Market Wrap: Facebook IPO 'Status Update'; No iTV for You!; Yahoo! Faces More CEO Challenges
End of the Day: Dow Jones down 62.0 to 13,206.59; Nasdaq down 35.6 to 3,024.30; S&P 500 down 10.7 to 1,391.57
The following is a brief summary of events moving markets today:
- Remember, three fingers point back at you: Third Point's Dan Loeb sent a letter to Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) accusing the company of falsifying CEO Scott Thompson's qualifications. Although Thompson's bio said he's had a Computer Science degree in addition to accounting, Loeb said Stonehill College -- where Thompson attended -- didn't offer the degree until 4 years after Thompson graduated.
Yahoo! responded by confirming Dan Loeb's allegations, saying it was an "inadvertent error" dating back 10 years.
- Locked and loaded. And 'liked': Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) issued a very important IPO update Thursday afternoon, indicated the expected price range of the stock and initial valuation.
The social media juggernaut plans on selling 337,415,352 class A shares at an initial public price between $28.00 and $35.00 per share. A price at the high end of the range and including shares for over allotment, the proposed maximum offering size of the IPO is $13.58 billion.
For more color, click here.
- Services tick lower in April, but still show growth: The ISM non-manufacturing index for April came in at 53.5, from 56.0 in March and the Street's view calling for 55.3.
- iTV? iDontThinkSo: One JP Morgan analyst make a significant call on Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) today. According to analyst Mark Moskowitz said their research doesn't indicate any looming launch of a full-blown Apple TV set. "Despite the constant hum of media and investor speculation, we think any product entry will be measured in years, not quarters," the analyst states. For more on the report, click here.
- Just buy some Opels, already: General Motors (NYSE: GM) reported earnings of 93 cents per share on revenue of $37.8 billion, versus views calling for EPS of 85 cents and sales of $37.6 billion. Shares ended Thursday down 2.4 percent mainly on continued weakness in its European market.
- Retail-focused market research firms Redbook and Retail Metrics said year-over-year sales for the month rose 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Retail Metrics pointed out this was the smallest gain during April in the past two years and the first sales miss since November. The firm said cooler weather, early Easter, and late Mother's Day dampened monthly sales.
For more on the sales, click here.