Category: Stock Market News

Netflix Inc. on Monday said it’s planning to produce its first original series geared toward Indian audiences. Netflix is teaming with one of India’s leading production studios, Phantom Films, to adapt Indian author Vikram Chandra’s national best-selling novel “Sacred Games.” “Sacred Games” delves into the organized crime, corruption, politics and espionage under India’s economic renaissance, according to a news release. The show, set in Mumbai, will be shot on location in India and be available globally in Hindi and English. “Over the last few years, I’ve watched with great excitement and pleasure as Netflix has transformed narrative television with its ground-breaking, genre-bending shows,” Chandra said in a statement. “I’m confident that all the color and vitality and music of the fictional world I’ve lived with for so long will come fully alive on the large-scale canvas provided by Netflix.” No details on when the show would begin production or who will be involved were available. Netflix has made strides in producing original content that plays regionally and around the globe with shows like “Marseille,” and critically-acclaimed “Narcos” — Netflix recently inked a deal to have the first season of “Narcos” air on Univision. Netflix shares have dropped nearly 13% in the year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 Index, which is up nearly 3%.

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Ocular Therapeutix Inc. said Monday that a second Phase 3 trial of its treatment for chronic allergic conjunctivitis failed to achieve its single primary endpoint. The stock, which is halted for news, is scheduled to resume trade at 7:30 a.m. ET. The trial was to evaluate Ocular’s Dextenza Intracanalicular Depot, or sustained release dexamethasone, for treating itching associated with chronic pink eye. The endpoint was defined as a difference in mean scores in ocular itching between the treatment group and a group using a placebo at different time points seven days following insertion of the depots. “We are disappointed that the primary endpoint of ocular itching associated with allergic conjunctivitis was not achieved in our second Phase 3 trial in these patients, and this result is inconsistent with what we saw in our first Phase 3 trial,” said Chief Executive Amar Sawhney. The stock has run up 26% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.7%.

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Hillary Clinton won Puerto Rico’s Democratic primary on Sunday, putting her on the brink of clinching an historic presidential nomination. “We just won Puerto Rico! ¡Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!,” Clinton tweeted Sunday night. Clinton led Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by about a 2-to-1 margin, according to CNN. The win will leave Clinton about 30 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to secure the nomination, according to the Associated Press. Those delegates should come Tuesday, as five states, including New Jersey and California, hold primaries. Clinton also won a decisive victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands primary.

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After a rocky few months filled with reports of dissatisfaction among his employees, Tony Fadell announced Friday afternoon he is stepping down as head of Alphabet Inc.’s Nest division. Fadell, a former Apple Inc. executive who led the connected home-device company to a 2014 acquisition by Google and has been at the helm of the division since, said in a blog post the decision has been in the works for months. “Although this news may feel sudden to some, this transition has been in progress since late last year and while I won’t be present day to day at Nest, I’ll remain involved in my new capacity as an adviser to Alphabet and Larry Page,” Fadell wrote. Fadell has been under fire since a founder of Dropcam, another Alphabet acquisition that Fadell was put in charge of, publicly took him to task following reports that more than half the Dropcam team had left. Earlier this week, a complaint from a former employee to the National Labor Relations Board became public, reigniting the controversy. Fadell will be replaced by Marwan Fawaz, who led the Motorola business when it was owned by Google.

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Shares of Lion Biotechnologies Inc. rocketed 38% to a 10-month high Friday, on more than 50 times the daily average volume, after the biotechnology company said it raised $100 million in a private placement of shares. Volume was 9.1 million shares in afternoon trade, compared with the full-day average of about 180,000 shares over the past 30 days, according to FactSet. The company said early Friday it entered into agreements with institutional and other accredited investors to sell a total of 9.7 million common shares at $4.75 each, and 11.4 million Series B preferred non-voting shares, also at $4.75 each. The Series B shares will become convertible to one share of common stock. Separately, Lion said it named Maria Fardis as its Chief Executive, replacing Elma Hawkins, how had been CEO since January 2015. The stock was now up 8.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.8%.

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Gold futures, and the broader metals complex, rallied Friday after May employment data showed the U.S. economy created the fewest number of jobs in nearly six years. The yellow metal benefited from weakness in the dollar, which tumbled sharply on mounting prospects of a rate-hike delay by the Federal Reserve. Weakness in the dollar can lift the allure of precious metals priced in the currency. Concerns about shakiness in the U.S. labor market also boosted the haven appeal of gold. August gold gained $30.30, or 2.5%, to settle at $1,242.90 an ounce, marking its best one-day gain since March 17, according to FactSet data.

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Oil futures lost more ground Friday after Baker Hughes showed that the weekly number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude rose by 9 to 325 as of Friday. The total U.S. rig count climbed by 4 to 408. July crude was at $48.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 82 cents, or 1.7%, from Thursday’s settlement. It was trading at $48.70 before the data.

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Sensus Healthcare, Inc. was trading at $5.95, above its issue price of $5.50, in its debut on the Nasdaq Friday morning. The company sold 2 million units to raise about $11 million. Each unit is made up of one share of common stock and a three-year warrant to purchase a share of stock at $6.75. The offering was underwritten by Northland Securities, Inc. and Neidiger, Tucker, Bruner, Inc.

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The SPDR Utilities Select Sector ETF surged 1.6% toward a record high in morning trade Friday, as the drop in Treasury yields in the wake of a weak May jobs report made the high-yielding sector tracker more attractive. Of the ETF’s 29 components, 25 traded higher, and 12 hit fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade. Among the ETF’s most-active components, shares of PPL Corp. climbed 1.6%, of Southern Co. shot up 1.8%, of AES Corp. gained 0.6%, of Excelon Corp. tacked on 0.9% and of NRG Energy Inc. slipped 0.4%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell 0.1 percentage points to a three-week low of 1.712%, after data showing only 38,000 new jobs were created in May, while 155,000 new jobs were expected. The ETF, which has dividend yield of 3.20%, according to FactSet, has run up 16% year to date, compared with a 2.4% gain in the S&P 500 , as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has dropped 0.557 percentage points.

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