Skip to main content

Closing Bell: LIVE MARKETS BLOG

It was a down day across the board on Wall Street.
Comments

Closing Bell

Here's what happened on Wall Street, Monday, Oct. 30.

It was a down day across the board on Wall Street. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed lower 0.36% while the S&P 500 fell 0.32%. The Nasdaq which barley closed in the red, still finished down 0.03%.

Stocks weighing on the averages included General Motors (GM) , whose shares were sent falling after a downgrade to "Sell" at Goldman Sachs. Pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK) was thrown into the red after it pulled its European application for its lung cancer drug Keytruda. And Sprint (S) shares also fell after reports that a potential tie-up with T-Mobile (TMUS) has hit a snag.

Netflix's House of Cards Coming to an End

Netflix's (NFLX) hit show House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, is coming to an end, amid allegations that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances towards Star Trek Discovery actor Anthony Rapp in 1986, Deadline Hollywood is reporting.

The show's ending was reportedly in the works since this past summer, but the allegations against Spacey expedited that decision.

Cast members were made aware of the show's ending this morning.

Last week, Rapp alleged that Spacey drunkenly made sexual advancements towards him at a house party when he was just 14 years old, while Spacey was 26 years of age.

Amazon Studios Moves into Hollywood's Culver Studios

Amazon.com (AMZN) announced Monday that it would move into The Culver Studios, effectively transitioning Amazon Studios, IMDb, Amazon Video and World Wide Advertising into one of Hollywood's most iconic television and movie studios.

The e-commerce giant's new Culver City locations will bring space for new jobs in a wide array of roles including creative, technical, marketing and legal.

"We are very excited about being a part of 100 years of movie and TV history at The Culver Studios," said Albert Cheng, Head of Amazon Studios. "Most importantly, this new LA-based office will give us the much needed space for our team to work and grow so we can keep bringing Prime Members the very best in series and movies."

Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Hits Snag

The potential tie-up of telecom giants Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) appears to have come to a halt.

SoftBank Group (SFTBF) , the parent of Sprint, intends to call off negotiations on the possible merger with T-Mobile over failure to agree on ownership of the combined company, Nikkei Asian Review is reporting.

It was reported last week that the two were close to reaching a deal that would result in the merger of the third and fourth largest wireless carriers in the U.S.

YouTube TV Coming to a Slew of New Streaming Platforms, Devices

Alphabet's (GOOGL) YouTube TV, the $35 per-month live TV streaming platform, is coming to additional streaming and gaming devices.

The service will soon launch on Nvidia (NVDA) Shield TV, Sony SNE TVs with Android TV, Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox One, One S and Xbox One X, Roku (ROKU) streamers and TVs, Apple (AAPL) TV, Samsung (SSNLF) TVs, and LG (LGGNY) TVs, CNET reported.

While the timing for its launch on each device will vary, each should have the service by the end of the year.

Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg Meet With China's Xi Jinping

Two of the most influential CEOs in tech have met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both Facebook FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple (AAPL) head Tim Cook met with the nation's leader at an annual meeting of advisors at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Reuters reported.

Cook and Zuckerberg both serve on Tsinghua's School of Economics and Management's advisory board.

Cook's presence in China comes days before Apple's new smartphone, the iPhone X, is set to launch in the country. 

Chevron, Microsoft Agree to Azure Partnership 

Microsoft (MSFT) and Chevron (CVX) on Monday announced a partnership to accelerate the multinational energy corporation's work in data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The multi-year partnership establishes Microsoft Azure, the tech titan's cloud unit, as Chevron's main cloud provider and powers Chevron's efforts to digitize its oil fields and expedite deployment of new technologies that can boost revenue, lower costs and stabilize the safety and reliability of operations.

Premarket

U.S. stock futures contracts were falling ahead of the opening bell Monday, pointing toward a lower opening for the three major indices in trading.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 inched higher, while the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite declined in Monday trading.

Indices in Europe were mixed, with the FTSE 100 in the U.K. lower, and the CAC 40 in France and DAX in Germany slightly higher with about four hours left in trading across the Atlantic.

Employees of TheStreet are restricted from trading individual securities.

At the time of publication, Action Alerts PLUS, which Cramer co-manages as a charitable trust, was long FB, GOOGL, NVDA and AAPL.