U.S. stocks slide Wednesday
NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. markets closed mixed Wednesday after a nearly unprecedented two-day derailment due to a massive hurricane that swept the East Coast.
Hurricane Sandy forced the closure of equity markets for two days -- the first multiple-day, weather-related closure since 1888.
Concerns arose over emergency systems and why they did not rise to the occasion and whether or not the financial district would get back up to speed smoothly. But the big trading boards at the New York Stock Exchange flickered back on at 9:30 a.m., using emergency generator power, and just-try-to-stop-us New York was back on line.
It turns out, however, what the hurricane did not sweep away was a general slump in equities, which returned despite what some expected would be a pent-up demand.
Investors also contemplated Walt Disney Co. buying Lucasfilm, the owners of "Star Wars" movies and investor Carl Icahn's purchase of 10 percent of Netflix.
Disney shares slipped as the $4 billion deal meant the company would issue 40 million new shares, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Netflix shares bounced on news that Icahn considered the company undervalued.
By close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average shed 10.75 points, 0.08 percent, to 13,096.46. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 10.72 points, 0.36 percent, to 2,977.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 0.22 points, 0.02 percent, to 1,412.16.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1,764 stocks advanced and 1,284 declined on a volume of 3.5 billion shares traded.
The benchmark 10-year treasury gained 7/32 to yield 1.696 percent.
The euro fell to $1.2958 from Tuesday's $1.2959. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 79.80 yen from 79.62 yen.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index added 0.98 percent, 86.31, to 8,928.29.
In London, the FTSE 100 index lost 1.15 percent, 67.20, to 5,782.70.
Icahn pounces on Netflix
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- A regulatory filing revealed Wednesday that investor Carl Icahn had scooped up 10 percent of U.S. DVD rental company Netflix Inc. for $169 million.
MarketWatch reported that Icahn, a major investor at Yahoo! Inc. and Motorola, had been looking for companies he believed were undervalued. He bought 5.5 million shares of Netflix, which rents DVDs and presents movies online for downloads.
In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn Capital said Netflix was undervalued.
Its shares jumped 14 percent Wednesday as Icahn's purchase became public.
Icahn is known as an activist investor, in part due to his propensity to find undervalued stock, buy major shares of a company and then force the board to sell parts of the business that are nor performing as he feels they should.
In the regulatory filing, the investment firm said Netflix could well be a target for a takeover.
"We believe Netflix may hold significant strategic value for a variety of significantly larger companies that are engaging in more direct competition with one another due to the evolution of the Internet, mobile and traditional industry," the filing said.
Barclays caught up in bribery probe
NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- British bank Barclays said it was looking into just how it received a cash injection of $7.2 billion from Middle East investors in June 2008.
The bank received the investment as the financial crisis was unfolding, but whether or not it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is now the subject of investigations by both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Essentially, regulators want to know if agents of the bank used bribes to get the Qatar Investment Authority to invest billions of dollars in the bank during a financial crisis.
When the investment was announced, Barclays said it had hired the QIA to play an "advisory" role in the Middle East. Later, the bank said it was paying $384 million for the services.
The bank said it was conducting its own investigation and cooperating with officials, whose investigation mirrors an inquiry started earlier this year by Britain's Financial Services Authority.
In its third quarter statement Barclays also gave notice the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is preparing to charge the bank with manipulating prices for electricity from 2006 to 2008 in western U.S. states.
Barclays has been besieged with regulatory problems this year. Regulators this summer said the bank had paid $450 million to settle charges by U.S. and British agencies that it had attempted to manipulate the London inter-bank offered rate or Libor, a benchmark rate used to set interest rates on trillions of dollars in personal and business loans.
Sandy puts a damper on Halloween
NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Gov. Chris Christie has signed an executive order postponing Halloween celebrations in New Jersey because of "unsafe conditions" resulting from megastorm Sandy.
"I've taken this action to minimize additional risks to lives and the public safety as we begin the process of rebuilding and recovering from Hurricane Sandy," Christie said Wednesday. "In too many communities in our state, the damage and losses from this storm are still being sorted out, and dangerous conditions abound even as our emergency management and response officials continue their work. As governor, it is my responsibility to use all available resources of the state government to protect against the emergency created by Hurricane Sandy -- postponing Halloween celebrations by five days is a commonsense and necessary step to accomplish that."
Sandy has also caused the cancellation of New York's Greenwich Village Halloween parade, officials said. For the first time in 39 years, a parade that attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and about $90 million in visitor dollars won't take place, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Officials said police, sanitation and other workers have been redirected to aid storm recovery efforts.
The Park Slope Civil Council's Halloween Parade in Brooklyn was also canceled.
Model Heidi Klum decided to call off her celebrity-studded annual Halloween bash, tweeting she was postponing it until Christmas.
Before Sandy, analysts had projected consumers would shell out a record amount of money this Halloween.
