Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
U.S. stocks hardly have a bullish feel to them as we enter the final session before a long holiday weekend, but there are at least some noteworthy positive signs: the S&P 500 is poised for its biggest weekly gain in 10 weeks, while the Dow and the Nasdaq are on track to break three-week losing streaks.
Market watchers do note, however, the Fridays before long holiday weekends often see late-day selloffs.
Today’s lone economic report comes at 9:55am ET, when the University of Michigan puts out its late May consumer sentiment index. Economists expect the index to remain at the preliminary May level of 77.8, up from the final April reading of 76.4. This morning’s earnings calendar is virtually blank.
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is a stock to watch today, with CNBC’s Kate Kelly reporting that BlackRock (BLK) has substantially increased its stake in the energy producer over the past ten days. The stake has increased to at least 4-5 million shares from the prior one million shares.
VeriFone Systems (PAY) took a more than 9 percent after-hours hits, despite a three cent beat with its fiscal second quarter profit of $0.64 per share, excluding certain items. Investors are focusing on the company’s current quarter guidance of $0.68 - $0.70 per share, mostly below analyst estimates of $0.70.
Facebook (FB) remains on the watch list, having chalked up a 3 percent gain in Thursday’s trading. Most of the Facebook news this morning centers on lead underwriter Morgan Stanley (MS), which reportedly informed its advisors late Thursday afternoon that no investors will have to pay more than $43 for Facebook shares. Morgan Stanley is planning to adjust prices on “a few thousand” Facebook trades, following the problems that plagued the initial public offering last Friday.
Dish Network (DISH) has been sued by CNBC parent and Comcast (CMCSA) property NBCUniversal, News Corp’s (NWSA) Fox Broadcasting, and CBS (CBS) over its ad skipping feature AutoHop. Dish has countersued, asking a judge to rule that the feature does not violate the law.
In a separate story, AdWeek is reporting that NBCUniversal is in talks with Microsoft (MSFT) to buy Microsoft’s stake in the MSNBC.com website.
CME Group (CME) has announced a five-for-one stock split, with the dividend paid on July 20 to shareholders of record on July 10.
The JPMorgan Chase (JPM) unit that incurred the recent $2 billion trading loss made a number of risky bets in recent months, according to the Wall Street Journal. That includes a stake in broadband provider LightSquared, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook has voluntarily given up dividend income on restricted stock units, a move that will cost him about $75 million. That news comes from an SEC filing, which says Cook asked to be excluded from a recently instituted program which allows workers to accumulate dividends on restricted units that are still in the vesting process. Apple would not comment on why Cook made that move.
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