NY Fed Hikes U.S. GDP Growth Forecast

On Friday, the New York Federal Reserve raised its estimates for economic growth in the U.S. after the release of the latest data on jobs, trade, and inventories, Reuters reports. The New York Fed expects U.S. GDP to expand at an annualized pace of 3.19% in the first three months of 2017, this is greater than the NY Fed’s week ago estimate of 3.09%.

Keep Both Eyes on the Fed

On Friday morning, the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 235,000 jobs in February, better than expectations for around a 200,000 job increase. With a broadly strong report, investors now look ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting, where expectations for a rate hike have now increased to over 90%, according to the CME.

FCC Announces New Form 477 Deadline is March 24, 2017

On March 7, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission issued a Public Notice announcing that the Form 477 filing interface has been reopened and the new deadline to submit the form this year is . The FCC Form 477 report is typically due on March 1st annually, but as we noted in a prior advisory, the FCC temporarily suspended the filing deadline due to “technical difficulties in the filing interface.”

Clearing up the Senate’s confusion on FCC privacy rules

At oversight hearing on Wednesday, the Senate Commerce Committee confronted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai with questions over last week’s partial stay of the commission’s broadband privacy order. While privacy rules are certainly highly complicated, comments from some senators telegraphed a fundamental misunderstanding of what has been done to date to protect consumers, and given the current ecosystem, what the FCC’s proper role should be going forward.

AkzoNobel Shares Hit Record High Amid Push For Group To Talk to PPG

Akzo Nobel shares extended gains to a record high Friday as investors bet that PPG Industries’ $22 billion bid will unlock value in the previously dormant stock. Akzo Nobel NV shares extended gains to a record high Friday as investors bet that PPG Industries ‘ $22 billion bid for the Dutch chemicals group will unlock value in the previously dormant stock.

Biotech Stock Mailbag: Puma’s Rebound Explained, TG Therapeutics Approval Debate, Aurinia Next Steps

This week’s Biotech Stock Mailbag will address some current controversies and burning questions in our little corner of the investment world. Why the hell is Puma Biotechnology trading higher after the successful readout of Roche’s “APHINITY’ study of Perjeta in adjuvant breast cancer? What are the arguments for and against TG Therapeutics securing approval for ublituximab in high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia ? Did Aurinia Pharmaceuticals make a change to the primary endpoint of its phase III study of voclosporin in lupus nephritis? Are regulators okay with it? The March 2 announcement by Roche that Perjeta met the primary endpoint in the APHINITY study caused Puma shares to fall from $38 to an intraday low of $29.

Wage Growth Will Dominate Jobs Report as Markets Cinch Bets on Next Fed Hike

The Labor Department’s February employment report is likely to indicate that a lot more Americans are finding jobs in the world’s largest economy, but markets may be more sensitive to the pace of wages for people already in work for the next leg up in the global rally. Non-farm payrolls are expected to have increased by around 190,000 last month, according to the broad consensus on Wall Street, taking that headline unemployment rate down to 4.7%.

Ulta Beauty Is Only One Company That Proves Selfie-Taking Millennials Are Obsessed With Cosmetics

Struggling malls and big box stores are having no problem getting selfie-taking millennials through the doors to buy cheap lipstick and fancy eyeliner. After Thursday’s market close, Ulta Beauty reported fourth quarter revenue of $1.58 billion on earnings of $2.25 a share, trouncing Wall Street’s expectations for earnings of $2.08 to $2.13 a share on sales of $1.52 billion to $1.54 billion.

Will Store Closures Help J.C. Penney Bounce Back?

J.C. Penney announced that it planned to close 130 to 140 stores as well as two distribution centers in the coming months. The struggling retailer follows in the footsteps of Sears and Macy’s , both of which have plans to shut stores to cut costs as shoppers move away from mall-based retailers.

Trader’s Daily Notebook: Look to Be Long

Given how quiet and generally muted the selling has been in the E-Mini S&P 500 futures this week, it’s understandable that many traders might have a difficult time accepting that shorter timeframe bearish excess began to trigger during Thursday’s regular selling. The current decline in the Es contract began on March 2. But as you can see on the 30-minute, regular-session Es chart above, the only time anything resembling bearish excess has been triggered was during Thursday’s auction .

UK workers’ sickness rates at record low

Just over four days were lost to sickness per UK worker last year – the lowest since records began, official figures show. Sickness absence totalled 137 million working days last year, the equivalent of 4.3 days per worker, the Office for National Statistics said.

Berlin Airport Strike Strands Patrons at Biggest Travel Show

Visitors attending Europe’s biggest travel fair were stranded in Berlin as striking ground workers forced almost all flights in and out of the German capital to be canceled. About 670 arrivals and departures were scrapped at Berlin’s Tegel and Schoenefeld airports on Friday, after the Ver.di union called on more than 2,000 airfield and terminal employees to walk out in a pay dispute.

The 10 Most Innovative Companies In Social Media 2017

Gone are the days of managing regularly updated Facebook profiles or Twitter accounts and calling it “social media.” Our very means of social connectivity have transformed in the last year, demanding that users and companies alike adapt to new platforms and ever-changing trends.

AT&T Outage Takes Down 911 Emergency Lines across the US

Millions of AT&T customers were left without 911 service for several hours last night. The outage appeared to have affected wireless customers across the country, with reports that customers were unable to reach emergency services in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Seattle, among other areas.

AT&T Outage Takes Down 911 Lines

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Volkswagen to Plead Guilty on Friday in Emissions Case

Volkswagen is set to plead guilty on Friday to three felony counts in the Justice Department’s diesel emissions investigation, as the German automaker seeks to move past its cheating scandal. As part of a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors announced in January, the company agreed to sweeping reforms, new audits and oversight by an independent monitor for three years after it admitting to installing secret software in vehicles to enable it to beat emissions tests over a six-year period.

China Shares End Flat Ahead of Next week’s Fed Meeting

China stocks ended flat on Friday, as initial excitement toward the country’s annual parliamentary meeting petered out and investors turned cautious ahead of a likely U.S. rate hike next week. The blue-chip CSI300 index was unchanged at 3,427.89, while the Shanghai Composite Index was down just 0.1 percent at 3,212.76 points.

BT Agrees to Split Off U.K. Network Unit Into Separate Entity

BT Group Plc agreed to legally split off its Openreach network division into a separate entity as demanded by Britain’s telecommunications regulator, a victory of sorts for the phone carrier’s rivals though not as complete a breakup as they had sought. Openreach will have its own staff, management, strategy and a “legal purpose to serve all of its customers equally,” the regulator, Ofcom, said in a statement Friday.