NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to a lower open on Friday morning after soft retail sales data and after a report emerged that President Obama plans to nominate former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as the next Federal Reserve chairman.
Futures for the S&P 500 were sliding 0.36% to 1,679.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were falling 0.31%, to 15,265. Nasdaq futures were dropping 0.09% to 3,173.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that August retail sales grew 0.2% month-over-month, and showed slower growth from the prior month's revised 0.4% clip. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting retail sales in August to rise 0.4%. Futures already were trending lower before the economic data as the report of a Summers appointment came from the Japanese newspaper, Nikkei, which cited unnamed sources. Market participants have viewed a possible Summers appointment as a more hawkish selection to lead the Fed than Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen, despite the fact that Obama's former National Economic Council director has shown a willingness to continue monetary stimulus. Investors view the Fed's economic stimulus program as positive for equities, and analysts generally credit quantitative easing as part of the reason major U.S. equity markets reached recent all-time highs since a bottom in March 2009. Producer prices in August grew 0.3%, while the core rate increased at the same pace from a year ago at 1.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists were looking for producer prices to rise 0.2% in August after no change in July, while core prices were expected to rise 1.3%. In company news, micro-blogging platform Twitter announced Thursday afternoon that it had filed its S-1 confidential registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission as a first step toward listing on the public exchanges. Details were immediately unclear as the S-1, made possible by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups or JOBS Act, allows for companies that made less than $1 billion in prior-year revenue to file confidentially. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) plans to spend another $4 billion and commit 5,000 extra employees this year to address risk and compliance problems, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources.
Top Japanese Stocks To Watch Right Now: Guardian 8 Holdings (GRDH)
Guardian 8 Holdings (G8), formerly Global Risk Management & Investigative Solutions, is a development-stage company. G8 focuses on the commercialization and sale of its Personal Security Guardian device. The Personal Security Guardian device is a personal security device that incorporates countermeasures to help defend against personal attacks, including alarms to frighten and video the attacker and/or alert others, latest technology utilizing light emitting diode (LED) lights to momentarily visually impair a would be attacker at night, as well as global positioning system (GPS), audio/visual communications and Bluetooth technology advising security or law enforcement of the incident. On November 30, 2010, the Company merged with Guardian 8 Corporation.
Prior to the reverse merger with Guardian 8 Corporation, the Company focused on the provision of investigative, technical information technology (IT), background, document verification and data banks of security information. As of December 31, 2010, the Company completed the initial design and tooling for the first product under development. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had not generated any revenue.
The Company competes with Taser International, Armor Holdings, Inc., TigerLight, PepperBall Technologies and FN Herstal.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap stocks Banjo & Matilda, Inc (OTCMKTS: BANJ), Amazonica Corp (OTCBB: AMZZ) and Guardian 8 Holdings (OTCMKTS: GRDH) have been getting some extra attention in various investment newsletters or email alerts. Of course, there is nothing wrong with properly disclosed promotion or investor relations type of activities but they can cause problems for unwary investors and traders alike. So how hot are these three small cap stocks? Here is a closer look and a reality check:
Top Japanese Stocks To Watch Right Now: Trius Therapeutics Inc.(TSRX)
Trius Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of antibiotics for serious, life-threatening infections in the United States. Its lead product includes Torezolid Phosphate, which is in Phase-III clinical trials for the treatment of serious gram-positive bacterial infections, initially for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections. The company is also developing antibiotics for gram-negative infections using its proprietary discovery platform under two contracts funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Defense Threat Reduction Agency. It has a cooperative research and development agreement with Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC for the research and development of gram-negative biodefense pathogens; and a license agreement with Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and sell Torezolid Phosphate outside of Korea. The company was formerly known as Rx3 Pharmac euticals, Inc. and changed its name to Trius Therapeutics, Inc. in February 2007. Trius Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Bob's Stocks]
Back on February 4th, I wrote an article regarding another antibiotic stock named Trius Therapeutics (TSRX). It was trading at $5.00 per share at the time, and I put a price per share prediction of $13.00. I also stated it was a takeover target. Yesterday, Cubist Pharmaceuticals bought Trius Therapeutics for $13.50 a share. You can read that article here.
Top US Companies To Invest In 2015: Vanguard Energy Index ETF (VDE)
Vanguard Energy ETF, formerly known as Vanguard Energy VIPERs, is an exchange-traded share class of Vanguard Energy Index Fund (the Fund). The Fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) US Investable Market Energy Index (the Index), an index of stocks of large, medium and small United States companies in the energy sector, as classified under the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS).
This GICS sector is made up of companies whose businesses are dominated by activities, such as the construction or provision of oil rigs, drilling equipment, and other energy-related service and equipment (such as seismic data collection), or companies engaged in the exploration, production, marketing, refining and/or transportation of oil and gas products. The Fund seeks to replicate the Index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the stocks that make up the Index.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
I like the idea of investing in a group of the largest integrated energy companies, oil and gas explorers/producers, and energy equipment and services. It's like a call option on energy with no expiry date. One of the best alternatives in this sector is the Vanguard Energy ETF (NYSE: VDE).
Top Japanese Stocks To Watch Right Now: SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)
SPDR Trust, Series 1 (the Trust) is a unit investment trust. The Trust is an exchange-traded fund created to provide investors with the opportunity to purchase a security representing a proportionate undivided interest in a portfolio of securities consisting of substantially all of the common stocks, in substantially the same weighting, which comprise the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite Price Index (the S&P Index). Each unit of fractional undivided interest in the Trust is referred to as a Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipt (SPDR).
The Trust utilizes a full replication approach. With this approach, all 500 securities of the Index are owned by the Trust in their approximate market capitalization weight.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Dzombak]
Over the years, the expense ratios on ETFs have come down to absurdly low levels, as the size of their assets under management have grown. State Street's (NYSE: STT ) SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: SPY ) is the largest ETF in the world, with $131 billion in assets under management and an expense ratio of 0.09%. Other funds cost even less, including Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO ) , which has an expense ratio of just 0.05%.
- [By Will Ashworth]
Consider Gap (GPS) for a moment. It was stuck in a major rut until 2012 when structural changes implemented by CEO Glenn Murphy and his team delivered better merchandise leading to same-store sales growth in seven consecutive quarters through the end of October. Since the end of 2011, Gap�� stock has doubled in value, compared to a 49% gain for the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY). Retail is a cyclical game. Some analysts are downgrading GPS stock, figuring a slowdown is ahead despite the fact its November comps were much better than analyst expectations. Gap stock will be fine.
- [By Luke Jacobi]
Volume finally picked up after several weeks of limited trading. Around 110 million SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: SPY) shares traded hands on the session compared to a 3-month daily average of 125 million.
Top Japanese Stocks To Watch Right Now: Agent155 Media Corp (AGMC)
Agent155 Media Corp., formerly Freshwater Technologies Inc., incorporated on December 10, 1999, is a development-stage company. It will offer a free, online presence for the global artistic and athletic communities through its Website, Agent155.com. Agent155.com provides fashion, performer, art, sports, music, film, writer professionals and amateurs a multi-media content management solution, enabling a collaborative forum to network and develop through www.agent155.com. It also provides talent agencies, agents, producers, directors, and recording companies a location to search and view the profiles. It also re-distributes member content through traditional media channels, such as television, radio, film and print. It will produce films, music tours, commercials, and various events using talent from Agent155.com.directors, and recording companies a location to search and view the profiles and work of talent. In addition, the Company will provide targeted advertising opportunities for members and businesses.
Agent155 Media Corp fulfills the role of a matchmaker allowing talented individuals direct access to those who seek specific talents. Agent155 Media Corp provides talent agencies, agents, producers, directors and recording companies a location to search and view pool of profiles and work of talent.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Peter Graham]
Small cap stocks Profitable Developments Inc (OTCMKTS: PRDL), Dynamic Applications Corp (OTCMKTS: DYAP) and Agent155 Media Corp (OTCMKTS: AGMC) have been getting some attention lately in various investment newsletters. One of these small caps has been getting attention thanks to paid promotions while another saw a trading volume spike for the first three days of last week and the last one has seen a steady rise in share price over October. So what�� going on with these small cap stocks? Here is a quick reality check to help you decide how hot they might be or become:
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