Category: Stock Market News

Biotech investor Martin Shkreli’s trial on securities fraud charges has been set for June 26, 2017, according to media reports Thursday. The trial date was set by a U.S. judge in a Brooklyn court at a hearing. Shkreli was arrested last December and charged with securities and wire fraud in relation to a company called Retrophin that he was head of and a separate hedge fund he was running. His then lawyer Evan Greebel is also facing fraud charges. Shkreli had become a controversial figure in the U.S. before his arrest for his practice of buying drugs and immediately hiking their prices by significant amounts. In June, prosecutors added new charges against Shkreli and Greebel, both of whom have pleaded not guilty.

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The Finish Line Inc. said Thursday that it has authorized a new 5 million share repurchase program. The new plan will go into effect when the current plan is complete. There are about 600,000 shares left in the current plan. The athletic apparel and accessories retailer also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 10 cents per share of outstanding common stock, payable on September 12, 2016 to shareholders of record as of August 26, 2016. Finish Line shares are up 1.3% in Thursday trading, but down 19.5% for the past year. The S&P 500 is up 2.5% for the last 12 months.

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The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS, named Marcie Frost as the pension funds’ new chief executive officer, effective Oct. 3. Frost will replace Doug Hoffner, who became interim CEO after former CEO Anne Stausboll retired on June 30. Frost will join CalPERS after a 16-year stint at the Washington State Department of Retirement Services, where she most recently served as executive director. With a total market value of about $301 billion, CalPERS is currently the U.S.’s largest defined-benefit public pension. “The selection of Marcie was unanimous by the CalPERS Board members involved,” said CalPERS board president Rob Feckner. “She has demonstrated throughout her career strong leadership and innovation, an emphasis on customer satisfaction, and team collaboration that will be fundamental to the future of CalPERS.”

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Intrexon Corporation’s Oxitec Ltd. said Thursday that a neighborhood in Piracicaba, Brazil saw a 91% drop in dengue fever cases this year after the company’s genetically-engineered mosquitoes were released there. The effect, which compared the number of cases with the previous year, was an improvement above the 52% reduction in dengue fever seen in the municipality and unrelated to Oxitec’s mosquitoes. Oxitec’s genetically-engineered mosquitoes were released in Piracicaba’s 5,000 resident CECAP/Eldorado district, which last year saw much higher rates of dengue than the rest of Piracicaba, the company said. The data was courtesy of Piracicaba’s Epidemiologic Surveillance service. Oxitec has also proposed to release genetically-engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, where the plan has met with local opposition.

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Intrexon Corporation’s Oxitec Ltd. said Thursday that the municipality of Piracicaba, Brazil saw a 52% reduction in dengue fever cases this year after the company’s genetically-engineered mosquitoes were released. The effect, which compared the number of cases with those the previous year, amounted to a 91% drop in the municipality’s 5,000 resident CECAP/Eldorado district, which typically sees much higher rates of dengue than the rest of Piracicaba, the company said. The data was courtesy of Piracicaba’s Epidemiologic Surveillance service. Oxitec has also proposed to release genetically-engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, where the plan has met with local opposition.

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Bayer came back with a new offer on Thursday for Monstanto of $125 per share, up from its initial $122 per share offer, with a $1.5 billion reverse antitrust break free to satisfy Monsanto’s concerns about regulatory barriers. The new offer is equal to a 40% premium above Monsanto’s closing share price in early May. Monsanto shares rose 3.3% on the news.

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Novartis’ Sandoz got a nod from an Food and Drug Administration advisory committee Wednesday for its biosimilar copy of Amgen Inc.’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. The unanimous vote in favor of the drug’s approval also supported approval for all of the conditions Enbrel treats, which also includes plaque psoriasis. Biosimilars, a new wave of drugs that hold cost-saving promise, began receiving FDA approval last year, but their path to pharmacies has been slowed by intellectual property disputes. An Amgen patent for Enbrel protects the drug through 2028, which could expose competitors on the way to market to litigation. This week has been an unusually busy one for biosimilars, with a biosimilar copy of AbbVie’s Humira receiving a go-ahead from an FDA advisory committee on Tuesday.

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Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. shares dropped 3.52% in morning trade Thursday after another company’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug was denied accelerated approval by the Food and Drug Administration. A FDA committee voted against recommending approval for Sarepta’s DMD drug in late April, but patient advocacy on the drug’s behalf and various moves by the FDA itself have stoked speculation about the drug’s chances. The FDA’s lack of approval for Santhera’s DMD drug “makes a positive decision on eteplirsen even more unlikely,” said RBC Capital Markets’ Simos Simeonidis in a note Thursday, since Santhera’s data were of a higher quality than Sarepta’s and the company was still told to redo its phase 3 trial. A FDA decision to approve Sarepta’s drug would tell companies that it was acceptable to “ignore FDA’s instructions to conduct a placebo-controlled trial and instead delay, delay, delay, rally the patient community and put the FDA on the spot to either approve a drug on very little evidence or look like heartless bureaucrats that are keeping a life-saving drug away from little kids,” Simeonidis said. Sarepta’s shares dropped 6.50% over the last three months, compared with a 3.94% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Consumer Report magazine on Thursday called Tesla Motors Inc. to disable one of its advanced driver assistance features until it can update the function to confirm driver’s hands remain on the steering wheel. The magazine also called for Tesla to change the name of its suite of ADAS features, saying that “Autopilot” promotes “a potentially dangerous assumption” that Tesla’s cars can drive on their own. It also suggested an end of “beta” software releases. Tesla cars are at the center of a federal safety investigation following at least two accidents, one of them fatal, related to Autopilot. Shares of Tesla fell 0.2%.

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Natural-gas futures traded higher Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of the commodity rose 64 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 8. That was close to the average rise of 60 billion cubic feet expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. Total stocks now stand at 3.243 trillion cubic feet, up 507 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 586 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government said. August natural gas was up 1.3 cents, or 0.5%, at $2.75 per million British thermal units from Wednesday’s settlement. It traded at $2.742 before the data.

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