In world market news, Hong Kong has made a surprise $37 billion takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange. If this occurs, this merger would create the world's third largest stock exchange group just behind the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ in terms of overall value.
Here's how the U.S. markets settled after a day of trading:
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA): +0.84% or 226.87 points
NASDAQ Composite Index (QQQ): +1.06% or 85.52 points
S&P 500 Index (SPY): +0.72% or 21.50 points
In U.S. news, the Trump administration is preparing a ban on flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products in response to an outbreak of lung issues that have been deadly in some cases. The Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with its guidance to remove all non-tobacco flavors of the products from the sales market within 30 days. This move has seen shares of Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO), which owns a large stake in the e-cigarette company Juul, fall today but settle at +0.62%.
In other President Trump news, this morning, the President tweeted that "The Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to ZERO, or less, and we should then start to refinance our debt. INTEREST COST COULD BE BROUGHT WAY DOWN, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term. We have the great currency, power, and balance sheet...The USA should always be paying the the lowest rate."
Chief economist at Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi stated that this fight against inflation that Trump is calling for is "not viable and could be a significant problem for investors, financial markets, and ultimately the economy."
Trump has also affected oil prices today following the announcement of the U.S. discussing an easing of sanctions on Iran. Oil prices have fallen almost 3% following this move.
In stock news, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been outperforming all week, with the tech company being one of the best performers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is following all the announcement of new products and services Tuesday.
Purdue Pharma report today that there are tentative deals to settle thousands of opioid cases. The OxyContin maker plans to contest certain states opposed to settlement as early as next week. The company was charged with over 2,000 lawsuits surrounding the opioid crisis in the U.S. Purdue's legal trouble has affected other public companies such as Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Endo International (NASDAQ: ENDP), and Mallinckrodt (NYSE: MNK).
GamesStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) revealed today that they will close between 180 to 200 underperforming stores globally by the end of its fiscal year. CEO George Sherman stated "optimizing our store base for an increasingly digital world is essential for the future and increasing the profit productivity," during the company's earnings call report. Their stock price has fallen by more than 10% today.
Shares of the cyber security company Zscaler Inc (NASDAQ: ZS) have dropped almost 20% after the company's announcement that they are cutting their earnings outlook for the next fiscal year.
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) saw shares fall 2% following a downgrade to perform from outperform from Oppenheimer. The firm raised its price target to $300 from $295.
Thursday's update will see more responses to President Trump's charge toward the Federal Reserve to combat inflation of the U.S. economy and well as the potential bankruptcy and lawsuit news of the companies discussed above.