Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Heartware International Inc. were indicated sharply higher in premarket trade Monday, after the developer of miniaturized circulatory support technologies agreed to be acquired by Medtronic PLC in a deal valued at $1.1 billion. As part of the agreement, Medtronic will pay $58 for each Heartware share outstanding, which represents a 93% premium to Friday’s closing price of $29.98. The deal is expected to close during Medtronic’s fiscal second quarter ending Oct. 28, 2016. Medtronic said it doesn’t expect to adjust its fiscal 2017 revenue or earnings-per-share outlooks, but the deal gives the company “increased confidence” in its ability to achieve its revenue growth outlook. Heartware’s stock traded up 67% in light premarket volume, while Medtronic’s stock was still inactive. Year to date through Friday, Heartware’s stock has tumbled 41%, Medtronic shares have gained 8.2% and the S&P 500 has slipped 0.3%.

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The yield on 10-year U.K. government bonds dropped below 1% for the first time ever on Monday as investors scrambled for safe-haven assets after Britain voted to leave the European Union last week. Benchmark 10-year gilt yields fell 13 basis points to 0.965%, according to electronic trading platform Tradeweb. The move follows a big drop in interest rates on Friday, when the 10-year yield tanked 36 basis points at one point to 1.01%. The rise in U.K. bond prices and slump in yields come as investors fret over the U.K.’s future after 52% of voters backed a Brexit in a historic referendum last Thursday. The pound slid to a 31-year low on Friday, before trimming gains a little bit. Sterling also dropped on Monday to trade at $1.3333, from $1.3676 late Friday in New York. The U.K. currency had briefly stabilized on Monday morning, however, after finance minister George Osborne sought to calm financial markets and said the country is strong enough to confront any Brexit challenges.

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The U.K.’s finance minister, George Osborne, has said it is inevitable that Britain’s economy will have to adjust to the outcome of the Brexit referendum, but he ruled out an immediate emergency budget. Speaking early Monday, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said the Treasury response will not come until the fall, even as he warned that there will be an impact on the U.K.’s public finances from the vote to leave the European Union. Osborne is seen as attempting to calm financial markets shaken up after the surprise referendum result. “It will not be plain sailing in the days ahead,” he said, but stressed the U.K. is in a position of strength. “We are equipped for whatever happens,” he added, noting that he has spoken to Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and that the BOE, the Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority have Brexit contingency plans in place. FTSE 100 futures , which were down 1.9% ahead of the speech, pared losses as Osborne spoke to a drop of about 1.5%. The FTSE 100 opened 0.8% lower. The pound traded at around $1.34, unchanged.

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A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of a Mogadishu hotel, followed by a second explosion heard inside the hotel, the Associated Press reported Saturday, citing police officials. At least four bodies were seen outside the hotel, one officer told the news organization. Police Capt. Ali Ahmed said security forces were battling the attackers, who took positions inside the Nasa-Hablod hotel near the capital’s busy KM-4 junction, the AP said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Somalia-based, al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab extremist group has been waging a deadly insurgency across large parts of Somalia and often employs suicide car bomb attacks to penetrate heavily fortified targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

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ITT Inc. said late Friday it plans to lay off about 270 employees to restructure against weak oil and gas prices. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the engineering and technology company said it plans to spend $12 million to $13 million in severance costs over the next six months, and hopes to save $19 million a year on a pre-tax basis. ITT shares were unchanged at $32.85 after hours.

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Shares of Williams Cos. dropped in the extended session Friday after a Delaware judge allowed Energy Transfer Equity LP to back out of a proposed merger. Williams shares fell 6.2% to $20.22 on heavy volume after hours, while shares of Energy Transfer equity jumped 8.4% to $15.

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U.S. stocks plunged Friday, posting largest drops in 10 months after U.K. citizens voted to end the country’s membership in the European Union. The main indexes ended with weekly losses for a third straight week. The S&P 500 plummeted 75.92 points, or 3.6%, to 2,037.40, its largest one-day percentage decline since Aug 24, 2015. For the week, the benchmark index lost 1.6%, the largest one-week drop since February. The Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its largest one-day drop in 10 months, plunging 611.21 points, or 3.4%, to 17,399.86. The blue-chip index lost 1.6% over the week. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite was hit the hardest, as investors dumped technology and biotech stocks. The index lost 202.06 points, or 4.1%, to 4,707.98 and declined 1.9% over the week.

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The Dow Jones Transportation Average tumbled 367 points, or 4.8%, to a four-month low in afternoon trade Friday, in the aftermath of the U.K. vote to leave the European Union. That puts the index on track to suffer the third-biggest point drop in its history, and the biggest since the heart of the Great Recession, on Oct. 2, 2008. All 20 of the index’s components are falling, led by the 10% plunge in American Airlines Group Inc.’s stock , the 9% slide in United Continental Holdings shares and the 8.6% drop in the shares of Avis Budget Group Inc. . The best performing stock was Expeditors International of Washington Inc. , which lost 3.3%.

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Oil futures settled with a loss of almost 5% on Friday as the U.K. voted to leave the European Union, raising concerns over the implications for global economies and the potential for a slowdown in energy demand. August WTI crude settled at $47.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $2.47, or 4.9%. For the week, futures prices lost 0.7%.

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If there’s a bright spot to the stock market carnage following the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, it’s that despite the overwhelmingly negative breadth, the number of stocks on the NYSE hitting new 52-week highs is outnumbering those hitting new lows by a 124-to-49 score, according to FactSet. On the Nasdaq exchange, however, new lows are outnumbering new highs by 101 to 29. Elsewhere, the number of declining stocks are beating up advancers by a score of 2,643 to 426 on the NYSE, and of 2,430 to 320 on the Nasdaq. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 573 points, or 3.2%, while the S&P 500 is shedding 3.4% and the Nasdaq Composite is tumbling 4%.

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