Category: Stock Market News

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares skyrocketed in the extended session Wednesday after the drug discovery company’s treatment for lowering fluid pressure inside the eyeball yielded promising results. Aerie shares jumped 61% to $34 on heavy volume. In a late-stage clinical trial, the company said its treatment Roclatan significantly lowered intraocular pressures in treated patients compared to those treated with latanoprost or Rhopressa, another Aerie product.

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The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 closed lower Wednesday as dropping oil prices weighed on stocks, while the Nasdaq finished higher led by a big jump in Apple Inc. shares. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 31.91 points, or 0.2%, at 18,034.84. The S&P 500 Index fell 1.25 points, or less than 0.1%, to close at 2,125.77, dragged down by a 1.2% decline in the energy sector as oil prices slipped. The Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 18.52 points, or 0.4%, at 5,173.77, as Apple shares rallied 3.6%.

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Wells Fargo & Co.’s stock dropped 0.8% in afternoon trade Wednesday, toward a 2 1/2-month closing low, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Federal prosecutors were investigating the bank over its sales tactics. On Friday, the bank was fined $185 million by federal and local authorities for illegal practices that included opening accounts without customers’ knowledge. The stock has now lost $4.21, or 8.3%, since it closed at a three-month high on Aug. 31. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , which is Wells Fargo’s largest shareholder with 479.7 million shares, or 9.5% of the shares outstanding, as of June 30, could be losing about $2.02 billion on his investment month to date. Wells Fargo’s stock has now lost 14% year to date, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has slipped 0.2% and the S&P 500 has gained 3.9%.

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Oil futures settled lower Wednesday at their lowest level in nearly two weeks. Data from the Energy Information Administration had revealed a surprise weekly decline in U.S. crude stockpiles. The same report also showed that total domestic weekly crude production climbed. October WTI crude fell $1.32, or 2.9%, to settle at $43.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the lowest settlement since Sept. 1, according to FactSet data.

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Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares dropped 5.3% in early afternoon trade Wednesday after the company’s chief financial officer said the company would see reduced revenue in the third quarter due to slow sales of new cystic fibrosis drug Orkambi. Slow penetration of the drug in Germany, along with an unanticipated “slowdown” in July and August U.S. refills, “obviously… reduces the revenue that we record,” CFO Ian Smith said at the Morgan Stanley Global Health Care Conference Wednesday, according to the FactSet transcript. Though U.S. patients were taking less of the drug, which Smith blamed on the summer months, the trend is starting to reverse, he said. RBC Capital Markets continued to rate the stock “outperform,” with analyst Michael Yee saying that the slow summer could be a “potential buying opportunity.” Vertex stock dropped 1.7% over the last three months, compared with a 2.7% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Wednesday that an Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted that biotechnology company’s cancer treatment, Qapzola, did not show substantial evidence of a treatment effect over placebo. The company said the FDA is not bound to follow the committee’s recommendation, when it makes its final decision on Qapzola by Dec. 11. The stock dropped 5% in afternoon trade, but pared earlier losses of as much as 15%. The stock has now shed 14% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has lost 9.4% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.4%.

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Shares of Coach Inc. shed 1.9% to a seven-month low in midday trade Wednesday, after Morgan Stanley turned bearish on the high-end accessories seller, citing concerns over valuation given uncertainty over the outlook for sales growth. Analyst Kimberly Greenberger downgraded Coach back to underweight, after upgraded the company to equal weight on Dec. 17, 2015. Her stock price target stays at $32, which 10% below current levels. Greenberger said she had upgraded the stock late last year because she believed that “less bad” results would be enough to move the stock higher. The stock then rallied as much as 33% to 1 1/2-year closing high of $43.46 on Aug. 1, before selling off again, which makes her believe the move she was expecting had already materialized. Greenberger also questions whether a sustainable sales turnaround to justify the gains this year is really occurring. “Our definition of a turnaround is sales growth with stable margins or stable sales with margin improvement, but [Coach] has not delivered this yet,” Greenberger wrote in a note to clients. The stock was still up 8.8% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.5%.

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A House Oversight Committee hearing next week will question Mylan’s chief executive officer, Heather Bresch, and other top executives about price increases on the company’s EpiPen allergic-reaction treatment. “We look forward to receiving answers next week from Mylan about its dramatic price hike for this life-saving medication,” chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking Democrat Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement. The Food and Drug Administration’s Douglas Throckmorton, a deputy director at the agency, will also testify. The Sept. 21 hearing is the latest response from lawmakers after a sixfold increase in EpiPen prices over the last several years prompted public outrage and concerns about the lifesaving device’s accessibility. Controversy also built over top executive pay at the company outranking its industry position and that CEO Bresch is the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.). Mylan shares dropped 8.2% over the last three months, compared with a 2.9% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Oil futures turned higher on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 600,000 barrels in the week ended Sept. 9. A 3.3 million-barrel climb was expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported an increase of 1.4 million barrels, according to sources. The EIA had reported a big 14.5 million-barrel drop in crude supplies for the prior week, which analysts attributed to weather-related issues. Gasoline supplies rose 600,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles jumped up by 4.6 million barrels, according to the EIA. October crude rose 15 cents, or 0.3%, from Tuesday’s settlement to $45.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices traded at $44.44 before the data.

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Shares of Apple Inc. surged 3.1% in morning trade to a five-month high, and was the leading gainer among Dow Jones Industrial Average components for the second-straight session. The stock is on track to rise more than 2% for the third-straight session, the longest such stretch since the three-day streak ending April 30, 2013. The 7.9% the shares have gained so far this week would be the biggest three-day rally since they ran up 9.2% in the three sessions ending Aug. 28, 2015. On Tuesday, the stock shot up after T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. reported strong preorders for Apple’s new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. RBC Capital analyst Amit Daryanani reiterated his outperform rating on the stock, saying the current stock price represented “an attractive entry point for investors,” with the upbeat iPhone 7 preorder data and considering the recent troubles faced by Apple competitor Samsung Electronics Co.’s .

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