The Market Close- Netflix to raise $1.5bn to fuel rapid expansion

Today's Closing Update

U.S.Stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of morning trading after moving lower in the two previous sessions. The major averages have been bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line.

European Stocks were mixed as results from Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, disappointed investors and a rise in U.S. Treasury yields put pressure on bond-proxy sectors.

Theresa May has insisted that the UK must leave the customs union after Brexit in order to strike trade deals around the world. The Prime Minister is facing a series of parliamentary battles in the coming weeks over the UK’s future customs arrangements with the EU. After a massive defeat on the issue in the House of Lords, pro-European Tory MPs are set to voice their concerns over withdrawal from the customs union on Thursday.

Netflix Inc said it planned to raise $1.5bn (£1.07bn) in debt, the second time the company is tapping the debt market in less than a year to fuel a rapid expansion in original content. The video streaming pioneer, which raised $1.6bn in debt last October, has been spending aggressively on original content to drive subscriber growth around the world.

Ryanair made an offer last week to formally recognize labor union Verdi to represent cabin crew in Germany, Verdi said in a statement today. Ryanair has been in talks to formalize union recognition in several European countries since its decision in December to recognize unions for the first time in its 32-year history.

BAE Systems and Dell EMC today announced a collaboration to offer the first scalable, hybrid cloud solution of its kind for the U.S. government. The federated secure cloud is flexible enough to power agency-level IT modernization or support smaller, forward-operating units.

Barclays said Jes Staley will be fined by British regulators for attempting to unmask a whistleblower, but will be able to keep his job as the bank’s chief executive. The country’s banking watchdogs concluded Staley’s attempt to find out who wrote a letter raising “concerns of a personal nature” about an unnamed senior employee represented a breach of individual conduct.

Vectura PLC said it has appointed Anne Whitaker as a non-executive director of the drug development firm from the start of June. Whitaker served as president and chief executive officer of Know Bio LLC and its subsidiary Novoclem Therapeutics Inc until recently, having been appointed February 2017. Prior to that, she served in a number of senior roles at GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Sanofi SA.

Micro Focus announced the introduction and availability of SecureData Sentry, an expansion of its Voltage SecureData portfolio. SecureData Sentry accelerates time to value for Hybrid IT data security and provides transparent deployment to protect data in applications across the enterprise. Privacy compliance can now be seamlessly enabled end-to-end for commercial or proprietary applications that are mission-critical to the business, including the migration to cloud workloads.

Gold Prices slipped to their lowest level in nearly two weeks in range-bound trade, as the dollar rose on the back of climbing U.S. Treasury yields and as global political concerns eased.

Oil Prices fell, as other raw materials came under pressure and after Iran’s oil minister said there would be no need to extend a deal on supply restraint if crude prices rose further.

Market Close

UK 100	7,398.9	+30.7	+0.4%
UK 250	20,316.4	+95.6	+0.5%
GER 30	12,572.4	+31.9	+0.3%
FRA 40	5,438.6	+25.7	+0.5%
U.S. 30	24,488.80	+25.86	+0.1%
U.S. 500	2,677.7	+7.6	-0.3%
OIL (BRENT)	73.94	-0.12	-0.2%
GOLD	1,323.70	-12.66	-1.0%