May 20, 2016 Financial News - Business News - Stock Exchange - Market News

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May 20, 2016 Financial News - Business News - Stock Exchange - NYSE - Market News CLICK HERE➡ ➡ http://FinancialBuzz.com Business News - Financial News - Stock News -- New York Stock Exchange -- Market News 2016 Business News - Financial News - Stock Exchange -- Wall Street -- Market News - New York Stock Exchange 2016 On Monday, the Empire State manufacturing survey for May came in much weaker than expected at -9.02, as New York seems to give back the upward momentum seen in March and April. However, investors ignored that and cheered higher oil prices. U.S. crude futures settled at $47.72 a barrel, and markets rallied, with the Dow Industrials closing up 175 points. On Tuesday, the consumer price index for April was up .4%, and industrial production for April was up .7%, compared to the prior month’s .6% drop. Housing starts for April increased by 6.6% to an annualized 1.2 million units. Several Federal Reserve regional presidents mentioned that they think rate hikes will come this year and that pushed down stocks. The Dow Industrials closed off 180 points. On Wednesday, the EIA petroleum status report for the week ending May 13th increased by 1.3 million barrels. Also, the Fed released minutes from their last meeting, and took a slightly hawkish tone. The Fed feels the slowdown in the beginning of the year was temporary and rate hikes were likely if economic data improves. The U.S. dollar strengthened on the news and the 10 year treasury yield rose to 1.85%. On Thursday, jobless claims for the week ending May 14th were down 16,000 to 278,000. New York Fed President William Dudley made comments suggesting a rate hike was appropriate as early as June, and markets closed down modestly. On Friday existing home sales for April rose 1.7% to an annualized rate of 5.45 million units and markets were up modestly on the news. Now let’s take a look at some stocks. Shares of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) jumped 9% Thursday after the giant retailer released quarterly earnings and surprised investors. Revenue for the quarter was $115.9 billion, an increase from the same period last year of a little over $1 billion. Wal-Mart’s CFO explained that low fuel prices, low unemployment, and low interest rates are important factors for retailers, enticing consumers to spend more. Teen apparel retailer, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), also surprised analysts this week, reporting that sales jumped 32% in the first quarter of 2016, more than twice the 14.9% analysts were expecting. Management explained that a new attractive apparel collection and strong marketing campaigns are driving more traffic to stores. Pfizer Inc. announced on Monday that it will buy Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAC) in a $5.2 billion deal. Shares of Anacor jumped 69% after the acquisition was announced. Pfizer’s goal is to add Anacor’s eczema gel to its portfolio. Shares of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) fell more than 2% this week. The popular home improvement chain released earnings and the company’s global same-store sales increased by 6.5%, and U.S. same-store sales were up 7.4%. Net income increased to $1.8 billion, or $1.44 per share. The cloud computing giant Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) reported its financials just beating analyst’s expectations, with adjusted first-quarter earnings of $0.24 per share on revenue of $1.9 billion, above estimates of $0.23 a share. According to management there is high demand for web-based sales and marketing software. Shares jumped more than 5% on the news. © 2011 Financial Buzz. All rights reserved. No portion of FinancialBuzz.com may be duplicated, redistributed or manipulated in any form without our consent, violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.