Category: Stock Market News

Sage Therapeutics Inc. shares rose 11.9% in midday trade on Tuesday after the company said its postpartum depression treatment had been named a “Breakthrough Therapy” by the Food and Drug Administration, which will allow the drug to be developed and possibly approved faster. There are currently no approved therapies for postpartum depression, Sage Therapeutics said, although medications including antidepressions are often used in treatment. The drug, SAGE-547, had positive top-line results in a phase 2 trial, Sage Chief Executive Officer Jeff Jonas said. Sage Therapeutics shares rose 18.6% over the last three months, compared with a 3.6% rise in the S&P 500 .

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The Kroger Co. said Tuesday it is launching a new line of affordable cage-free eggs. The supermarket chain already offers cage-free eggs under its Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic brands, and is committed to switching to 100% cage-free eggs by 2025. “In order to ensure a smooth transition by 2025, we need to start attracting customers to cage-free eggs now,” said Mel Bomprezzi, Kroger’s vice president of grocery merchandising, in a statement. The new range will be branded Kroger and will be available at all stores nationwide, said the statement. Kroger shares were down about 1% Tuesday, and have lost 23% in the year to date, while the s&P 500 has gained about 6%.

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Shipments of wearable devices soared 26.1% to 22.5 million units in the second quarter as sales of basic wearables, such as fitness bands, helped to offset a decline in smart wearable devices, according to new data from tech industry tracker IDC. Devices such as Fitbit Inc.’s calorie and step counters soared nearly 49% year-over-year during the quarter, while smart wearables, or devices that can support third-party apps, such as Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch, tumbled 27%. Apple’s share of the market declined to 7% from 20% in the year-earlier period. Shares of Apple rose 0.5% to $108.23 on Tuesday, a day ahead of its annual flagship hardware event. They’ve risen nearly 10% in the past three months, versus a 3% improvement for the S&P 500 . Shares of Fitbit rose 1.7% on Tuesday and are up 6% in the past three months.

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U.S. stocks opened mostly higher Tuesday, putting the main benchmarks within striking distance of their mid-August record closing highs. The moves came after a rally on Friday, following a weaker-than-expected monthly jobs report that bolstered the view that the Federal Reserve won’t raise interest rates in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 52 points, or 0.3%, to 18,530. The S&P 500 opened 2 points, or 0.1%, lower at 2,1779. And the Nasdaq Composite gained 6 points, or 0.1%, to 5,256. Among individual companies, seeds and pesticides giant Monsanto Co. rose 0.8% after German chemicals titan Bayer AG raised its bid for the U.S. company to $127.50 a share, up from $125 a share.

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Shares of Michaels Cos. Inc. rose 2.5% to $25.05 in premarket trade Tuesday after the stock was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse. A recent pullback in Michaels’ shares has given the stock a favorable risk/reward profile, said analyst Seth Sigman. He reiterated a $29 12-month price target on the stock, implying 19% upside from Friday’s closing price. Michaels’ shares have declined by 19% in the past three months, underperforming the S&P 500 , up 3.5%. Sigman believes the company may be positioned to improve comparable sales and margins in the second half of the year, despite setting a low bar in its last earnings report.

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ComScore Inc. shares were down more than 5% after the stock was downgraded to neutral at SunTrust on Tuesday. Analyst Matthew Thornton wrote in a note to clients consensus estimates are too high for the the cross-platform measurement company, while visibility into its growth and margin is low. Shares of ComScore are down nearly 23% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 Index is up close to 7%. The stock has seen a recent rally, with shares up 22% since the company management replaced the CEO and delayed quarterly earnings on Aug. 10 due to an ongoing accounting probe, wrote Thornton. “[It] likely lowered risk of a material restatement and reduced uncertainty around management continuity.” Thornton wrote that he’s waiting on the sidelines until ComScore’s disruption and competition visibility improves, which could take months.

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Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc. shares jumped as much as 76% in pre-market trade Tuesday after the company said it had agreed to sell its Lymphoseek product to Cardinal Health Inc. for all current and future oncology diagnostic applications in North America. Under the deal, Navidea will receive additional payments of up to $310 million, tied to Lymphoseek sales. Cardinal Health will also license some of Lymphoseek’s intellectual property back to Navidea so the biotech company can develop non-competing drugs and continue to make and sell Lymphoseek outside of North America. The deal will allow Navidea to repay the company’s outstanding debt with CRG and “accelerate” its drug development pipeline, Dr. Michael Goldberg, the chairman of the company’s board of directors, said. Cardinal Health had previously been Lymphoseek’s exclusive US distributor. Navidea shares dropped 59.4% over the last three months, compared with a 3.4% rise in the S&P 500 .

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The dollar fell on Tuesday to its weakest level against the South African rand in more than a week after official data showed the African country’s economy grew sharply in the second quarter. South Africa’s gross domestic product grew by an annualized 3.3% in the three months ended in June, the fastest pace of growth since the fourth quarter of 2014. The dollar fell to 14.16 rand , its weakest level since Aug. 26. By comparison, it traded at 14.38 on Monday.

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Allergan plc has acquired almost all of the assets of RetroSense, a gene therapy company, for a $60 million upfront payment, the companies announced Tuesday. Allergan also agreed to pay regulatory and commercial milestone payments for the development of RetroSense’s lead drug, RST-001, a gene therapy for the treament of Retinitis Pigmentosa.

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Visa Checkout will be available for Braintree sellers in early 2017, the companies announced Tuesday. Braintree is a PayPal company and used as a processor for companies such as Airbnb, Pinterest and Uber. The addition of Visa Checkout will allow cardholders to quickly pay using their Visa account.

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