Yahoo Finance Wall Street awaits Yellen’s speech, GDP revised up
Wall Street is treading carefully as investors await a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen this afternoon to see if she says anything about the timing of the next interest rate hike.
Meanwhile, the second reading of first quarter GDP was revised higher to 0.8% from 0.5% last month, according to the Commerce Department.
Stocks to Watch
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) shares soared in early trading after the Wall Street Journal reported that the embattled Canadian drug maker rejected a takeover offer from Japan's Takeda Pharmaceuticals and private equity firm TPG earlier this year.
LendingClub (LC) shares are sharply higher this morning following reports that the online lender is in talks with Citigroup (C) about buying or financing future loans. The stock has a rough ride since the company's CEO Renaud Laplanche resigned over an internal probe concerning improper loan sales.
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GameStop (GME) shares were down sharply in early trading. Although earnings per share beat estimates and revenue matched forecasts for the first quarter, both profit and sales fell from a year ago. The company also provided a weaker-than-expected outlook for the current quarter.
Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, won a huge copyright case against Oracle. A federal jury decided that the tech giant did not need permission to use Oracle's programming code. Oracle (ORCL) claims Google violated copyright law by using 11,000 lines of java software code in its android software. Oracle was looking to get as much as $9 billion in damages.
Trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable
Microsoft (MSFT) and Facebook (FB) are teaming up for an ambitious project. The two plan to lay fiber optic cables across the Atlantic Ocean. The new project, called "MAREA" (Spanish for tide), will span 4,000 miles between Northern Virginia all the way to Bilbao, Spain. The project will start sometime next year.
Trump’s big energy plan
Donald Trump wants to make some big changes to the energy sector. Trump wants to cut back on climate regulations and cancel the Paris climate agreement. That would mean backing-off on plans for clean power and the EPA’s authority over water pollution. Trump says he’ll do all of this within his first 100 days in office.
