Stocks take slight losses near close of day’s trading

Netflix soared, big corporations turned in quarterly results, and investors welcomed new companies into the market. There was plenty of news, but major indexes finished the day just short of where they started.

Stocks drifted lower at the start of trading, followed oil prices higher in the early afternoon, then flipped back to slight losses in the last hour before the closing bell.

David Lebovitz, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said investors are trying to figure out if the recent run of uninspiring economic news will hit corporate profits. At the same time, big banks and other corporations have turned in better results than Wall Street expected this week.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged down 1.64 points, a fraction of a percent, to 2,104.99.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 6.84 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 18,105.77, and the Nasdaq composite lost 3.23 points, also less than 0.1 percent, to 5,007.79.

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Former banker arrested on charges he stole $20 million

A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker was arrested Thursday on charges he stole $20 million from clients over a four-year period, using some of the money to make personal investments and pay a home loan.

Bail was set for Michael Oppenheim, 48, of Livingston, New Jersey, at $1 million by a magistrate judge who also required home detention and electronic monitoring.

Oppenheim’s lawyer, Richard Gamburg, said his client would plead not guilty to charges including wire fraud, embezzlement, investment adviser fraud and securities fraud.

Mike Fusco, a JPMorgan spokesman, said the bank alerted authorities to the crimes and worked closely with officials. He said Oppenheim was a financial adviser at a Manhattan branch.

Foreign investors may soon trade on Saudi stock exchange

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Saudi Arabia’s stock market regulator says foreign investors will be allowed to trade shares on the oil-rich kingdom’s exchange beginning on June 15.

The Capital Market Authority’s announcement Thursday has been eagerly awaited by investors seeking to tap into the Arab world’s largest economy.

The Saudi government last year approved a measure to eventually open the Tadawul exchange to direct foreign investment. Foreign investors outside the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council can currently only buy Saudi stocks indirectly, such as through exchange-traded funds.

The exchange is the largest among the Gulf states, and hosts shares of a number of major Saudi companies, including one of the world’s largest petrochemical groups, Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

American Express tops expectations in first quarter

American Express on Thursday said its first-quarter net income rose to $1.51 billion, but the results were held back by a stronger U.S. dollar.

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On a per-share basis, the company earned $1.48, up from $1.33, a year earlier. The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 14 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.37.

The credit card issuer and global payments company had revenue of $7.95 billion for the quarter, which fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $8.21 billion.

Most of the revenue decline can be attributed to a stronger dollar.

– From news service reports


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