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 Stocks were little changed on Monday in a session that saw little in the way of economic data, with the just the U.S. consumer credit report in the afternoon showing that credit balances expanded by more than economists expected. First, the scoreboard: - Dow: 17,111.42, -25.9, (-0.2%)
- S&P 500: 2,001.54, -6.2, (-0.3%)
- Nasdaq: 4,592.29, +9.4, (0.2%)
And now, the top stories on Monday: 1. The latest report on consumer credit showed credit balances grew by $26 billion in July, more than the $17.35 billion was expected by economists. Following the report, Jesse Hurwitz at Barclays said, "The nonrevolving component, which we view as largely driven by increases in student loan debt in recent years, posted the largest monthly increase since July 2011. While both revolving and nonrevolving credit growth have accelerated in recent months, we continue to look for nonrevolving credit to contribute the majority of overall gains." 2. Shares of Hertz finished Monday's session little changed after the company announced that its CEO, Mark Frissora, would resign for personal reasons. Frissora's resignation comes after a tough year for the rental car company, which announced on August 20 that it would review its financial results from 2011 through 2014, in addition to withdrawing its fiscal 2014 guidance and saying that its results would be "well below" previous expectations. 3. Analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in a note to clients that in the wake of recent high-profile data breaches, internet security companies including FireEye, LifeLock, and Palo Alto Networks could be set to benefit from an increased focus on security by companies. Goldman's Matthew Niknam and Jamison Manwaring wrote that, "while difficult to quantify the direct impact of each event and how that may drive incremental revenue for security companies, we nonetheless expect the prevalence/prominence of breaches to benefit our stocks and support valuation, especially as this remains a top board-level issue." 4. Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone at an event on Tuesday, and ahead of this announcement, BI's Jay Yarow noted that historically, shares of Apple decline on the day of iPhone announcements then typically rise until the phone goes on sale, and then decline on the day sales begin. 5. Deutsche Bank's David Bianco, who has been one of the biggest bears on Wall Street this year, flipped to being bullish, and raised his year-end S&P 500 target to 2,050 from a previous expectation of 1,850. 6. A blog post from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on Monday noted the divergence between current FOMC expectations for the future path of interest rates and what the market expects. The Fed's Jen Christensen and James Kwan noted that, "the public might not give enough weight to how dependent the central bank's guidance is on both current and incoming data. Thus, the public could underestimate the conditionality and uncertainty of interest rate projections." 7. Alibaba kicked off its IPO roadshow on Monday, and released a series of videos outlining its pitch to investors. BI's Elena Holodny broke down the video into a slide deck that gives a broad overview of what Alibaba does, and gives you a sense of the company's massive scale. Don't Miss: A Wall Street Strategist Put Together An Awesome Presentation On Everything Going On In The Markets And The Economy Now » |
