By Laine Higgins 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 7, 2018).

General Motors Co. - 1.3% Thursday

Despite an unexpected 1.9% increase in first-half U.S. car sales, stocks of American auto makers moved in fits and starts this past week amid heated trade rhetoric between the U.S. and the European Union as well as the initial salvos in an emerging trade war with China. GM fell on Tuesday as industry executives cautioned that a trade war could raise car prices by thousands of dollars and slow sales. By Thursday, car companies on both sides of the Atlantic got a reprieve after news of back-channel efforts to eliminate car import tariffs. GM nearly recovered its losses from Tuesday before falling 0.8% Friday after China's 25% tariff on U.S. car imports took effect.

Dell Technologies Inc. - 9% Monday

After five years on the sidelines, Dell is coming back to the public markets. But in lieu of an IPO, the pioneering tech firm is opting for a complex maneuver to buy publicly traded DVMT, which tracks Dell's roughly 80% stake in software firm VMware Inc., and convert DVMT to class C common stock. Once completed, Dell Class C shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time since founder Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake took the company private in a leveraged buyout in 2013. Investors cheered the move, sending shares of VMware up 10% and DVMT up 9% on Monday; VMware said it would give an $11 billion special dividend tied to the deal's completion.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. - -7.9% Monday

For the second-consecutive month, investors betting on strong revenue growth from Macau's casinos got served with disappointing numbers. Wynn, which has large exposure to the semiautonomous Chinese gambling enclave, saw its stock fall 7.9% on Monday after Macau reported revenue growth of 12.5%, below an expected 18%. Separately, the company on Friday disclosed that General Counsel Kim Sinatra, who knew for years about a $7.5 million settlement between former Chief Executive Steve Wynn and a casino employee, would step down July 15.

Glencore PLC - 8.1% Tuesday

Mining and trading giant Glencore disclosed Tuesday that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Justice Department regarding compliance with money-laundering statutes and antibribery laws for its operations in Congo, Nigeria and Venezuela dating to 2007. Glencore's mining activity in Congo previously has come under scrutiny from foreign governments and corruption watchdogs, but the subpoena dated July 2 is broader and one analyst says it could indicate a deep investigation. Glencore's stock, which trades in London, plummeted nearly 12% when the news broke Tuesday morning before recovering slightly to finish the session down 8.1%. In an attempt to reassure investors, Glencore announced a $1 billion stock buyback plan on Thursday, boosting shares 2.1%.

Facebook Inc. - 2.4% Tuesday

Facebook shares rose slightly Monday despite a 747-page report delivered to Congress in which the social network disclosed it gave dozens of companies special access to user data, including several deals that contradict Facebook's previous public statements that it restricted personal information to outsiders in 2015. Those gains were more than erased during Tuesday's preholiday-truncated session as the stock fell 2.4% after Facebook said it received questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Bureau of Investigation related to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission's probe of February's Cambridge Analytica data breach. Shares rallied to end the week amid an analyst's upgrade.

Micron Technology Inc. - 5.5% Tuesday

A patent feud between Micron, the largest memory-chip maker in the U.S., and United Microelectronics Corp. of Taiwan heated up on Tuesday as UMC and another rival said the U.S. firm was temporarily blocked by a Chinese court from selling certain products in China. Shares of Micron, whose Chinese sales account for half of its revenue, fell 5.5%. On Thursday, Micron shares recovered 2.6% after the company said it would challenge the temporary ban and didn't expect second-quarter revenue to stray from its previously expected range of $8 billion to $8.4 billion.

Barnes & Noble Inc. - 1.7% Thursday

Two hours after the close of trading on the day before the Independence Day holiday, Barnes & Noble disclosed the dismissal of CEO Demos Parneros for violating an undisclosed company policy. Mr. Parneros was removed from the bookseller's board and didn't receive any severance pay. His ouster is the latest sign of tumult for Barnes & Noble, which has had three CEOs since 2016 as it struggles to compete with Amazon. Shares fell 1.7% on Thursday and slid 11% on Friday as investors continued to digest the news.

Write to Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 07, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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