Category: Stock Market News

Depomed Inc. defeated an attempt by Allergan PLC and two other drugmakers to sell a generic version of one of Depomed’s painkillers Friday. The company announced that a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that Depomed’s patents were valid until at least 2025; Depomed said it would appeal an adverse ruling on a patent that would have allowed exclusivity until 2029. Depomed shares were halted about 45 minutes before the close and the official announcement, but shares jumped as much as 10% just before the halt. Depomed has been the subject of acquisition rumors amid a build-up of shares by activist investor Starboard Value LP, despite fending off bids from Horizon Pharma PLC.

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From:: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks finished higher on Friday, locking in their best quarterly gains since December 2015, as worries about Deutsche Bank Ag subsided. The S&P 500 index gained 17.09 points, or 0.8%, to 2,168.23, led by a rebound in financial shares. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 164.63 points, or 0.9%, to 18,308.08, with all 30 of its components finishing in the green. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 42.85 points, or 0.8%, to 5,312. All three benchmarks logged their strongest quarterly gains since December 2015, as the Federal Reserve’s unwillingness to raise interest rates helped drive stocks to record highs earlier in the quarter. The S&P finished Friday’s session with a quarterly gain of 3.3%. The Dow advanced 2.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite posted a 9.7% advance.

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Share of Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. plunged 14% in active trade Friday, toward the lowest close since October 2014, after the company’s investigation into potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prompted a downgraded at Citigroup. Volume was 48.3 million shares, about 11 times the full-day average. Analyst Ashwin Shirvaikar cut his rating to neutral, after being at buy for at least the last three years, and slashed his stock price target to $55 from $68. Shirvaikar said that while it is too early to know the specifics of the investigation, the possible violations appear to be quite serious, especially since President Gordon Coburn, who Shirvaikar called the “long-time face of the company,” resigned. While the stock’s valuation remains “attractive,” given the information technology consulting company’s fundamental strength, “we also recognize that the stock is likely ‘uninvestable’ to many investors now due to the combination of near-term factors that serve as an overhang,” Shirvaikar wrote in a note to clients. The stock had tumbled 21% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.4%.

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The technology sector was by far the best performer of the S&P 500’s 10 sectors during the third quarter, with the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF running up 10.5% over the past three months. That would be the best quarterly performance for the tech-sector tracker (XLK) since it shot up 10.8% during the fourth quarter of 2013. Apple Inc.’s stock , the XLK’s most heavily-weighted component, surged 18.5% since the end of June, marking the best quarterly performance since the second-quarter of 2014. Among other XLK heavyweights, shares of Microsoft Corp. climbed 12.7%, Facebook Inc. ran up 12.5%, AT&T Inc. dropped 5.8% and Alphabet Inc. tacked on 14.8%. The second-best sector industrials, with the SPDR Industrial Select Sector ETF up 4.5%, while the worst performer was untilities, as the SPDR Utilities Select Sector ETF dows 6.7%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained 3.6% during the third quarter.

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Oil futures finished higher for Friday’s session, adding to a gain for the month, with traders encouraged by the preliminary agreement between major oil-producers to scale back crude output. But prices still posted a modest loss of nearly 0.2% for the quarter. November West Texas Intermediate crude rose 41 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $48.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices finished last quarter at $48.33. For the month they climbed about 7.9%.

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Gold futures fell on Friday, as waning concerns surrounding the health of Deutsche Bank’s balance sheet prompted a rally in U.S. equities. The metal’s loss for the session contributed to a decline of nearly 0.3% for the quarter, following gains in the first and second quarters, according to FactSet data. December gold fell $8.90, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,317.10 an ounce for the session. It still rose about 0.4% for the month.

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Oil futures held onto their gains Friday after data from Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil climbed by 7 to 425 rigs this week. They have now posted increases in 13 out of the last 14 weeks. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 11 to 522, Baker Hughes said. Nov. crude was at $48.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 26 cents, or 0.5%, from Thursday’s settlement. It was trading around that same level before the rig data.

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U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche Bank soared 13% on Friday on an AFP report that the German bank is close to settling a Department of Justice probe for $5.4 billion. If confirmed, the penalty is significantly below the $14 billion initially proposed by the authorities. The French wire service cited an anonymous source and have yet to provide additional details on the deal. Concerns about Deutsche Bank had battered global stocks this week as investors had fretted over the possibility of a contagion effect on the banking industry. The S&P 500 recovered from the previous session’s selloff to trade up 0.9% to 2,169, poised for a weekly gain of 0.2%. [Updated with breaking news.]

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Shares of Nutanix were trading at $27.30 Friday morning, above the company’s $16 issue price, in the stock’s debut on the Nasdaq. Nutanix, an enterprise cloud platform company, sold 14.9 million shares at an issue price of $16 to raise about $238 million. The lead underwriters on the offering were Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Morgan Stanley Co. LLC.

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The final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index showed a rise in September to a level of 91.2, up from 89.8 in August. The gains were due to improving sentiment among households making $75,000 per year or more. The University of Michigan said there’s no evidence of an improving trend, as the average since the start of the year, 91.4, is basically at September’s level.

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