Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP) Stock Rating Upgraded by Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Wednesday. Zacks Investment Research currently has $38.00 price objective on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

According to Zacks, “Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. is a full-service, vertically integrated real estate company focused on owning, operating and acquiring office properties and media and entertainment properties in select growth markets primarily in Northern and Southern California. These markets include Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and the East Bay. The Company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. “

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Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. TheStreet upgraded shares of Hudson Pacific Properties from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Wednesday, May 23rd. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Hudson Pacific Properties from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, May 25th. Barclays restated a buy rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of Hudson Pacific Properties in a report on Tuesday, April 17th. DA Davidson set a $45.00 price target on shares of Hudson Pacific Properties and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Hudson Pacific Properties from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $37.83.

HPP stock opened at $33.86 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a market cap of $5.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.02, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.70. Hudson Pacific Properties has a 52 week low of $28.25 and a 52 week high of $36.06.

Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 3rd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $174.12 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.65 million. Hudson Pacific Properties had a return on equity of 2.44% and a net margin of 13.47%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. analysts anticipate that Hudson Pacific Properties will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 19th were paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 18th. Hudson Pacific Properties’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.25%.

In other Hudson Pacific Properties news, EVP Arthur X. Suazo sold 10,000 shares of Hudson Pacific Properties stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $355,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 102,995 shares in the company, valued at $3,659,412.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sanford Dale Shimoda sold 5,000 shares of Hudson Pacific Properties stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.96, for a total transaction of $179,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 89,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,217,628.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,213 shares of company stock valued at $2,794,149 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.93% of the company’s stock.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HPP. Piermont Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Hudson Pacific Properties by 15.7% in the first quarter. Piermont Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,540 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $440,000 after purchasing an additional 1,840 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Hudson Pacific Properties by 9.2% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,242 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $756,000 after purchasing an additional 1,957 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hudson Pacific Properties by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 12,527 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,106 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Hudson Pacific Properties by 18.1% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 16,396 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $533,000 after purchasing an additional 2,512 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Hudson Pacific Properties by 2.7% in the first quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 97,771 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $3,180,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547 shares during the period.

About Hudson Pacific Properties

Hudson Pacific Properties is a vertically integrated real estate Company focused on acquiring, repositioning, developing and operating high-quality office and state-of-the-art studio properties in select West Coast markets. Hudson Pacific invests across the risk-return spectrum, favoring opportunities where it can employ leasing, capital investment and management expertise to create additional value.

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McDonald's Earnings: 3 Things to Watch

McDonald's (NYSE:MCD)�has treated investors to market-thumping growth in its last few quarterly reports. And those gains have combined with surging profitability to send earnings far higher.

Yet shareholders saw evidence of a slowdown when the fast-food giant kicked off its fiscal 2018 in a late April report. That potential shift raises the stakes around Mickey's D's second-quarter report, due out before the market opens on Thursday, July 26.

Let's take a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

Growth trends

Comparable-store sales held steady at an industry-leading 5.5% last quarter, which kept McDonald's well ahead of rivals including Starbucks, Yum! Brands, and Dunkin' Brands. Management credited improvements to the menu, aggressive pricing, and faster service for powering the company's 11th consecutive quarter of positive comps. "More customers are recognizing that we are becoming a better McDonald's, appreciating our great tasting food, fast and friendly service, and compelling value," CEO Steve Easterbrook said�.

Traffic change by fiscal year. Data source: McDonald's.�Chart by author.�

However, while customer traffic trends were positive on a global basis, they slipped into negative territory in the key U.S. market. All of its peers are struggling with the same challenge, but the restaurant chain is still hoping to get back to growth with help from menu innovations like the national rollout of its fresh-beef Quarter Pounder. On Thursday, we'll find out if these traffic-boosting initiatives worked, or if McDonald's trends were again pinched by the negative trends in the broader fast-food industry.

Profit margin

Mickey D's has been aggressively whittling down the proportion of restaurants that it operates in favor of relying more heavily on franchising. Its company-owned locations stood at just 8% last quarter compared to 15% in the year-ago period.

The refranchising move has pushed overall revenue lower while lifting profits as McDonald's trades low-margin food sales for high-margin rent, royalties, and franchise fees. As a result, operating margin has shot up to 41% of sales from 31% just a year ago. Investors are looking for more gains on this score, but at a slightly slower pace than in recent quarters.

By 2019, in fact, management is targeting operating margin in the mid-40% range, which should support its annual earnings growth target in the range of 7% to 9%. McDonald's is aiming to get its company-owned restaurant proportion down to about 5% over the long term, and it will likely announce more progress along those lines this week.

Modernization updates

McDonald's planned capital expenditure outlay in 2018 is up 20% over last year's rate, to $2.4 billion. And while that extra spending might not sound like a lot, it amounts to an aggressive investment pace, even for the industry leader.

The chain is modernizing and upgrading around 1,000 stores each quarter in the core U.S. market, or about the same total as its entire footprint in Australia. Executives believe this is the best way to improve customer traffic and average spending metrics while preparing the restaurants for a shift toward digital ordering and, down the line, home delivery.

The spending reflects just how quickly tastes are changing in the fast-food industry. It also shows that McDonald's is determined to avoid repeating the mistakes that contributed to a painful multiyear stretch for the business that included a brutal 4% drop in customer traffic in fiscal 2014. The chain aims to protect its hard-won leadership position this time, and that will require a more flexible, and aggressive, competitive stance.

Why NetEase, Inc. Stock Has Lost 27% in the First Half of 2018

What happened

Shares of�NetEase, Inc.�(NASDAQ:NTES) have dipped 26.8% in the first six months of 2018, according to data from�S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what

The online games developer and internet services provider has seen its growth sag in recent quarters as its game titles list shows signs of age.�The first quarter of 2018, which the company reported on in May, is quite representative. Revenue increased just 3.9% over the first quarter of 2017, to $2.3 billion. This modest improvement paled against Q1 2017's revenue leap of 72% versus its own comparable 2016 quarter.

Image source: Getty Images.

Online game services, NetEase's largest segment, experienced a top-line slump of 18% during the first three months of the year, to $1.4 billion.�Gross margin in online games dropped 1.8 percentage points to 62.1%, which the company blamed on a lower revenue contribution from its in-house-developed mobile games. Specifically, NetEase identified weaker sales in its Onmyoji game and the mobile-based version of New Ghost, which dampened the relative success of the Knives Out and Chu Liu Xiang titles.

Of course, for a company that derives the lion's share of its revenue from gaming, revenue can be cyclical, as the success of individual products fluctuates. However, without enough bona fide new hits, NetEase has lost profitability as it allocates higher selling costs and marketing expense to generate equivalent levels of revenue. For example, first quarter 2018 cost of revenues jumped 33% to $1.3 billion, and marketing expenses roughly doubled to $397.1 million, even as revenue barely advanced.

Now what

As my colleague Harsh Chauhan points out in a more extensive piece on NetEase's current state, NetEase will likely continue to invest in marketing to win back market share, especially as competitors like Tencent have recently achieved levels of growth in online gaming that used to typify NetEase's prospects.

Still, the company has many opportunities to turn its fortunes around, from traction in massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like�Chu Liu Xiang, to additional monetization of its Minecraft license. NetEase now claims 60 million Minecraft users in China, and it's opening up a platform for third-party developers to increase content on the site, which should advance revenue opportunities. Overall, it's not out of the question for NetEase's vaunted research and development department to re-energize the top line with new hit titles as it builds on core properties. The company is next set to report earnings on Aug. 8.�

Analysts Set AngloGold Ashanti Limited (AU) Target Price at $11.50

AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE:AU) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $11.50.

Several research firms have weighed in on AU. Zacks Investment Research downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, June 25th. ValuEngine downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 2nd.

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AngloGold Ashanti traded down $0.03, hitting $8.59, during midday trading on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,480,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,628,488. AngloGold Ashanti has a 12 month low of $7.81 and a 12 month high of $12.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.17 and a beta of -1.00.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 38.5% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,975,108 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $246,504,000 after acquiring an additional 7,226,555 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 3.1% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,455,936 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $184,637,000 after purchasing an additional 583,710 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 0.7% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,718,774 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $120,701,000 after buying an additional 91,160 shares during the period. Oaktree Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 0.4% during the first quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 3,384,965 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $32,123,000 after buying an additional 14,643 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 233.0% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,336,817 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $34,002,000 after buying an additional 2,334,622 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 32.96% of the company’s stock.

AngloGold Ashanti Company Profile

AngloGold Ashanti Limited operates as a gold mining company. The company also produces silver, uranium oxide, and sulphuric acid. Its portfolio includes 17 operations and 3 projects in 10 countries in South Africa, Continental Africa, the Americas, and Australasia. AngloGold Ashanti Limited was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Avoid These 10 Public Service Loan Forgiveness Mistakes

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image shutterstock size-large wp-image-1129942907&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1129942907/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;516&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Shutterstock

It&s;s no secret that student loan forgiveness is a hot topic.

When it comes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness, in particular, the requirements can be tricky.

That&s;s why it&s;s critical to ensure you know the details and are not headed down the wrong path.

Here are the 10 most common public service loan forgiveness mistakes to avoid at all costs.

&l;strong&g;1. Thinking Public Service Loan Forgiveness is automatic&l;/strong&g;

Nope. Thinking that you work in &q;public service&q; and are performing a &q;public service&q; job won&s;t cut it.

The &l;a href=&q;https://www.makelemonade.co/public-service-loan-forgiveness-guide/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program&l;/a&g; is a federal program that forgives federal student loans for borrowers who are employed full-time (more than 30 hours per week) in an eligible federal, state or local public service job or 501(c)(3) non-profit job who make 120 eligible on-time payments.

Those &q;eligibility&q; requirements bring us to our second common mistake.

&l;strong&g;2. Not completing the Employment Certification Form&l;/strong&g;

The number one thing you can do to ensure you&s;re on track for public service loan forgiveness is to complete the &l;a href=&q;https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/public-service-employment-certification-form.pdf&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Employment Certification Form&l;/a&g;.

The next question is: how often should I submit the employment certification form for public service loan forgiveness?

You should submit this form:

&l;/p&g;&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;when you begin a job in public service&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;when you switch employers&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;annually&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

It&s;s important to submit this form annually to keep the U.S. Department of Education aware of your employment to ensure you&s;re on the right track.

&l;strong&g;3. Submitting an Employment Certification Form with errors&l;/strong&g;

This sounds like a no-brainer, but your employment certification form could be rejected if there are errors.

Here are a few common mistakes:

&l;ul&g;&l;li&g;information on one form that does not match previous forms&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;missing information such as an employer address&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;not completing all the required fields&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;correcting errors on the form, and then failing to place your initials next to the corrected errors&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;

This all may sound bureaucratic, but better safe than sorry.

&l;strong&g;4. Not having your employment certification form signed by your employer&l;/strong&g;

Your employment certification form must be signed by an authorized official at your employer.

Make sure it is that person who signs the form, not the person who sits next to you at work.

&l;strong&g;5. Not enrolling in an income-driven federal student loan repayment plan&l;/strong&g;

To be eligible for public service loan forgiveness, you must be enrolled in an income-driven federal student loan repayment plan.

Remember, only federal student loans (not private student loans) are eligible for public service loan forgiveness). You also must make a majority of the 120 required payments while enrolled in a federal student loan repayment plan.

While the 10 Year Standard Repayment Plan qualifies for public service loan forgiveness, your federal student loans would be paid off after 10 years so there would be no more student loans to forgive.

How do you know which income-driven student loan repayment plan is best for you? Well, it depends on your specific financial situation.

This &l;a href=&q;https://www.makelemonade.co/calculators/public-service-loan-forgiveness-calculator/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;public service loan forgiveness calculator&l;/a&g; shows you which income-driven student loan repayment plan will maximize your student loan forgiveness.

&l;strong&g;6. Forgetting to consolidate your student loans, if necessary&l;/strong&g;

Remember, only Direct student loans qualify for public service loan forgiveness.

So, if you have Perkins Loans, FFEL Loans or you borrowed student loans before 2011, you may need to consolidate these federal student loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan.

How do you know if you have Direct student loans?

You can check at &l;a href=&q;https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/?login=true&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;Federal Student Aid&l;/a&g;. If you don&s;t see the word &q;Direct&q; next to your student loans, then you may need to consolidate those student loans.

How do you consolidate those student loans?

If you decide to consolidate those student loans, you can do so through &l;a href=&q;https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/launchConsolidation.action&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;StudentLoans.gov&l;/a&g;.

&l;strong&g;7. Not taking advantage of Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness&l;/strong&g;

Were you denied public service loan forgiveness because you were enrolled in the wrong student loan repayment plan?

Congress has set aside an extra &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2018/05/29/public-student-loan-forgiveness-apply/#5683d23b367d&q;&g;$350 million of public service loan forgiveness&l;/a&g; for this exact situation.

&l;strong&g;8. Failing to re-certify your income each year&l;/strong&g;

As the name suggests, your income-driven student loan repayment plan is based on your income.

As your income may change each year, the federal government wants to ensure that you are still eligible for that income-driven student loan repayment plan.

Therefore, make sure to re-certify your income each year at studentloans.gov. At the same time, you can submit your annual Employer Certification Form.

&l;strong&g;9. Skipping student loan payments&l;/strong&g;

While your 120 student loan payments under public service loan forgiveness do not have to be consecutive, you need to submit each payment within 15 days of the due date for that payment to count.

&l;strong&g;10. Thinking your job is what qualifies you for public service loan forgiveness, when it&s;s your employer that matters&l;/strong&g;

Remember, it&s;s your employer that matters, not your role.

If you work with a non-profit, but are employed by a private company, this would not qualify for public service loan forgiveness.

Now that you&s;re in the know, hopefully the path toward public service loan forgiveness will be smoother.

Somewhat Favorable Media Coverage Somewhat Unlikely to Affect Goldman Sachs BDC (GSBD) Share Price

News headlines about Goldman Sachs BDC (NYSE:GSBD) have trended somewhat positive on Thursday, Accern Sentiment reports. The research group identifies positive and negative press coverage by monitoring more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Goldman Sachs BDC earned a coverage optimism score of 0.11 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news coverage about the financial services provider an impact score of 46.3769468004989 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on GSBD shares. National Securities upgraded shares of Goldman Sachs BDC from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $22.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Monday, May 7th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Goldman Sachs BDC from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 14th. Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Goldman Sachs BDC from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 8th. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Goldman Sachs BDC from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 8th. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Goldman Sachs BDC in a research report on Wednesday, May 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Goldman Sachs BDC has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.00.

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NYSE:GSBD traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $21.14. 114,100 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 130,144. Goldman Sachs BDC has a 12 month low of $18.78 and a 12 month high of $23.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $842.08 million, a P/E ratio of 10.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.78.

Goldman Sachs BDC (NYSE:GSBD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 3rd. The financial services provider reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Goldman Sachs BDC had a net margin of 38.13% and a return on equity of 11.09%. The firm had revenue of $35.54 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. equities analysts predict that Goldman Sachs BDC will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 28th. Goldman Sachs BDC’s dividend payout ratio is currently 86.96%.

Goldman Sachs BDC Company Profile

Goldman Sachs BDC, Inc is a closed-end management investment company. The Company is a specialty finance company, which is focused on lending to middle-market companies. The Company’s investment objective is to generate current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation primarily through direct originations of secured debt, including first lien, including first lien, unitranche, including last out portions of such loans, and second lien debt, and unsecured debt, including mezzanine debt, as well as through select equity investments.

Why PriceSmart Is Friday’s Big Earnings Loser

When PriceSmart Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) released its fiscal third-quarter financial results late on Thursday, the company said that it had $0.61 in earnings per share (EPS) and $782.2 million in revenue. Consensus estimates had called for $0.63 in EPS and $777.1 million in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.62 and $730.3 million in revenue.

During the latest quarter, net warehouse club sales increased 5.6% year over year to $750.5 million. Also, this came from 41 warehouse clubs in operation this quarter, up from 39 last year.

Separately, the company released its sales for the month of June just after the third quarter ended in May. In this time, net warehouse club sales increased 5.9% to $243.7 million, from $230.1 million in June a year earlier.

For the 10 months ended June 30, 2018, net warehouse club sales increased 5.2% to $2,556.1 million, from $2,429.2 million for the 10 months ended June 30, 2017.

For the month of June, comparable warehouse sales increased only 0.6%. For the past 10 months, comparable warehouse sales increased 2.8%.

Shares of PriceSmart were last seen down about 10% at $83.80, with a consensus analyst price target of $95.00 and a 52-week trading range of $77.50 to $94.45.

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2018 Dow Laggards Could Offer Material Upside Into 2019

Dow poised to slide as tariffs kick in and jobs report nears

U.S. stock futures dipped Friday, following the implementation of much-anticipated import tariffs by the Trump administration and China.

Investors are also focused on a closely watched monthly jobs report.

What are the main benchmarks doing?

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMU8, -0.35% slipped by 55 points, or 0.2%, to 24,288, while S&P 500 futures ESU8, -0.19% edged down by 3.60 points, or 0.1%, to 2,735. Nasdaq-100 futures NQU8, -0.21% shed 10.75 points, or 3.60 points, to 7,115.

On Thursday, the Dow DJIA, +0.75% , S&P 500 SPX, +0.86% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.12% closed higher. The three gauges are on track for gains of 0.4% or more for the holiday-shortened week, as of Thursday��s close.

What��s driving markets?

The Trump administration officially imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports at midnight Eastern Time, and Beijing reportedly had implemented tariffs on the same value in American goods, as promised.

Asian equity markets closed with gains Friday amid talk that a trade war was finally underway. Some analysts said that action was classic �� sell the rumor, buy the news. For weeks, stock markets have been selling off worldwide, hurt by worries that a global trade war is developing and could weigh on economic growth.

Meanwhile, the June release on U.S. nonfarm payrolls is due to arrive at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast the country added 200,000 jobs last month.

Read more: What to watch in the June jobs report

What are strategists saying?

��Given the historically low levels of unemployment, which is expected to remain constant at 3.8% in June, a miss on the headline job creation number is not going to cause too much distress,�� said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group, in a note.

Lawler added that investors also are watching for trade-related news, including any sign of the U.S. or China backing down, saying that ��seems incredibly unlikely at this late stage, but with Trump at the helm you never know.��

What are other markets doing?

The ICE U.S. Dollar Index DXY, -0.13% was modestly lower, while China��s Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, +0.49% finished up by 0.5% on Friday, paring its weekly drop to 3.5%.

European stocks SXXP, -0.14% were trading mixed, as gold futures� GCQ8, -0.25% edged lower, failing to attract much haven demand even as the tariffs kicked in. Oil futures CLQ8, -0.80% were losing ground.

Victor Reklaitis

Victor Reklaitis is a London-based markets writer for MarketWatch. Follow him on Twitter @VicRek.

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