Category: Stock Market News

Bristol-Myers Squibb shares dropped 8.7% in premarket trade on Monday after Merck & Co. announced positive mid/late-stage clinical trial results for its rival lung cancer drug over the weekend. Merck said its Keytruda, which treats advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, demonstrated better overall survival at 18 months compared to the standard of care. Bristol-Myers announced negative late-stage trial results for its rival treatment, Opdivo, in early August, news that hit Bristol-Myers stock hard and buoyed Merck’s shares. Leerink analyst Seamus Fernandez said Keytruda’s results support Merck’s assertion of a “sea change” in this area of cancer treatment. “The nearly inexplicable failure of BMY (OP) CM-026 at every level of PDL1 expression… puts MRK in the driver’s seat in 1L lung cancer for at least the next 12-18 months,” he said, adding that, “we fully expect MRK to retain a significant place at the table long term.” Merck shares rose 5.8% over the last three months, compared with a 1.1% increase in the S&P 500 .

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The average spend on holiday-related expenses will rise 3% from a year ago to $636, according to The NPD Group’s 2016 Holiday Purchase Intensions Survey. Fourteen percent of the 3,499 respondents said they would spend more this year while 17% said they’d spend less, nearly unchanged from last year, the group said in a Monday announcement. More than 20% of consumers said they spent more than they planned in 2015. Shoppers expect to do 38% of their shopping online, up from 33% last year. Clothing and accessories, entertainment, and toys are the top three planned gifts. “The lack of stand-out, must-have products this holiday season is benefiting the categories that are delivering on basic consumer wants, but marketers need to find new ways to engage and excite holiday shoppers to drive significant growth,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD’s chief industry analyst, in a statement.

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Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Crescendo Biologics Limited said early Monday they entered into a cancer drug development partnership worth up to $36 million and as much as $754 million in additional milestone payments. The collaboration’s focus is on using Crescendo’s Humabody-based drugs for cancers with a high unmet medical need, the companies said. Crescendo is eligible for up to $36 million under the deal, which includes an upfront payment, investment, research funding and preclinical milestones, and further milestone payments of $754 million. The agreement grants Takeda development and commercial rights to the collaboration’s Humabody-based treatments, for which Crescendo is eligible for royalties on product sales. Crescendo Chief Executive Officer Dr. Peter Pack called the partnership, its first major one, a “validation of our transgenic platform.” Takeda shares rose 14.4% over the last three months, compared with a 1.1% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of Gas Natural Inc. rocketed 69% in premarket trade Monday, after the natural gas distributor agreed to be acquired by an investment fund sponsored by private equity firm First Reserve in a deal valued at $196 million. Under terms of the deal, First Reserve will pay $13.10 for each Gas Natural share outstanding, which is 71% above Friday’s closing price of $7.68. The deal, which is expected to close in the second half of 2017, includes a 42-day “go shop” period until Nov. 22. First Reserve said its plan is for Gas Natural to maintain its own leadership team and employees, with no changes in staffing. The stock had tacked on 3.1% year to date through Friday, while the SPDR Energy ETF had climbed 17% and the S&P 500 had gained 5.4%.

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Shares of Twitter Inc. were tumbling 10% in premarket trade Monday, following a Bloomberg report from Saturday that the top bidders for the social network had backed out. Bloomberg reported that Google , Salesforce and Walt Disney Co. were all unlikely to make a bid, citing sources familiar with the matter. Disney and Google were already reported to be out of the bidding Friday, as well as Apple , according to Recode. Shares of Twitter have declined 20% in the past two days of trading, compared to the S&P 500’s decline of 0.3%

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Diamondback Energy Inc. on Monday raised its production guidance for 2016, introduced a 2017 outlook and said it is no longer pursuing talks on an acquisition. “Diamondback’s continued strong well performance and increased completion cadence during the third quarter reflects our ability to turn our growth engine back on into a rising commodity price after reducing completion activity in early 2016,” chief Executive Travis Stice said in a statement. The company is now expecting production growth in 2017 of more than 30% at the midpoint compared to updated 2016 expectations. For 2016, it expects to produce 41 to 42 thousand barrels of oil equivalent, up 6% from the midpoint of July guidance. Shares were not yet active premarket, but are up 42% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Dover Corp. lowered on Monday its profit and sales outlook for the year, citing a weaker capital spending across oil and gas end markets amid a weak global economy. The maker of equipment and components for the energy, engineered systems and refrigeration and food equipment industries, said it now expects full-year earnings per share of $3.00 to $3.05 and a revenue decline of 4% to 5%, compared with its previous forecast for EPS of $3.35 to $3.45 and revenue to fall 3% to 5%. Separately, Dover said it now expects its pending acquisition of Wayne Fueling Systems to close in the first quarter of 2017, after U.K. regulators decided to refer the acquisition for a Phase II investigation. “While our upstream drilling and production businesses showed solid improvement in the third quarter, and our printing & identification businesses continued to perform well, our overall results were well below our expectations,” said Chief Executive Robert Livingston. “We also expect the macro global economy to remain soft, later cycle oil & gas exposed businesses to remain weak, and continued margin pressures in
refrigeration & food equipment through the end of the year, as we work
to streamline and improve our production systems.” The stock, which was indicated lower in premarket trade, has climbed 18% year to date while the S&P 500 has gained 5.4%.

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Duke Energy Corp. said Monday it has agreed to sell its Brazilian business to China Three Gorges Corp. in a deal with an enterprise value of $1.2 billion. The company said it will use the proceeds of the deal to pay down debt. “This is another important step forward in driving our strategy to focus on our core domestic regulated business, and it builds on our recent acquisition of Piedmont Natural Gas,” Chief Executive Lynn Good said in a statement. The deal is expected to close in two to four months. Shares were not yet active premarket, but are up 7% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Royal Bank of Scotland PLC [s:rbs] shares have fallen, after reports of leaked documents that appear to show the bank pushed small-business customers into financial difficulties in pursuit of profit. The BBC and BuzzFeed UK reported Monday that the confidential documents show RBS rewarded staff who identified businesses that could have their loans restructured, bringing in heavy fees. The profit drive, called a “dash for cash” by bank managers, also looked for firms that could have their assets taken over or their interest rates increased. The bank “bought up assets cheaply from failing businesses it claimed to be helping,” according to the leaked files, the BBC said. RBS, which has repeatedly denied allegations that it harmed business customers in search of profit, told the BBC that a review had found no evidence that “the bank artificially distressed otherwise viable SME businesses or deliberately caused them to fail.” RBS shares fell 2.5% in early trading Monday. The bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Shares of Twilio Inc. fell in Friday’s extended session after the cloud communications platform company said its shareholders will sell stock in a follow-on offering. The exact number of shares to be sold has not been determined and the company will not receive any of the proceeds. The company listed on the stock exchange in late June and is the only start-up to go public this year. Twilio slid 2% after hours.

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