bluntly referred to as losers.

(Aiken Advocate)

6. Interesting Reads

“Children should not be given fruit juice before they are 1 year old unless it’s advised by a doctor, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The group had previously advised parents to wait to offer juice until a child reached 6 months old but decided to make the change based on rising rates of obesity and concerns about tooth cavities.”

(CNN)

“Air pollution may harm your sleep, researchers say. “Prior studies have shown that air pollution impacts heart health and affects breathing and lung function, but less is known about whether air pollution affects sleep,” said lead author Dr. Martha Billings. “We thought an effect was likely, given that air pollution causes upper airway irritation, swelling and congestion, and may also affect the central nervous system and brain areas that control breathing patterns and sleep,” added Billings, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington.”

(Philly.com)

“NASA is preparing to conduct a spacewalk on Tuesday, May 23, to replace a computer component mounted on the International Space Station that failed Saturday morning. The multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) is one of two redundant data relay boxes used to control the solar array systems, radiators, cooling loops, and other hardware aboard the station. The backup MDM is functioning properly and the astronauts on the ISS are in no danger, according to a press release from NASA.”

(Popular Mechanics)

“At Google I/O this past week, I got my first taste of the next version of Android and I enjoyed almost everything about it. Android has gotten to the stage where improvements come in only incremental steps, and Google is mostly making the right ones with its annual updates. But I have an underlying worry about where this is all going: as Android grows more proactive and assistive, I fear it might end up alienating its more technically inclined users.”

(The Verge)

“Facebook has a massive challenge when it comes to dealing with disturbing content like revenge pornography and “sextortion.” How big? The world’s largest social network has to deal with nearly 54,000 cases of this type of sex abuse — each month, according to The Guardian. The number underscores the challenge Facebook faces in stamping out pornography — and not a surprise given there are more than 1 billion users who log on each day. The company still employs people to find these cases, but the content is overwhelming. Facebook told The Guardian that it was using tech like “image-matching” software to help get the content off the site.”

(CNET)

“One of China’s biggest online retailers, JD, announced plans Monday to develop drone aircraft capable of carrying a ton or more for long-distance deliveries. The company said it will test the drones on a network it is developing to cover the northern Chinese province of Shaanxi. It said they will carry consumer goods to remote areas and farm produce to cities. JD, headquartered in Beijing, says it made its first deliveries to customers using smaller drones in November. Other e-commerce brands including Amazon also are experimenting with drones for delivery.”

(Business Insider)

“Microsoft has showed off new techniques it’s using to bring holographic projection to a less cumbersome and socially awkward form factor than today’s VR headsets. Microsoft Research has developed a prototype of a pair of normal-looking glasses that can project holograms onto the lens. The “crude prototype” creates a display with an 80-degree horizontal view, a width that usually requires headsets or helmet-sized displays.”

(ZDNet)

“If you are looking for a phone that won’t crack after you press the power button a bit harder, then check out this list of best rugged smartphones of 2017. Back in the days, regular mobile phones were less prone to damage. They were tougher and I’ll dare to say, built from more quality materials. It helped also that there were not as many weak spots as it is the case with modern phones. Now, the phones are thinner and have larger screens, but that made them more vulnerable to almost everything. We have all been there at some point in our lives as smartphone users.”

(Insider Monkey)

“If you are one of many people concerned with weight loss, then read our list of 6 weight loss pills that work fast and cheap. Weight is a common problem in modern society. With 9 to 5 jobs that make us sit in the office all day, and our bad eating habits; it is almost impossible to stay in shape all the time. At least it sounds impossible, right? We are confused in choosing between our desire to be healthy and eat whatever is there and just go to bed because we are exhausted from work. Day by day, pounds pile up and we find ourselves fat and unhappy. Overweight has become a major issue nowadays, with more than 2 in 3 adults in the U.S. being overweight or obese.”

(Insider Monkey)