Snap may have trouble pleasing Wall Street analysts in its earnings season debut, if a history of past hot internet IPOs is any guide. When Facebook, Yelp, Twitter and LinkedIn reported their first quarterly results as public companies, the stocks fell by an average 14.1 percent the next day, according to Jim Strugger, derivatives strategist at MKM Partners. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn last year. After the close Wednesday, the parent of the popular Snapchat messaging app releases its first earni

Such is the nature of whiplash politics, when a bad guy becomes a good guy simply by virtue of the utility he serves in whatever argument you wish to make. I have no idea why Trump fired Comey, and neither does anyone else. Trump’s firing letter says (with an unfortunate split infinitive) that Comey is “not able to effectively lead the bureau.” What Comey did on July 5 of last year in announcing his decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton in the email investigation was a traves

A reporter in West Virginia was arrested at the state capitol after repeatedly trying to ask President Donald Trump’s health secretary Tom Price questions on Tuesday about a Republican bill to replace Obamacare. At a news conference following his arrest, Heyman, who works for Public News Service and had been wearing his press pass during the incident, said Price “didn’t say anything.” A West Virginia police officer then detained Heyman, handcuffed him and arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of

The company reportedly plans to remove more than half of its 12 sitting directors, including its chairman, in the next year, according to Dow Jones citing sources close to the matter. John Elstrott has been the chairman of the company’s board since 2009, however, it is unclear who else will be leaving the board. Whole Foods is set to report its earnings after the bell Wednesday. The expected move comes as Whole Foods faces scrutiny from activist investors who are pushing the supermarket chain to

Andrew McCabe, who joined the FBI 20 years ago and was promoted to deputy director last year, was named acting FBI director, a Justice Department official said. A law enforcement source said FBI officials also did not consider any lines to have been crossed. According to a White House official, McCabe then talked to other officials at the FBI and determined there was nothing the FBI could do. FBI officials said they didn’t want to get into the business of publicly parsing elements of news report

[The stream is slated to start at 1:30 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.] White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds the daily White House press briefing Wednesday, and will likely face a barrage of questions about the surprise firing of FBI Director James Comey. Amid criticism about the manner and timing of Comey’s Tuesday ouster, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that “he was not doing a good job.” Read more:Trump on firing Comey: ‘H

Equities traded in a narrow range Wednesday as investors digested President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. The reaction to Comey’s firing in the market was largely muted because a large number of investors still believe the market will get tax reform at some point. “But if we get wind that there’s not going to be tax reform, … that’s when we get into some trouble.” “I don’t think this is a make-or-break situation for tax reform,” he said. “It would be more market-moving new

The European Union executive is planning a law to deal with complaints about unfair trading practices by leading online players such as Apple and Google. This follows on from EU proposals to remove barriers in online services to improve European companies’ chances of competing against U.S. tech giants like Google, Apple and Facebook. EDiMA, which represents the main online platforms like Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, said it was “disappointed and astounded” at the announcement. HATE SPEECH

A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day. STOCKS/ECONOMY-Stock futures are down after Tuesday’s mixed close. Investors appear to be reacting at least in part to President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. -Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says 3 percent economic growth is not achievable this year. They are now calling for a Special Prosecutor to be appointed to look into the charges.

Deutsche Bank lowered its rating for Viacom to sell from hold, citing the increasing risk of cable firms dropping the company’s networks in the most popular cable subscription packages. The embattled media company’s shares have declined 12 percent in the past year versus the S&P 500’s 15 percent return. “We’ve now noticed a change in tier composition in several legacy Charter markets since last week, with Viacom’s core channels also being re-tiered into the Gold TV package and Digi Tiers,” analy

It seems McDonald’s foray into fresh, never frozen beef hasn’t hurt Wendy’s sales. In fact, Wendy’s said that the Golden Arches’ test of Quarter Pounders with fresh beef actually brought more awareness and credibility to Wendy’s business, which has used fresh beef since 1969. Penegor said that the company was actually able to use social media to capitalize on McDonald’s announcement that it would be rolling out fresh beef for all of its Quarter Pounder burgers nationwide by mid-2018. Wendy’s use

The growing popularity of streaming may threaten ESPN, which is for now one of the most expensive parts of cable subscriptions, said Bernstein senior analyst Todd Juenger. We don’t think there’s anything Disney can do to compel those types of people to keep paying for ESPN over time.” Theoretically, they’ll also allow consumers to pick which networks they want to pay for instead of buying the entire cable bundle. Most of the major streaming plans all include ESPN, and Iger said on a call with in

Hedge fund Pershing Square has an unnamed investment position that is up big so far this year, founder Bill Ackman said on an investor call Wednesday. But Ackman said year-to-date performance for Pershing ranged from 1.9 percent to 3.6 percent, depending on the specific fund. On Monday, Ackman reiterated a recommendation on shares of Howard Hughes at the Sohn Investment Conference, presented by CNBC. A short position in Herbalife and declines in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contributed to “big los

“If you look at Google, they have just an amazing monopoly when it comes to search advertising,” said Calacanis, a media entrepreneur and early Uber investor. “And they know exactly how to avoid triggering what would look like a monopoly. Google has what Calacanis referred to as “moats,” borrowing from a phrase used by famed investor Warren Buffett: Well-known brand names that make it difficult for them to succumb to competitive forces. “It’s amazing the monopoly they’ve built that doesn’t look

Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant is finally gaining new skills that will help it catch up with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Microsoft only introduced a handful of services, however, which means Cortana still has a really long way to go before it’s on a par with Alexa or Google Assistant. Also, Microsoft doesn’t yet offer its own smart speaker where users can access Cortana, like the Amazon Echo or Google Home. For now, you’ll need to access Cortana through Windows or from an iOS or Andr

In a consent order, Trump Taj Mahal admitted to having “willfully violated” reporting and record-keeping requirements under the federal Bank Secrecy Act from 2010 to 2012. In 1998, FinCEN assessed a $477,700 civil penalty against Trump Taj Mahal for currency transaction reporting violations. “Trump Taj Mahal received many warnings about its deficiencies,” then-FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery said in the 2015 statement. The penalty became an unsecured claim in Trump Taj Mahal’s bankruptcy

An estimate of the costs and impact of the Republican Obamacare replacement bill will be released nearly two weeks after that bill was passed by the House of Representatives, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. CBO said its report on the major health-care bill will be issued “early in the week of May 22.” It also would include projections of how the legislation will affect health insurance premiums and the federal budget deficit. The House passed that bill, known as the American Heal

“His approach is to be really sure of something before he buys it, and one of the ways he exercises that discipline is to sort of almost never sell. “It’s not the not selling that makes these so good, it’s that discipline to buy things only when he really, really likes them,” Lowenstein says. While not everyone will garner the same results as Buffett on the stock market, his core principle can be applied to almost every purchase we make: Invest for the long-term. When deciding whether or not to

Oil prices surged more than 3 percent after the latest report on U.S. crude stockpiles eased fears that have permeated the market in recent weeks, helping to drag prices to nearly six-month lows. That marked a sharp reversal from the recent trend, which has seen oil prices crash through a number of technical levels to fall as low as $43.76. Oil prices had already been trading higher on a report that Saudi Arabia was cutting exports to the key Asian market and earlier industry data pointing to a

FBI Director James Comey had asked last week for more resources for the agency’s investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election, according to multiple media reports on Wednesday. A Justice Department spokesman told CNBC that the Times report was “totally false.” But a senior congressional official with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC that Comey had told members of Congress that he had requested more staff and money for the investigation. Comey had previously confir