Wall Street Marches On, Fitbit Soas 50% on Debut

Nichole Harper
18 Jun, 2015
New York City

Market indexes on Wall Street advanced and extended weekly gains after jobless claims dropped to nearly 15-year low and the consumer price index increased at the fastest pace in two years. Fitbit completed its initial public offering to raise $732 million and stock soared 50%.

[R]1:30 PM – Market indexes on Wall Street advanced and extended weekly gains after jobless claims dropped to nearly 15-year low and the consumer price index increased at the fastest pace in two years. Fitbit completed its initial public offering to raise $732 million and stock soared 50%.[/R]

Stocks were empowered after the latest Fed statement and economic data.

Weekly jobless claims at the end of last week dropped to nearly 15-year low and the U.S. consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in two years.

Seasonally adjusted weekly jobless claims declined 12,000 to 267,000 from the previous week’s unrevised claims of 279,000, the Department of Labor said.

In a separate report, the department announced the index of consumer prices increased 0.4% in May from April.

The U.S. preliminary current account deficit widened to $113.3 billion in the first-quarter from the revised $103.1 billion in the fourth-quarter, the Department of Commerce reported today.

On Wall Street, Tollbooth Strategy Index climbed 1.1% or 116.92 to 10,879.76.

S&P 500 index gained 0.9% or 20.68 to 2,120.94 and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased 1.4% or 68.83 to 5,133.71.

Crude oil in New York rose 49 cents to $60.41 a barrel and gold soared $27.90 to $1,204.70 an ounce.

U.S. Movers

The exercise-tracking device company based in San Francisco sold 36.6 million shares at $20 each. The stock soared to $30.45, valuing the company at $6 billion in the first day of trading.

The wearable device maker’s sales in 2014 soared to $745 million and sold 10.9 million devices, a three-fold jump from the prior year’s revenue of $271 million.

Kroger Co ((KR)) increased 1.6% or $1.07 to $73.98 after the food and drug stores operator reported total sales in the first-quarter ending on May 23 edged up 0.3% to $33.1 billion from a year ago period.

Net income in the quarter increased 1.9% to $619 million or $1.25 per diluted share compared to $501 million or 98 cents from the same quarter last year.

Oracle Corporation ((ORCL)) plunged 8.4% or $3.76 to $41.15 after the software developer said total revenues in the fourth-quarter ending in May decreased 5% to $10.7 billion from a year ago period.

Net income in the quarter declined 22.2% to $2.8 billion or 62 cents per diluted share compared to $3.6 billion or 80 cents from the same quarter last year.

Oracle''s total software and cloud revenues in the fourth quarter declined 6% to $8.4 billion and software license updates and product support revenues essentially flat at $4.7 billion. Hardware systems revenues for the quarter fell 4% to $1.4 billion.

European Markets

U.K. retail sales volume in May rose 0.2% from April. Amount spent in the retail industry jumped to £28.3 billion and online sales climbed 7.4% from a year ago month, the Office for National Statistics said.

In London trading, FTSE 100 index edged up 2.87 to 6,683.52 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 0.4% or 47.35 to 10,928.56.

In Paris, CAC 40 index dropped 0.9% or 42.79 to 4,764.97.

Bilfinger SE tumbled 14.2% to €32.15 after the Germany-based engineering and service group plans to sell its loss-making power business segment.

The recently appointed chief executive forecasted a net loss in the first-half in the mid-double-digit million euro range.

Credit Agricole SA fell 0.4% to €12.92 after the France-based financial services provider and Societe Generale announced plans to launch initial public offering of joint subsidiary Amundi.

Amundi assets under management at the end of March were €954 billion and the company is one of the leading asset manager in Europe and ranks among the ten largest players in the world.

Amundi is 80% owned by Crédit Agricole Group and 20% by Société Générale.

Telecom Italia SpA gained 0.5% to €1.12 after the Italy-based phone company announced the sale of a stake in its wireless infrastructure subsidiary Italiane S.p.A.

The telecom company is set to raise up to €875.3 million through initial public offering from the bourse listing of its tower unit INWIT and stocks were priced at €3.65 per share.

Asian Markets

Market indexes in Japan and in Asia declined more than 1% on the worries that the U.S. rates will begin rising later this year.

Traders interpreted latest statement from the U.S. Federal Reserve after a 2-day policy meeting that the rates are more than likely to rise before the end of the year.

The Fed statement indicated that economic conditions will dictate the future pace of increase in rates but rates are expected to rise in a gradual fashion.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 225.73 or 1.1% to 19,993.54 and the broader Topix index slipped 17.04 to 1,616.66.

The yen closed at 122.98 against a dollar.

Market indexes in Mumbai, India traded higher after the latest comments from the U.S. Federal suggested a gradual increase in interest rate.

However, foreign investors continued to trim exposures to Indian stocks. According to the latest data from the exchanges, foreign investment institutions sold net ₹940.91 crore worth stocks.

Rupee climbed 36 paisa to 63.75 against one U.S. dollar.

The Sensex Index jumped 283.17 or 1.1% to close at 27,115.83. The CNX Nifty gained 83.05 or 1% to 8,174.60.

Indexes in India rose bucking the downtrend in Asia after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated gradual increase in rates.

ONGC plans to invest up to $400 million in Kazakhstan.

The largest wireless carrier, Bharti said its agreement with the Africa-based Helios Tower to sell its tower assets in Tanzania and Chad are cancelled.