Market Insider | Biggest Moves Premarket: Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: GM, Exxon, Chevron, Apple, Boeing, Lowe's & more

Peter Schacknow

3 minutes - Source: CNBC

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Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
General Motors – GM workers went on strike against the automaker in the first nationwide walkout since 2007, after the two sides failed to agree on a new contract.
Exxon Mobil, Chevron – These and other energy stocks are getting a boost following the jump in oil prices. Exxon and Chevron in particular will help limit any losses seen by the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Apple — Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger has resigned from Apple’s board of directors. His departure comes as Disney and Apple prepare to launch competing video services, Disney+ and Apple TV+.
Alder Pharmaceuticals – The drugmaker agreed to be bought by Denmark’s Lundbeck for nearly $2 billion. Alder is a U.S.-based company specializing in migraine treatments.
Square, PayPal – These and other payment firms are likely to grab as much as $280 billion in revenue from banks by 2025, according to a new study on global payments from consulting firm Accenture.
Aimmune Therapeutics – A Food and Drug Administration panel recommended approval of Aimmune’s treatment for peanut allergies in children. It would be the first-ever treatment on the market for that condition if the FDA follows the panel’s recommendation.
Blackstone – The private-equity firm bought Canadian office and industrial property manager Dream Global Real Estate Investment Trust for about $4.7 billion.
Boeing — The head of the UAE’s Civil Aviation Authority said he was not optimistic that Boeing could return its 737 Max to service by the end of this year. UAE airline flydubai is one of the largest Max customers.
Lyft, Uber – The ride-hailing stocks were both upgraded to “buy” from “hold” at HSBC. However, the price targets for both were cut – to $62 from $67 for Lyft, and to $44 from $49 for Uber. The firm said regulatory concerns surrounding both companies are already priced in.
Dick’s Sporting Goods – The sporting goods retailer was downgraded to “market perform” from “outperform” at Wells Fargo Securities in a valuation call, with the stock having hit its price target after a 25% year-to-date gain.
Lowe’s – Wedbush upgraded the home improvement retailer to “outperform” from “neutral,” pointing to signs of improving execution.
Aurora Cannabis – Aurora Cannabis was downgraded to “sell” from “hold” at Stifel Nicolaus, citing the near-term outlook for the cannabis producer, as well as negative investor sentiment for the sector.

U.S. Markert | Futures Indicator: Dow set to lose more than 150 points on fears spiking oil will slow the global economy

Fred Imbert, Silvia Amaro

2 minutes - CNBC

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Traders and financial professionals work ahead of the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images

U.S. stock futures dropped Monday morning amid fears that a surge in oil prices following an attack in Saudi Arabia could slow down global economic growth.
As of 1:20 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 146 points, implying a loss of more than 150 points at Monday’s open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were also down.
That would be the first decline in nine days for the Dow, which had climbed back to within 1% from a record on Friday.

West Texas Intermediate futures jumped more than 11% to trade at $61.25 per barrel. The sharp move higher comes after a series of drone strikes on Saturday knocked out about half of Saudi Arabia’s daily crude production.
Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, will reportedly try to restore about a third of the country’s production by Monday.
President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday before the futures open the U.S. could use oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep the market “well-supplied.”
Consistently higher oil prices could lead to increasing fuel prices. This would put more pressure on a global economy that is already coping with a slowing manufacturing sector and stubbornly low growth.
This “is the largest supply shock ever. The world is dependent on strategic reserves right now and you will see SPR draws,” said Bob Ryan, chief commodities and energy strategist at BCA Research, in a note. “The market could tighten significantly if the outage is indeed weeks and not days.”
There are no major corporate earnings nor data releases to note.
—CNBC’s Yun Li contributed to this report.

Asia | Asia Markets Closing Report: Asia Pacific stocks mixed; Brent crude spikes more than 8% after Saudi attacks

Eustance Huang

4-5 minutes - Source: CNBC

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Stocks in Asia Pacific were mixed on Monday, as oil prices surged following drone attacks over the weekend that hit major oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Mainland Chinese stocks were little changed on the day, with the Shanghai composite little changed at around 3,030.75 while the Shenzhen component was just below the flatline at 9,918.09. The Shenzhen composite added 0.23% to approximately 1,685.09.
A cut in the reserve requirement ratio for banks by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) went into effect on Monday. The PBOC said in early September that its reserve requirement ratio would be cut by 50 basis points and it would further reduce that ratio by 100 basis points for some qualified banks. That’s set to release 800 billion yuan ($113 billion) in liquidity into the economy.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index shed about 1%, as of its final hour of trading. Shares of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing slipped 2.16% following the rejection of its takeover bid by the London Stock Exchange Group last Friday.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 closed fractionally higher at 6,673.50 as majority of the sectors declined with the exception of the energy subindex, which soared 3.99% on the back of a surge in oil prices.
Over in South Korea, the Kospi rose 0.64% to end its trading day at 2,062.22 higher despite shares of chipmaker SK Hynix plunging 3.75%.
Overall, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index traded 0.32% lower.
Markets in Japan were closed on Monday for a holiday.

Crude prices surge, oil stocks spike

Crude prices spiked in the afternoon of Asian trading hours after drone strikes on crucial oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia.
International benchmark Brent crude futures skyrocketed 8.67% to $65.44 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures jumped 7.91% to $59.19 per barrel. Earlier on Monday, Brent spiked as much as 19% to $71.95 a barrel, while U.S. crude jumped more than 15% to a session high of $63.34 a barrel.
Shares of oil companies in Asia Pacific surged on Monday. Australia’s Woodside Petroleum jumped 4.31% and Santos gained 4.87%. Over in South Korea, S-Oil saw its stock gain 2.31%. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese oil titan Petrochina also soared 4.97% while CNOOC skyrocketed 7.23%, as of their final hour of trading.
Over the weekend, drone attacks hit the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil production facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Half the country’s oil production was halted due to fire damage and an assessment of the situation is due on Monday, Saudi energy ministry officials said.
National oil company Saudi Aramco is attempting to restore about a third of its crude output by Monday following the attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Strategists at Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the uptick in crude prices may not last.
“The drone attacks have hit the oil market at a time when there is a global oil glut and global growth is weak,” they wrote in a note. “Consequently, the impact on oil prices and global growth is not expected to be significant or last long.”

China industrial output growth slows further

China’s industrial production growth saw its slowest pace in 17 and a half years in August, rising just 4.4% year-on-year.
That came in below a forecast of a 5.2% year-on-year increase by analysts in a Reuters poll. Industrial output growth in the country saw an expected drop to a more than 17-year low in July.
“I think it is very much a bottoming process that we’re seeing in the Chinese economy,” Leon Goldfeld, multi-asset portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was last at 98.192 after seeing highs above 98.8 last week.
The Japanese yen, often seen as a safe-haven currency in times of market turmoil, strengthened to 107.85 against the dollar after seeing lows above 108.0 late last week.
The Australian dollar changed hands at $0.6873 after rising from levels below $0.684 in the previous trading week.
— Reuters and CNBC’s Natasha Turak contributed to this report.

The Week Ahead: Week Commencing 16 of September

U.S. Market | Wall Street Closing Report: Dow notches 8-day winning streak, nears record on growing optimism around US-China trade

Fred Imbert

3-4 minutes - CNBC

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Friday, posting its first eight-day winning streak in more than a year, amid improving sentiment around U.S.-China trade relations.
The 30-stock index closed 37.07 points higher, or 0.1% at 27,219.52. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite struggled, however. The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% to 3,007.39. The Nasdaq ended the day down 0.2% at 8,176.71.
The Dow finished Friday’s session 0.7% below an intraday record high of 27,398.68. The S&P 500 was also within striking distance of its all-time high of 3,027.98.
Trade bellwethers Caterpillar and Boeing rose 1.5% and 1.1%, respectively. Those gains were slightly offset by a 1.9% drop in Apple. The tech giant’s stock fell after an analyst at Goldman Sachs cut his price target on Apple to $165 per share from $187.

A trader wears a ‘Dow 25,000’ hat while working works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, Jan. 4, 2018.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

“If anybody had any doubt about what was moving markets, it’s the trade war,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist for Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management.
Schutte pointed out that so-called defensive sectors, which have been in vogue recently amid trade and recession fears, have unwound this week. Two of those sectors, real estate and consumer staples, were down 3.5% and 0.9%, respectively.
Sentiment around the trade war improved after the New York Times reported Friday that China will exempt some U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans and pork, from additional tariffs.
On Thursday, the U.S. welcomed China’s renewed purchases of American farm goods, with President Donald Trump saying it was expected Beijing would purchase “large amounts” of agricultural products. Trump also said he would consider an interim trade deal with China.
“This is quickly becoming the base-case assumption and thus it’s unclear whether stocks will react favorably to any future headlines simply confirming the likelihood of such a scenario,” said Adam Crisafulli, executive director at J.P. Morgan, in a note.
Trump’s comments came after his decision to delay increasing tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15 as a “gesture of good will” to China. The U.S. and China have imposed tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of one another’s goods since the start of 2018, battering financial markets and souring business and consumer sentiment.
The upbeat sentiment around the trade war pushed the major indexes to their third straight weekly gain. The Dow rose 1.6% week to date while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rose about 0.9%.
It also led to a massive sell-off in U.S. sovereign bonds. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield shot up more than 30 basis points this week, going to around 1.89% from 1.57% earlier in the week.
Bank stocks got a boost from the higher rates. Bank of America climbed nearly 9% week to date while Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase both gained more than 6%. The three banks also rose more than 1.5.% each on Friday.
On the data front, consumer sentiment for September topped expectations as consumers felt better about the economy. However, worries over the trade war increased.
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

Energy | Oil | Oil Price Report: Oil falls as demand concern contends with US-China trade hopes

2-3 minutes - Sorce: CNBC

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Oil prices slipped on Friday and were on track for weekly losses as concerns about a slowed global economic growth outweighed hints of progress in the U.S.-China trade dispute.
Brent crude futures traded 0.2% lower at $60.25 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled 0.4% lower at $54.85.
Brent fell 1.8% for the week, its first decrease in five weeks. WTI had a 2.7% loss for the week, its first decrease in three weeks.
The world’s two largest economies are preparing for new talks and have been making conciliatory gestures ahead of the discussions.
China will exempt some agricultural products from additional tariffs on U.S. goods, China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.
Oil prices, however, remained under pressure by concern about a weaker demand outlook that could lead to potential oversupply.
“Oil appears to be suggesting that global economic growth has already been impacted by the tariffs while other markets such as the equities appear more focused on future progress,” Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.
Both the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency (IEA) this week said oil markets could end up in surplus next year, despite a pact by OPEC and its allies to limit supplies. That is largely being offset by growth in U.S. production.
Brent prices have risen 12% so far in 2019, helped by the deal between OPEC and allies, known as OPEC+, to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day.
An OPEC+ monitoring committee met this week and secured pledges from OPEC members Nigeria and Iraq to deliver their share of the cut, something they have failed to do so far, but so far the group has not decided to deepen the curbs.
“In order to avoid a price slide and a massive inventory build, OPEC+ would need to implement further voluntary production cuts,” said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank.
“The challenge facing OPEC+ is thus likely to become even bigger next year.”
Some OPEC delegates say the idea of a larger cut for next year is gaining support, though Saudi Arabia’s new energy minister said talks on that issue would be left until the next OPEC+ meeting in December.