Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Express Scripts Holding Co. took a dive in afternoon trade Thursday, after short seller Andrew Left at Citron Research called the pharmacy benefit management services company the “Philidor of the pharma industry.” The former CEO of Philidor, the now-defunct mail order pharmacy, is facing criminal charges. Citron tweeted at about 1 p.m. ET, that Left will be on CNBC at 5:30 p.m. to explain why Express Scripts’ stock “is on its way to $45,” which is 36% below current levels of $69.85. The stock was losing about 2.6% at $73.86 at around 1 p.m. ET, before Citron’s tweet, then accelerated to loss of as much as 10% before paring some losses. The stock has now tumbled 20% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Pharmaceutical ETF has shed 26% and the S&P 500 has gained 10%.

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Shares of Cognex Corp. ran up 6.2% in afternoon trade toward a record close, after Deutsche Bank’s bullish call, given that it is in the sweet spot of the factory automation trend, which could get a boost from potential trade protectionist policies. Analyst Karen Lau started Cognex at a buy with a stock price target of $74, which is 17% above current levels. Lau said the Cognex’s product sales for factory automation applications have exceeded the machine vision industry’s growth rate over the past 10 years. She expects increased growth in the mobile computing market, rising machine vision content in consumer electronics assembly lines, 3D products adoption and China automation investments. “Automation investment boost by potential protectionist trade policies–which could drive manufacturers domestically and overseas to invest more heavily in automation to improve efficiency and competitiveness–would also contribute positively to our thesis,” Lau wrote in a note to clients. The stock has soared 15% in the month since the election, compared with the a 2.1% gain in the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF and a 5.1% rise in the S&P 500 .

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that supplies of natural gas fell by 42 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 2. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a decline of 40 billion cubic feet. Total stocks now stand at 3.953 trillion cubic feet, up 51 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 254 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. January natural gas was up half a cent at $3.608 per million British thermal units. It traded at $3.64 before the data.

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Transocean Ltd.’s stock , which tacked on 0.8% in morning trade Thursday, was currently the best performer within the S&P 500 in the month since Donald Trump was elected president. The oil services company’s stock has rocketed 49% since Nov. 8, compared with a 23% jump in the PHLX Oil Service Index and a 4.8% gain in the S&P 500. Among the next biggest post-election gainers within the S&P 500, Chesapeake Energy’s stock has shot up 42%, United Rentals Inc. shares have climbed 41% and shares of Bank of America Corp. have run up 34%. Investors appear to be banking on Trump’s policy plans to boost infrastructure spending, help revive the fossil fuel industry and cut regulations. The biggest loser was TripAdvisor Inc.’s stock , which has plunged 24% in the last month, followed by Medtronic PLC shares , which have slumped 15%.

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Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s stock shot up 6.7% to a 6 1/2-year high in active morning trade Thursday, after reports that Bank of America swung to bullish from bearish. Volume already topped 30 million shares, more than half the full-day average and enough to make the stock the third-most actively traded on major U.S. exchanges. The chip maker was upgraded to buy from underperform at BofA, the WSJ reported. The stock has run up 46% in the month since the election, compared with a 7.9% gain in the PHLX Semiconductor Index and a 4.7% rise in the S&P 500 . Over the past year, AMD shares have rocketed more than four-fold.

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Shares of Fitbit Inc. fell 2% on Thursday after the stock was downgraded to neutral from hold at Deutsche Bank on concerns about slower growth across the entire wearables industry. Analyst Sherri Scribner, who has a $9 price target on the stock, said the downgrade reflected slower-than-expected adoption of wearables and a deceleration in demand for Fitbit products. “We continue to view Fitbit as a leader in the weareable fitness category, but given consumer demand appears to be waning for wearable devices, we are taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Scribner. This comes three days after industry tracker IDC reported a 3% increase in third-quarter wearable shipments, which marked a significant deceleration from 67% and 26% in the first and second quarters, respectively. The report also showed a near halving of Apple Inc.’s share of the smartwatch category. Shares of Fitbit traded down around $7.82 in late-morning trade. They’re down 47% in the past three months and 76% in the past year. The S&P 500 , by comparison, is up 3% in the past three months and 9% in the past year.

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U.S. stocks opened flat on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index, Nasdaq Composite index and Dow Jones Industrial Average trading just shy of all-time highs, after the European Central Bank said it would decrease its monthly bond purchases beginning in April. The S&P 500 fell three points, or 0.1%, to 2,238, while the Dow was flat at 19,541. The Nasdaq was little-changed at 5,392. Meanwhile, rising crude oil prices helped lift energy shares.

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Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. surged 2.1% in premarket trade Thursday, after the homebuilder reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings exceeded expectations, the first profit beat in four quarters. Earnings for the quarter to Oct. 31 fell to $22.3 million, or 14 cents a share, from $25.5 million, or 16 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 13 cents. Total revenue rose to $805.1 million from $693.2 million. The FactSet sales consensus was $847 million. The number of net contracts fell 15.4% to 1,299 homes, while the dollar value of net contracts fell 14.5% to $534.3 million. Separately, the company said that after paying off $320 million of debt over the last year, total liquidity was $346.6 million at the end of October. “The debt markets remained closed to companies with our credit ratings and we needed to raise funds to pay off $260 million of maturing public debt,” said Chief Executive Ara Hovnanian. “However, we ended the year with a liquidity position of $347 million, allowing us to once again actively seek land investment opportunities, which should ultimately result in community count growth and, assuming no change in market conditions, higher levels of profitability in the future.” The stock has soared 35% year to date through Wednesday, while the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF has gained 5.4% and the S&P 500 has climbed 9.7%.

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Libbey Inc. said Thursday that Chief Financial Officer Sherry Buck will leave the company at the end of the year after 4 1/2 years in the role. Buck is leaving to pursue another professional opportunity at an undisclosed company. The glass tableware maker said Corporate Controller Ronni Smith will assume Buck’s duties until a a permanent successor is found. Smith has been controller since 2012, and has been with the company since May 2006. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has dropped 9.9% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 9.7%.

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The European Central Bank will begin to taper the amount of monthly bond purchases it makes starting in April 2017, policy makers said Thursday. The central bank said it will buy €60 billion in bonds each month until the end of December 2017, “or beyond, if necessary, and in any case until the Governing Council sees a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation consistent with its inflation aim.” The ECB’s targets inflation of near 2%. If “the outlook becomes less favorable or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained adjustment of the path of inflation, the Governing Council intends to increase the program in terms of size and/or duration,” it said in a statement. The ECB currently buys €80 billion in bonds a month and will continue to do so until March 2017. The ECB kept interest rates unchanged, as widely expected, leaving the deposit rate at negative 0.4% and the refinancing rate at 0%. The ECB also said it’s changing some of the parameters of its Asset Purchase Program, which ECB President Mario Draghi will discuss at his news conference set for 1:30 p.m. London time, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

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