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U.S. stocks on Monday opened slightly lower, pausing after logging Friday their fourth straight weekly gain. Investors were cautious ahead of a busy week that will see earnings kick into high gear and more than a dozen central banks, including the Federal Reserve, hold policy meetings. Among individual stocks, Verizon Communications Inc. fell after confirming it has agreed to buy Yahoo Inc. for $4.83 billion. And Sprint Corp. climbed after the telecommunications company reported fiscal first-quarter revenue that beat expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 26 points, or 0.1%, to 18,543, the S&P 500 index fell 2 points, or 0.1% at 2,172, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 3 points, or 0.1%, to 5,097.

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From:: Stock Market News

Shares of Tobira Therapeutics Inc. lost about half their value in premarket trade Monday, after the company said a Phase 2b trial of its liver disease treatment missed its primary endpoint. The company said the treatment met one of two secondary endpoints, which regulators have recently identified as an endpoint for Phase 3 studies to support a marketing application. Tobira said the trial results still exceeded expectations, and that it plans to meet with regulators to discuss the Phase 3 study design. The stock plunged 49% to $5.69, putting it on track to open at an all-time low. Volume topped 140,000 ahead of the open, compared with the full-day average of about 118,000 shares, according to FactSet.

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Twitter Inc. is adding live streaming of Major League Baseball and National Hockey League out-of-market games to the platform, the company said Monday. Twitter also announced a partnership with 120 Spots, which will produce a sports highlights show to exclusively stream live on Twitter. The MLB and NHL games will be live-streamed once a week and be available to logged-in and logged-out users in the U.S. Shares of Twitter were up less than 1% in premarket trade Monday.

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From:: Stock Market News

Whole Foods Market Inc. was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie Research on Monday, on the belief that the grocer will see strong results over the next six to 12 months. The bank raised its target price to $38 from $28. Macquarie believes same-store sales are poised to improve, management commentary around the new 365 stores will boost sentiment and “Whole Foods remains a best-in-class operator with an iconic brand and a management team that has proven successful over long periods of time,” the bank said in a note. Whole Foods shares are up 2.7% in premarket trading, but down 16.6% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 4.6% for the last 12 months.

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From:: Stock Market News

Outerwall Inc. announced Monday a deal to be acquired by funds managed by Apollo Global Management in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. Under terms of the deal, Apollo will pay $52 a share in cash for each Outerwall share outstanding, which represents an 11% premium to Friday’s closing price of $46.91. The shopping kiosks company expects the deal to close during the third quarter of 2016. The stock was halted for news. It has run up 36% through Friday since March 14, just before the company said it was exploring strategic alternatives. The S&P 500 had gained 7.7% over the same time. Apollo’s stock has lost 2.5% since March 14.

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CVS Health Corp. said Monday that it is making naloxone, an opioid overdose-reversal drug, available without a prescription across all its 800 Texas locations. CVS Pharmacy locations across 30 other states will also dispense the drug without a prescription by August 2016. The company has already announced the program in states including Florida, Washington and New Mexico. CVS has also launched a webpage with information about drug abuse prevention. CVS Health shares are down 0.9% in premarket trading, and down 12.6% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 4.6% for the last 12 months.

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From:: Stock Market News

ETrade Financial Corp. announced Monday that it will acquire Aperture New Holdings Inc., the parent company of OptionsHouse, for $725 million. The deal boosts ETrade’s derivatives capabilities, the company said in a statement. OptionsHouse has 154,000 customer accounts with $3.6 billion in assets, including $1.4 billion in cash. The company had 27,000 daily average revenue trades for the 12-month period ending June 30, of which 63% were in options. Revenue for the period totaled $104 million. ETrade said it expects the acquisition to be neutral to earnings in 2017 and accretive in 2018, and it expects to generate $65 million in annual synergies. ETrade shares are up 0.7% in Monday premarket trading, but down 13% for the year to date. The S&P 500 Index is up 6.4% for the year so far.

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From:: Stock Market News

Skullcandy Inc. said Monday it received a potentially better buyout bid from Mill Road Capital Management over the weekend, which gives it the right to terminate its merger agreement with Incipio LLC. The maker of headphones and owner of the Astro Gaming brand said it received a bid from Mill Road of $6.05 a share in cash, which was above the Incipio bid of $5.75, just before the go-shop period of the Inicipio deal ended. Skullcandy said it plans to negotiate with Mill Road to determine if it will lead to a “superior” proposal, in which case it would have the right to terminate its agreement with Incipio. Skullcandy’s stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has soared 70% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.2%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Kimberly-Clark Corp. on Monday reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that were higher than Wall Street expected. Net income for the quarter came in at $566 million, or $1.56 per share, after a loss of $305 million, or 83 cents per share during the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $1.53 per share, which beat the $1.47 per-share earnings consensus on FactSet. Sales hit $4.59 billion during the quarter, compared with $4.64 billion a year ago. The FactSet consensus on revenue was $4.57 billion. Kimberly-Clark said it expects its restructuring, which began in October 2014, to be completed by the end of the year and the company expects full-year adjusted earnings to fall in the range of $5.95 per share to $6.15 per share. Shares of Kimberly-Clark were inactive in premarket trade, but are up 5.8% in the year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 Index , which is up 6.4%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Sprint Corp.’s stock jumped 1.1% in premarket trade Monday, after the telecommunications company reported fiscal first-quarter revenue that beat expectations, with new postpaid phone customers added after losing them a year ago. For the quarter ended June 30, losses widened to $302 million, or 8 cents a share, from $20 million, or a penny a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus was for a per-share loss of 8 cents. Revenue slipped to $8.01 billion from $8.03 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $7.99 billion. Postpaid phone net additions were 173,000, after a net loss of 12,000 a year ago, while postpaid phone churn improved to 1.39% from 1.49%. Wireless net additions were 377,000 vs. 675,000 a year ago. “We had another quarter of solid progress in our turnaround with the highest first quarter postpaid phone net additions in nine years, the lowest postpaid phone churn in company history, and finally being postpaid net port positive against all three national carriers after five years,” said Chief Executive Marcelo Claure. The stock has run up 28% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.4%.

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From:: Stock Market News