U. S. stock indexes are jumping on the first trading day of 2017. Energy companies are climbing with the price of oil, while banks are advancing thanks to a bump in interest rates. Those two sectors had the biggest gains in the market last year.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average leaped 120 points, or 0.6 percent, to 19,882 as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 18 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,256. The Nasdaq composite added 49 points, or 0.9 percent, to 5,432. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small-company stocks, jumped 10 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,367. The Russell rose almost 20 percent last year and did far better than indexes focused on larger companies. U. S. stocks are coming off a three-day losing streak.
OIL: Benchmark U. S. crude gained 90 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $54.62 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 95 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $57.77 a barrel in London. That sent energy companies higher. Marathon Petroleum surged $3.53, or 7 percent, to $53.88 and Halliburton added $1.93, or 3.6 percent, to $56.02.
Natural gas companies dropped as natural gas futures dropped 7.8 percent. Southwestern Energy lost 62 cents, or 5.7 percent, to $10.20 and Cabot Oil & Gas gave up 97 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $22.39.
BONDS: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.49 percent from 2.43 percent late Friday. Higher bond yields are linked to higher interest rates, and bank stocks made big gains. Citigroup rose $1.47, or 2.5 percent, to $60.90 and Morgan Stanley picked up $1.12, or 2.7 percent, to $43.37. Banks and energy companies both climbed more than 20 percent last year.
Utility companies fell, and real estate investment trusts and companies that make and sell household goods made far smaller gains than the rest of the market. Those stocks are often compared to bonds because they pay large dividends, but the jump in yields Tuesday encouraged investors to look elsewhere.
COPY THAT: Xerox surged 85 cents, or 14.8 percent, to $6.60 after it split itself in two, a move the company announced almost a year ago. The original Xerox kept its printer and copier business. The second company will focus on business process outsourcing, providing payment processing and other services. Xerox will receive $1.8 billion in cash.
The new company, Conduent Inc., now trades under the ticker symbol «CNDT. » That stock lost 72 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $14.18 in early trading.
MANUFACTURING ACTION: The manufacturing sector continued its recovery and ended 2016 on a strong note. The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 54.7 in December, its highest reading of the year. That was the fourth straight month of expansion and the ninth out of the last 10. The result was a bit stronger than analysts expected.
MISSING 2016: Graphics processor maker Nvidia couldn’t break out of a recent slump. The stock more than tripled in value last year, but hit a wall in the final days of trading. The stock slid $2.47, or 2.3 percent, to $104.27. It’s down 11 percent since Dec. 27.
DOUBLE CLICKED: Technology stocks also traded higher. Facebook added $2.39, or 2.1 percent, to $117.44 and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, rose $16.20, or 2 percent, to $808.65. On Monday Alphabet announced a partnership with Fiat Chrysler. The companies will work together on a connected car system. Fiat Chrysler stock picked up 49 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $9.61.
CURRENCIES: The dollar jumped to 118.36 yen from 116.78 yen. The euro slumped to $1.0366 from $1.0531.
OVERSEAS: The FTSE 100 index in Britain rose 0.7 percent to another all-time high. The French CAC 40 added 0.5 percent. Germany’s DAX inched up 0.1 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.7 percent and the Kospi in South Korea rose 0.9 percent. Tokyo’s stock market remained closed for the New Year’s holiday.

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The Removal of Criminally Offensive Content from the Internet bill – dubbed the “Facebook bill” – passed its first reading on Tuesday morning in the Knesset plenum. Social media platforms may be required by court orders to remove content deemed as criminal by the state.
The bill – which was drafted by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked – would empower Israeli Administrative Courts to issue orders to remove online content at the request of state prosecutors.
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“The Facebook bill was brought into the world as a result of last year’s wave of terror and the Palestinian incitement against the State of Israel which sparked it; That is the sole issue this bill seeks to address,” a representative of Shaked told The Jerusalem Post.
According to the bill, court orders would be able to target content that “the very posting of is a criminal offense, and whose public visibility has a real potential to put personal, public and national security at risk.” While both conditions need to be met for a court to issue the order, the state would be able to request these orders without giving social media platforms the ability to reply in court, based on classified evidence or evidence that would not be considered admissible in other cases.
Since the bill’s first draft, Erdan has backed down from his original aspiration of seeing content completely removed from the Internet on demand. The current bill only goes as far as to demand that posts are removed from visibility in Israel, as is Facebook’s existing policy on such cases.
“The bill includes various instructions and limitations in order to prevent damage to freedom of speech while also allowing the law enforcement agencies to work more efficiently on the matter,” the introduction to the bill stated.
The bill’s name has since been changed from the Removal of Terror-Inciting Content from Social Media bill to the Removal of Criminally Offensive Content from the Internet bill, in what some consider an appeasement of companies like Google, Twitter and mainly Facebook, which Erdan has personally attacked in the past.
Others, however, believe that the new name and the vague language of the bill itself make it too general and an actual risk to freedom of speech, despite what the ministers have claimed.
“The operative clauses of this bill would enable the removal of legitimate content, as they only include vague and general terms – such as ‘danger to the public or nation’ – that can be interpreted very broadly,” MeyTal Greiver-Schwartz, vice president of community relations and regulations at the Israel Internet Association, told Post .
Greiver-Schwartz cited an incident in which Israeli-Beduin blogger Anas Abu Dabas posted satirical comment on Facebook regarding the wildfires that raged through Israel during December. Abu Dabas was arrested and interrogated by the police for three days on suspicion of incitement and his posts were immediately deleted by Facebook at the request of the police. While the police eventually released Abu Dabas with no criminal charges and concluded that the posts were satire, the posts remain blocked.
“While the ministers might talk to the media exclusively about incitement and terrorism prevention, the actual wording of the bill is broad enough to include posts that have nothing to do with incitement. The bill’s new name only emphasizes the bill’s attitude towards posts that are not considered incitement,” Greiver-Schwartz told the Post.
“There will always be those who would come out against any blessed initiative. This bill seeks to tackle online incitement and any other forces interpretation of the bill is at the sole responsibility of the interpreted,” Shaked’s representative told the Post.
The Israel Internet Association also doubts the bill’s effectiveness in truly combating incitement and terrorism.
“The ‘Facebook bill’ is not an effective tool in combating online incitement. It will only block content from Israeli eyes and Israeli computers, while the rest of the world will still be exposed to it,” said Greiver-Schwartz.
Indeed, posts that Facebook already blocks at the request of the Israeli authorities or due to users’ complaint are still visible by users in the West Bank or users who bounce their IP address through proxies outside of Israel.
“If this bill was truly an effective tool in combating terrorism, then the small sacrifice would be worth it, but this bill isn’t that. The best way to achieve this goal is by cooperation with the social media giants, not through legislation and regulation,” Greiver-Schwartz said.
Throughout 2016, the Israeli authorities have submitted almost a thousand requests to remove posts from Facebook, 71% of which received positive responses and were removed by the social media giant. Shaked and Erdan were not satisfied with those statistics, however, and sought broader power to remove the content.
“At Facebook, nothing is more important than community safety, and we work hard to keep people safe. We have zero tolerance for terrorists, praise for their acts and incitement to real-world violence. We work aggressively to remove it from our platform as soon as we become aware of it,” a representative of Facebook in Israel said, following the bill’s approval by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation last month.
“Facebook hopes to continue a constructive dialogue with the Israeli government and other stakeholders. We hope that this will include careful consideration of the implications of this bill for Israeli democracy, freedom of speech, the open Internet and the dynamism of the Israeli Internet sector,” the representative added.
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Former Super League champions Bradford Bulls have been liquidated after the club’s administrator rejected a bid to save the club.
The Bulls entered administration for a third time in four years in November.
The administrators hoped to have a deal agreed by Christmas but turned down a bid from a consortium on 29 December.
Despite the liquidation, the Rugby Football League has confirmed that a new Bradford side could compete in the Championship in 2017.
The new Bradford team would start the season, which gets under way on the first weekend of February, with a 12-point deficit.
The RFL said in a statement: «To clarify the next steps for all concerned, the independent RFL board has met to determine how the future of professional rugby league in Bradford can move forward in 2017.
«While a number of alternatives were considered the board were most mindful of the planning already undertaken by all other clubs in the competition structure, the season tickets already purchased and the players and staff who will now be seeking employment in and around the sport in 2017.
«Accordingly the board has agreed that the wider interests of the sport is best satisfied if it offers a place in the Championship to any new club in Bradford and that such a club start the 2017 season on minus 12 points.
«Any interested parties should contact the RFL directly. »
Bradford Bulls general manager Stuart Duffy told BBC Radio Leeds: «The Rugby Football League have said they have contingency plans in place and someone could buy the club from the liquidators but at the moment everybody has been made redundant.
«I’m hopeful something comes of this but in what league I don’t know.
«Everyone is very disappointed because we were led to believe that things would come to a successful conclusion today. Nobody has been paid their wages for December and we had been hoping to be paid tomorrow, so this is a bombshell.
«This is a nightmare for everybody involved. »
The RFL said it intends to «offer support to all staff and players who have had their employment terminated».
Bradford Bulls were one of the most iconic names — and clubs — within British rugby league, having led the way when the sport switched to summer in 1996.
However, the Bulls’ downfall has been swift. In March 2012 they revealed a £1m shortfall and the club was placed in administration in June. That August, Bradford Bulls Holdings Limited was sold to OK Bulls limited, a consortium led by local businessman Omar Khan.
In 2014 a second administration followed, along with a six-point penalty deduction, and they were relegated from Super League at the end of the season.
Despite reaching the Million Pound Game in 2015, the Bulls lost to Wakefield and failed to reclaim their top-tier status.
In 2016 they failed to reach ‘The Qualifiers’ altogether, finishing fifth in the Championship.
James Deighton, rugby league producer for BBC Radio Leeds:
«It’s an incredibly sad day for the sport both locally, and nationally, with the news of the Bulls’ downfall. We can only hope that there’s a will, and a way, to attempt to reform the club as happened in the 1960s.
«Having said that, when you consider that the recent administration is the club’s third in four years, today’s news may be an inevitable consequence of the instability at Odsal of late.
«There was a large window in time during which the Bulls led and everyone else tried to follow — however, the path that the club has trodden in recent years will be one that others will look to avoid.
«There’s no doubt in my mind that Super League has been the poorer for the Bulls’ relegation in 2014, and the sport will be the poorer for the club’s demise in January 2017. »
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