Stocks Little Changed After Bank of England Move

U.S. Market    
Stocks were little changed this morning after the Bank of England rate move.

The Bank of England cut its key interest rate for the first time in 7 years in an effort to combat the impact of Brexit. The central bank also launched a new quantitative easing program. The pound moved lower against the dollar on the news while U.K. government bonds hit record lows.

Factory orders were down 1.5% in July, a slightly smaller drop than expected. The overall number was dragged down by a 10.5% drop in the transportation sector. 

initial unemployment claims were up by 3,000 to 269,000 last week. The less volatile four-week moving average was up by 3,750 to 260,250. The data comes ahead of tomorrow’s official payroll and unemployment rate report.

At midday the Dow and S&P 500 were unchanged while the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

Stocks on the Move
 Fox (FOX) reported a  mixed end to fiscal 2016, as revenue was in line with our expectations but EBITDA was below our projections. Fourth-quarter revenue of $6.6 billion was up 7% versus a year ago, as three segments improved (cable up 9%, television up 4%, and filmed entertainment up 7%). EBITDA fell to $1.5 billion, however, down 6%, as improvement in the broadcast television division could not offset weakness within cable, which struggled with increased sports programming costs in the U.S. and internationally. Foreign exchange movements had a 3% negative impact on EBITDA, an ongoing headwind for Fox which generates roughly 30% of revenue outside of the U.S.

Shares of  Kellogg (K) were up 1.7% this morning after the firm reported quarterly results and boosted its full-year earnings guidance. 

Foreign Markets
European shares were higher after the BoE moves. The FTSE 100 was up 1.6%, while the Paris CAC and Germany’s DAX were each up 0.4%.

Asian markets also gained on the day. The Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 were 0.1%, 0.4% and 1.1% respectively.