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Shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. slumped 2.5% in premarket trade Monday, after the gun maker disclosed in a filing that its bid to make replacements for the U.S. Army’s standard M9 sidearm was denied. The filing was made after Friday’s closing bell. The company said the Army deal was never included in its financial guidance. The stock had run up 25% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 had gained 5.9%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. shares are up 0.2% in Monday premarket trading after the store-and-restaurant chain announced a new share repurchase program worth up to $25 million. The new program is effective immediately and replaces the previous program. Cracker Barrel also declared a regular quarterly dividend of $1.15 per share payable on Nov. 7, 2016 to shareholders of record on Oct. 14. Cracker Barrel shares are up nearly 9% for the year so far while the S&P 500 Index is up almost 6% for the same period.

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Twitter Inc.’s stock dropped 1.6% in premarket trade Monday, after Oppenheimer turned bearish on the social media company, saying the stock rallied too much on takeover speculation. Analyst Jason Helfstein cut his rating to underperform, after being at perform since December 2014. He established a stock price target of $17, which is 25% below Friday’s closing price of $22.62. The stock shot up 21% on Friday, the biggest one-day gain in its history, after a CNBC report that the company was nearing a deal. “We believe a media company is the most likely purchaser and would not pay meaningfully more than the valuation implied by our price target,” Helfstein wrote in a note to clients. “Last, we see no meaningful increase in engagement from the Olympics or the NFL games, further diminishing the probability of a deal.” Among the concerns Helfstein listed about Twitter were slowing user growth, poor product implementation, decreasing user engagement, inferior advertising technology, platform safety issues and strong competition. Despite Friday’s surge, Twitter’s stock had lost 2.3% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 had gained 5.9%.

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Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises LP said Monday that it had launched a tender offer of $9.25 a share for the Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp. shares that it doesn’t already own. The price is a 5.6% discount to Friday’s closing price of $9.80. Icahn Enterprises currently owns about 82% of Federal-Mogul’s stock. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, had run up 43% year to date through Friday, while Icahn Enterprises shares had tumbled 18% and the S&P 500 had gained 5.9%.

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CBOE Holdings Inc. confirmed Monday that it has agreed to buy Bats Global Markets Inc. in a cash and stock deal that valued at about $3.2 billion. Under terms of the deal, which is expected to consist of 31% cash and 69% CBOE stock, CBOE will pay $32.50 for each Bats share outstanding, which is a 2.2% premium to Friday’s closing price. Bats’ stock had shot up 20% on Friday after Bloomberg News reported the companies were in merger talks. CBOE expects the deal, which it is anticipating closing in the first half of 2017, to add to adjusted earnings per share in the first year, and lead to $50 million in synergies within three years. “We expect the acquisition to enhance the trading experience by streamlining access for customers and to allow CBOE Holdings to provide greater scale, while significantly increasing operational and cost efficiencies,” said CBOE Chief Executive Edward Tilly. Bats’ stock gained 2.2% in premarket trade, while CBOE’s slipped 0.2%. Year to date, CBOE shares have climbed 8.3% and the S&P 500 has advanced 5.9%. Bats went public on April 15.

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Lands’ End Inc. Chief Executive Federica Marchionni has stepped down, the company announced on Monday. She has been CEO since Feb. 2015. She joined from Dolce & Gabbana USA Inc. where she was president. Joseph Boitano, chief merchandising and design officer, and James Gooch, chief operating and financial officer, have been appointed co-interim CEOs, effective immediately. The apparel and accessories retailer has hired Heidrick & Struggles to aid in the search for a new CEO, considering both internal and external candidates. In a statement, Marchionni said she and the board of directors “have agreed it is time for others to bring Lands’ End into the future.” Lands’ End shares are inactive in premarket trading, but down 33.3% for the last year. The S&P 500 Index is up 12.1% for the previous 12 months.

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Pain Therapeutics Inc. said Monday it received a complete response letter from the Food and Drug Administration saying its new drug application for the opioid Remoxy ER could not be approved in its present form. The company said it was evaluating the letter and plans further discussions with the FDA. Durect Corp. said it licensed to Pain Therapeutics the exclusive right to develop and commercialize Remoxy ER and other opioid analgesics utilizing its ext extended-release, abuse-deterrent technology. Shares of Pain Therapeutics and Durect have been halted for news, and are set to resume trading at 7:30 a.m. ET. Through Friday, Pain Therapeutics’ stock had soared 56% year to date, while Durect shares had tumbled 23% and the S&P 500 had gained 5.9%.

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Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it has decided not to split into two separate publicly-traded companies, something the drug giant had been mulling over for years, but reignited after its proposed merger with Allergan PLC fell through. The company said it determined that the best course to maximize shareholder value was to manage its two distinct businesses–Pfizer Innovative Health and Pfizer Essential Health– as units within Pfizer. “In our analysis, we concluded that splitting into two companies at this time would not enhance the cashflow generation and competitive positioning of the businesses and the operational disruption, increased costs of a split and inability to realize any incremental tax efficiencies would likely be value destructive,” said Chief Executive Ian Read. The company plans to begin fully allocating indirect expenses for each of the two businesses, and providing estimates of the value of the expenses during the first-quarter 2017 report. The stock, which shed 1.1% in premarket trade, has gained 6.1% year to date through Friday, while the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF has tacked on 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has advanced 4.8%.

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Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Monday reaffirmed his pledge to whatever it takes to boost growth and inflation, including taking interest rates further into negative territory, according to media reports. In a speech in Osaka, the central bank boss expressed concerns over the persistently low level of inflation in Japan and said he’d use all necessary tools to get inflation back to the 2% target. That includes cutting interest rates deeper below zero as well as keeping a target for long-term interest rates, reports said. “There can be cases where such powerful monetary easing is needed, depending on developments in economic activity and prices as well as financial market conditions,” Kuroda said according to Japan Times. “The bank stands ready to use every possible policy tool, if it judges that necessary, to achieve its objectives,” he added. The yen was shrugging off the easing comments, with the dollar buying ¥100.50, down from ¥101.02 late Friday in New York.

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From:: Stock Market News