Stock Market News: Regional banks rally, Rite Aid plummets, travel debacle continues in Northeast
Markets have shown renewed optimism after regional banks passed the Federal Reserve's annual stress test. Initial jobless claims cools as economy remains resilient to the Federal Reserve's interest rate hiking campaign. Electric vehicle rollout continues to put pressure on limited resources. FOX Business is providing real-time updates on the markets, commodities and all the most active stocks on the move.
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Wall Street traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. REUTERS
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| SP500 | $4,382.63 | 5.77 | 0.13 |
Wall Street ticked mostly higher as investors consider both the upsides and downsides of the U.S. economy remaining stronger than feared.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4% Thursday after wobbling between small gains and losses. The Dow added 0.8% and the Nasdaq ended just barely lower, less than 0.1%. Yields jumped after data showed the U.S. economy grew faster at the year's start than estimated.
Fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. The data are a positive for investors because they suggest a growing economy can support corporate profits. They could also mean higher interest rates, however.
Shoppers enter exit a Bed Bath & Beyond store Monday, May 29, 2023, in Glendale, Colo. Overstock.com is dumping its name online and becoming Bed Bath & Beyond. The news, announced Wednesday, June 28, comes as a federal bankruptcy court approved the online retailer’s bid to buy the bankrupt retailer’s intellectual property assets for $21.5 million. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| OSTK | $30.18 | 4.64 | 18.17 |
Overstock.com is dumping its name online and becoming Bed Bath & Beyond. The news, announced Wednesday, comes as a federal bankruptcy court approved the online retailer’s bid to buy the bankrupt retailer’s intellectual property assets for $21.5 million.
The deal doesn’t include the Bed Bath & Beyond physical stores, which are shuttering, nor the Buybuy Baby chain.
The Midvale, Utah-based company, which sells primarily furniture, said it will start rolling out the name change in Canada in early July. In August, customers in the U.S. will see a relaunch of a refreshed website and mobile app under the Bed Bath & Beyond name.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrives at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Sa
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT | $333.75 | -2.10 | -0.63 |
| ATVI | $83.42 | -0.18 | -0.22 |
The fate of what could be the priciest merger in tech industry history will soon be in the hands of a federal judge who must decide whether to stop Microsoft from closing its deal to buy video game company Activision Blizzard.
Federal antitrust enforcers have sued to block the $69 billion acquisition they say will harm competition between Microsoft and gaming industry competitors such as Sony and Nintendo.
But Microsoft has largely had the upper hand in the 5-day San Francisco federal court hearing that ends Thursday, calling in its CEO Satya Nadella and other executives, including longtime Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, to testify in favor of the merger.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett smiles during an interview in Omaha, Neb., May 7, 2018. Buffett's company keeps buying shares of Occidental Petroleum, and Berkshire Hathaway now controls more than 25% of the oil producer. A new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday, June 28, 2023, shows Berkshire bought another 2.1 million Occidental shares this week worth $123 million. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| BRK.B | $335.92 | 1.77 | 0.53 |
Billionaire Warren Buffett's company keeps buying shares of Occidental Petroleum, and Berkshire Hathaway now controls more than 25% of the oil producer.
A new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows Berkshire bought another 2.1 million Occidental shares this week worth $123 million.
And Buffett may not be done buying because the price of Occidental stock is still right around where he bought shares this week even after a modest 43-cent bump Thursday morning to trade at $57.89.
Often, investors rush into a stock after Berkshire discloses a purchase, but their enthusiasm may be tempered in this case because Buffett told shareholders that he has no plans to buy the entire company.
Norfolk Southern Railroad ceo Alan Shaw speaks during an interview Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSC | $223.34 | 0.09 | 0.04 |
Norfolk Southern’s CEO has spoken often of safety and better service since he took the job over a year ago, but it’s safety that has dominated discussions after one of his trains derailed and caught fire in February in Ohio.
Alan Shaw has said his plans include adding more detectors to spot mechanical problems and has hailed cooperation with unions. But labor leaders remain skeptical.
Shaw has told The Associated Press in an interview of details on his plans for the railroad. He says, “I need all 20,000 voices at Norfolk Southern pushing for safety. And that’s what you’re going to see.”
A hiring sign is seen in Downers Grove, Ill., Wednesday, April 12, 2023. On Thursday, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Applications for unemployment benefits fell significantly last week after it appeared claims had reached a modestly elevated level in recent weeks.
U.S. applications for jobless claims fell by 26,000 to 239,000 for the week ending June 24, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Economists were expecting the elevated claims numbers to continue above 260,000, where they had settled the past three weeks.
The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out some of the weekly fluctuations, rose by 1,500 to 257,500. Jobless claims applications are seen as representative of the number of layoffs in a given week.
Unsold 2023 Gladiator pickup trucks sit in a long row at a Jeep dealership Sunday, June 18, 2023, in Englewood, Colo. On Thursday, the Commerce Department issues its third and final estimate of how the U.S. economy performed in the first quarter of 2023. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Showing surprising resilience in the face of higher interest rates, the U.S. economy grew at a 2% annual pace from January through March as consumers spent at the fastest pace in nearly two years.
The revised figure from the Commerce Department sharply upgraded its assessment of first-quarter growth from its previous estimate of a 1.3% annual rate.
Despite the uptick, the government’s third and final report on January-March economic growth still marked a deceleration from the 2.6% annual rate from October through December and the 3.2% growth from July through September.
The economy has been slowed by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive drive to tame inflation through a series of interest rate hikes beginning early last year.
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity departs Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, Calif., for the final time as Virgin Galactic shifts its SpaceFlight operations to New Mexico, Feb. 13, 2020. Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday, June 14, 2023, that monthly commercial flights to the edge of space will begin for ticket-holders in August, following a research flight planned for the end of June. (Matt Hartman via AP, File)
| Symbol | Price | Change | %Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPCE | $4.61 | -0.13 | -2.71 |
A team of Italian researchers will be taking a ride aboard Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered plane. They're scheduled to launch Thursday morning from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.
After that Virgin Galactic will be flying the first of hundreds of ticket holders, many who have been waiting years for their chance to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Those commercial flights are expected to begin in August.
Thursday's flight is a research mission, with the Italian crew performing microgravity experiments. That includes measuring how the body and cognitive abilities are affected by microgravity.
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