Banks led U.S. stock indexes mostly higher Friday, propelling the Nasdaq composite index to its fourth record high this week.
Investors welcomed quarterly earnings from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, all of which reported results that exceeded Wall Street's expectations. Financial stocks also benefited from an upward move in bond yields, which drives higher interest rates on loans.
17. 'Rogue One' soars to second-best December debut with $155M - Friday, December 16, 2016
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" soared to the top of the weekend box office as expected, scoring the second-best December opening ever with $155 million in estimated ticket sales.
18. Mining companies lead stocks lower in midday trading - Friday, December 11, 2015
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are sliding at midday Thursday after a big rally the day before. Mining companies fell along with the price of gold and copper, while a proposed Congressional budget deal sent solar power companies higher. Indexes jumped Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
19. Pandora strikes $75M Rdio deal, promises new features - Friday, November 13, 2015
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Pandora says it is acquiring technology, intellectual property and potentially employees from Rdio and will add new features to its Internet music streaming service by late next year.
20. Pandora cuts direct deal with Sony/ATV; shares jump - Friday, November 6, 2015
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Internet radio service Pandora says it has reached a direct licensing deal for songwriting rights with Sony/ATV music publishing, the largest music publisher in the world.
The deal, which will see Pandora Media Inc. pay more to Sony/ATV to play the songs of artists like Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga and Pharrell Williams, eliminates some uncertainty over how much it would have to pay in the future. A review begun last summer by the Department of Justice into publishing rights societies ASCAP and BMI could have affected its bargaining power with publishers.
21. Tech stocks lead a rally; S&P 500 turns positive for year - Friday, October 23, 2015
U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, delivering their second gain in two days and pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index back into positive territory for the year.
Strong quarterly earnings from several big-name technology companies helped rally the market, which has been gradually regaining ground following a swoon in August and September. Microsoft vaulted to a 15-year high, while Amazon and Google's parent company Alphabet closed sharply higher.
22. Pandora buying Ticketfly for $450M, entering ticket sales market - Friday, October 2, 2015
NEW YORK (AP) — Streaming music company Pandora says it will buy Ticketfly for $450 million in a move that takes the company into ticket sales and event marketing.
Pandora runs a free music streaming service and says 80 million people use Pandora to listen to music every month. The Oakland, California-based company went public in 2011 and reported $921 million in revenue in 2014, mostly from selling ads, but it has yet to report an annual profit.
23. Amazon's data-driven approach becoming more common - Friday, August 14, 2015
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon isn't the only company that is using data on employees to improve productivity.
A New York Times article over the weekend portrayed Amazon's work culture as "bruising" and "Darwinian" in part because of the way it uses data to manage its staff. The article depicted a work culture where staffers are under constant pressure to deliver strong results on a wide variety of detailed metrics the company monitors in real time — such as what gets abandoned in peoples shopping cards and what videos people stream — and encouraged to report praise or criticism about colleagues to management to add to more data about workers performance. The story led to an outcry on social media.
24. Apple wants a lead role in streaming music - Friday, June 5, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple's iTunes helped change the way music-lovers bought their favorite songs, replacing plastic discs with digital downloads. Now the maker of iPods and iPhones wants to carve out a leading role in a revolution well under way, with a new, paid streaming-music service set to launch this summer.
25. Utilities stocks, bonds slump after US reports hiring surge - Friday, February 6, 2015
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are ending slightly lower but they're still closing out a strong week.
News of a burst of hiring at U.S. employers led investors to dump safe-play stocks with high dividends Friday in anticipation of higher interest rates and faster economic growth.
26. NYC premiere of Rogen film canceled as threats fly - Friday, December 12, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — Threats of violence against movie theaters. The New York premiere of "The Interview" canceled. Leaks of thousands more private emails. Lawsuits by former employees that could cost tens of millions in damages.
27. Low energy prices, rate worries weigh on stocks - Friday, September 5, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged lower as investors mulled the outlook for interest rates, the latest sanctions against Russia and volatile energy prices. Health care stocks, the year's biggest gainers, fell back. Lululemon, the high-end yoga apparel maker, surged after reporting income that beat expectations.
28. Apple adds more swagger with $3B Beats acquisition - Friday, May 23, 2014
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple is buying more flair, swagger and song-picking savvy with its $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, a headphone and music streaming specialist founded by rapper Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, one of the first recording executives to roll with the hip-hop culture.
29. Fall in tech stocks a return to reality - Friday, April 18, 2014
Last week, we discussed that the wrestling match between stimulus and global debt deleveraging will continue to create anxiety and volatility for investors. Viewing the world through this prism helps to clarify seemingly baffling market movements.
30. Amazon unveils Fire TV set top streaming device - Friday, March 28, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is making a bid to enter living rooms with Amazon Fire TV, a new set-top box that allows streaming of online video, music and other content to televisions.
The company says the $99 device has better speed, performance and search functions than other streaming boxes such as Apple TV and Google Chromecast. But Amazon is coming late to the streaming set-top game, and it remains to be seen whether the company is offering enough new and better services to lure customers away from their current streaming methods.
31. Olympians tiptoe around sponsorship ban - Friday, February 14, 2014
SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Want to see the glasses and goggles that aerials skier Lydia Lassila and snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis wore at the Sochi Olympics? If you go to the website of the company that manufactures their eyewear, you might be in for a shock.
32. Beyond Twitter: The next wave of tech IPOs brews - Friday, November 8, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Just as one high-tech breakthrough often paves the way for the next big thing, technology IPOs move in virtuous cycles, too.
Twitter's scintillating stock market debut punctuated a procession of highly anticipated coming-out parties over the past two-and-half years, providing a springboard for a new generation of rapidly growing startups to make the leap to Wall Street.
33. A seven-day rally in US stocks loses steam - Friday, September 6, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) — Traders are pausing Thursday after the stock market's longest rally since July.
Stocks were flat in late morning trading. The Dow Jones industrial average was up five points to 15,331, after adding more than 400 points since Monday. The index is up more than 3.5 percent just this month.
34. The market's August lull nears an end; stocks fall - Friday, August 24, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — The late-summer lull is about to end.
Stocks fell Thursday, with investors too worried about high gas prices and stagnant employment to be impressed by higher consumer spending.
35. Stock indexes drift lower as Europe fears loom - Friday, May 18, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average and other stock indexes drifted lower Thursday after a meeting of European leaders failed to deliver any new steps to ease the region's debt crisis.
36. Stocks move higher a day after Tuesday's big dive - Friday, March 2, 2012
The stock market reclaimed some losses from its biggest dive this year and returned Wednesday to its pattern of steady gains and stable trading. Reassuring reports on productivity and hiring overshadowed worries about the Greek debt crisis.
37. Report says Facebook seeks $10 billion in IPO - Friday, November 25, 2011
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook might finally be laying down the groundwork for a highly anticipated initial public offering, long expected to take place sometime after April 2012.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the world's largest online social network is looking into raising as much as $10 billion in its IPO. The Journal cited people familiar with the matter but did not identify them by name.
38. Groupon's shares fall below IPO price - Friday, November 18, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Groupon Inc.'s stock fell below its initial public offering price for the first time as investors reassess the challenges facing the still-unprofitable online deals company in a shaky economy.
39. Clear Channel cuts jobs in regional reorganization - Friday, October 28, 2011
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clear Channel Communications Inc. said Friday that it had dismissed some on-air and off-air staff earlier this week, in a reshaping of its regional and local programming that should enable it to seek out advertisers focused on areas wider than a single market.