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Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday that it will create 8,000 part-time and full-time jobs, along with an additional 500 manufacturing jobs in its coffee plant in Augusta, GA. The announcement is part of a package of new employee benefits totaling more than $250 million and, according to the company, accelerated by tax reforms. Wages will go up in April, a $120 million investment that will be allocated based on the cost of living and various laws state by state. This will be the second wage increase of the fiscal year. Eligible workers who were active as of Jan. 1, 2018 will receive an additional stock grant of at least $500 on April 16. Store managers will receive $2,000 and plant and support center workers will receive a grant based on salary or level. This perk will total $100 million. And U.S. employees will now be able to accrue partner and family sick time, in addition to an expanded parental leave policy of up to six weeks paid leave after a baby is born. Starbucks will provide more detail when it announces its first-quarter earnings on Thursday. Starbucks shares indicated higher in Wednesday premarket trading and are up 13.7% for the last three months. The S&P 500 index is up 10.5% for the past three months.

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Puma Biotechnology Inc. shares dropped 26.7% in premarket trade on Wednesday after the company said a European Medicines Agency committee completed a negative vote for its breast cancer therapy neratinib, making it unlikely that the drug will score an European approval at a formal vote in February. The European committee said it was concerned about the therapy’s benefit-risk assessment, with results from just one phase 3 trial, and questioned whether disease-free survival benefits that were observed at two and five years had enough clinical evidence. Given that neratinib has already been approved in the U.S. with a broad label, the European news is “disappointing,” said Leerink Partners analyst Michael Schmidt, who lowered his price target from $141 to $107 and noted that there were “surprisingly opposing views regarding Nerlynx’ risk-benefit profile by US and EU regulators.” Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan analyst Cory Kasimov completely removed European sales from his model, decreasing Puma’s price target from $138 to $91, though he added that “we had a chance to catch up with management tonight, and it appears possible that the EU review can get back on track… and potentially sooner rather than later,” with a re-examination possible in as early as four months. Several analysts said the European decision made the U.S. launch of neratinib especially critical. RBC Capital Markets analyst Kennen MacKay described the news as a “concerning turn” and brought the company’s price target from $108 to $77. Puma Biotech shares have dropped 26.6% over the last three months to $90.90, compared with a 10.5% rise in the S&P 500 and a 11.8% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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2017 was the costliest year on record for weather disasters, with $344 billion of global economic losses due to events including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, Typhoon Hato in China and Cyclone Debbie in Australia, according to Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team. In their Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Insight: 2017 Annual Report, the team found there were 330 natural catastrophe events in 2017, 97% of which were caused by weather-related events. Losses were 93% higher than the 2000 to 2016 average, the report found. Insured losses for the private sector and government-sponsored programs came to $134 billion, just behind the record of $137 billion set in 2011. “While 2017 was an expensive year for the insurance industry, the reinsurance market had an estimated USD600 billion in available capital to withstand the high volume of payouts,” said Eric Anderson, CEO of Aon Benfield. “Most critically, the US weather and wildfire events in particular have demonstrated the value of reinsurance, with claims being paid in an average of eight days to augment the recovery process.”

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Shares of General Electric Co. surged 1.8% in premarket trade Wednesday, after the industrial conglomerate reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss and missed revenue expectations, but beat revenue projections in its key power and oil and gas businesses. The net loss for the quarter was $9.83 billion, or $1.13 a share, compared with a profit of $3.49 billion, or 39 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, the adjusted loss per share was $1.23, compared with the FactSet consensus for earnings per share of 29 cents. Total revenue fell 5% to $31.40 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $33.87 billion. Revenue for the power business fell 15% to $9.42 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus $9.41 billion, while oil and gas revenue growth of 69% to $5.76 billion topped the FactSet consensus of $5.73 billion. Aviation revenue was flat at $7.22 billion, but beat expectations of $7.16 billion, while healthcare revenue rose 6% to $5.40 billion to top expectations of $5.25 billion. “In the fourth quarter, EPS was at the low-end of guidance, excluding insurance-related items, U.S. tax reform, and industrial portfolio actions,” said Chief Executive John Flannery. “Cash performance was above expectations and our visibility and execution on cash is improving.” The stock has tumbled 23% over the past three months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied 11%.

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Toys “R” Us will close about 180 stores as part of its plan to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported late Tuesday, citing a court filing. The closures amount to about 20% of its stores, and are scheduled to begin next month. Babies “R” Us stores will account for about half the closures, the report said. Last month, Toys “R” Us reported a disappointing holiday quarter, as revenue fell 7.5% and same-store sales dropped 7%. The retailer

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Special counsel Robert Mueller is seeking to question President Donald Trump about his decisions last year to fire national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, the Washington Post and CNN reported late Tuesday. That could signal that the Mueller investigation is focusing on the possibility that Trump attempted to obstruct the probe into Russian election meddling. CNN reported the form of the interview is still being worked out, with Trump’s lawyers preferring a written format. Separately, the New York Times reported earlier in the day that Mueller’s investigation interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week, making him the first Cabinet member to be questioned.

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President Donald Trump asked the acting FBI director who he voted for in the presidential election during an introductory meeting in May 2017, and criticized his wife over her political campaign, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s deputy director who was acting director after James Comey was fired, told Trump he did not vote. Trump was also reportedly angry that McCabe’s wife, Jill, received nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from allies of Hillary Clinton when she ran for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015. McCabe reportedly found the conversation “disturbing,” and FBI officials were said to be frustrated that Trump would ask a career civil servant his political leanings. McCabe, who Trump has vented against on Twitter, is set to retire in March.

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Natural-gas futures continued to rally in electronic trading, after settling at a more than one-year high on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading was so volatile that a circuit breaker was triggered in natural-gas futures at around 2 p.m. Central time, prompting a five-minute pause in electronic trading, according to Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. He referred to the move as a “big short squeeze on a changing weather forecast, as well as expectations for another big drawdown in supply” in Thursday’s weekly Energy Information Administration report. Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities said “contract prices associated with early February were just trending too low, and now that very big regional demand is coming back,” so “the futures contract went crazy.” February natural gas was at $3.545 per million British thermal units in electronic trading, up from the Nymex settlement at $3.444.

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The American Petroleum Institute reported Tuesday that U.S. crude supplies rose by 4.8 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 19, according to sources. The API data also showed a climb of 4.1 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles, while inventories of distillates fell by 1.3 million barrels, sources said. Supply data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday morning. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA to report a decline of 1.6 million barrels for crude inventories. They also forecast a rise of 2.1 million barrels for gasoline, but a decline of 2.5 million barrels for distillate supplies. March crude was at $64.48 a barrel in electronic trading, little changed from the settlement of $64.47 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which was the highest since December 2014.

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From:: Stock Market News