Category: Stock Market News

Silver futures rallied Friday, tallying a gain of roughly 15% for the month, as gold futures settled at their highest level since late January of last year. The dollar-denominated metals got a solid boost from a weaker dollar. July silver rose 23.1 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $17.819 an ounce. Gold for June delivery rose $24.10, or 1.9%, to finish at $1,290.50 an ounce, with prices up about 4.4% for the month, according to FactSet.

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Oil futures pared their loss after data from Baker Hughes showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for crude fell by 11 to 332 as of Friday, down a sixth straight week. The total U.S. rig count fell 11 to 420. June crude was at $45.83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 20 cents, or 0.4%. It was trading at $45.72 before the data.

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Paragon Shipping Inc.’s stock soared 38% to a seven-week high of $2.41 in midday trade Friday, with volume of 14.8 million shares already nearly 15-times the full-day average. But that’s nothing, as it rocketed nearly 7-fold on volume of 24.1 million shares on Thursday. The troubled Greece-based shipping company’s shares had closed Wednesday at a record low of 26 cents, and that was after a 1-for-38 reverse stock split went into effect March 1. The company said Thursday it filed a lawsuit against news site TradeWinds and reporter Joe Brady Stamford for defamation damages, following a Feb. 18 report that Paragon obtained board approval to file for bankruptcy. “The company and its board of directors declared that the above statement was totally untrue,” the company said in a statement. Separately, Paragon said Thursday it entered into an agreement with Jiangsu Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Co. to extend the deliveries of its three drybulk carriers through November; the Bank of Ireland said earlier this month that a payment-in-kind loan maturing December 2020 would be cancelled; and the company said it won’t make an interest payment due May 15 on a note maturing in 2021 “due to a lack of liquidity.” The stock was still down 60% year to date.

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Shares of PAVmed Inc., a medical device company, soared 49% Friday in the second day of trading for the company. The company debuted on the Nasdaq 15 minutes before the market close Thursday and the stock popped above its IPO issue price of $5 but pared gains to close around $8. With the IPO, PAVmed sold 1.06 million shares to raise $5.3 million.

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. announced several changes to the company’s board of directors early Friday, including that the company’s current chairman and chief executive officer, Michael Pearson, and the company’s former chief financial officer, Howard Schiller, would not be standing for re-election. Current board members Robert Ingram, the board’s chairman, and Robert Power would be re-nominated, Valeant said, as would five directors appointed in the last year, activist investor William Ackman, Dr. Frederic Eshelman, Stephen Fraidin, D. Robert Hale and Thomas W. Ross, Sr. Dr. Argeris N. Karabelas, Russel C. Robertson and Amy B. Wechsler, M.D. were three more director nominees. In addition to Pearson and Schiller’s exits, Valeant said five of the company’s current directors had said they wouldn’t stand for re-election: Ronald H. Farmer, Colleen Goggins, Theo Melas-Kyriazi, G. Mason Morfit and Norma A. Provencio.

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U.S. stocks opened lower Friday as weak earnings and economic data continued to weigh on shares, leaving them on track for their first weekly drop in three. The S&P 500 dropped 3 points, or 0.1%, to 2,072. The Dow industrials were off 39 points, or 0.2%, to 17,788. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1 point, or less than 0.1%, to 4,802.

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Monster Beverage Corp. shares jumped 12.6% in Friday premarket trading after the company announced earnings that beat expectations. The energy drink company said it had net income of $163.9 million, or 79 cents per share, up from $4.4 million, or 3 cents per share, for the same period last year. The FactSet consensus was 74 cents. Sales totaled $680.2 million, up from $626.8 million, and above the FactSet consensus of $657 million. Due to a partnership with Coca-Cola Company , the comparable first-quarter 2015 results included distributor termination costs of $206 million, $39.8 million in acceleration of deferred revenue, and $3.6 million in other related expenses. Monster Beverage said it’s continuing to align with Coca-Cola bottlers internationally and will launch Monster Energy drinks in Australia and New Zealand in May 2016. Monster Beverage shares are down 14.2% for the year so far while the S&P 500 is up 1.6% for the same period.

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Chevron Corp.’s stock slumped 1.3% in premarket trade Friday, after the oil giant reported first-quarter results that missed expectations amid a sharp drop in oil and natural gas prices. The company said it swung to a loss of $725 million, or 39 cents a share, in the latest quarter, after reporting earnings of $2.57 billion, or $1.37 a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet per-share loss consensus was 17 cents. Revenue fell to $23.55 billion from $34.56 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $24.50 billion. The average sales price per barrel of crude oil and natural gas liquids in the U.S. tumbled to $26 from $43 a year ago, while international prices dropped to $29 from $46. “Our upstream business was impacted by a more than 35% decline in crude oil prices,” said Chief Executive John Watson. “Our downstream operations continued to perform well, although overall industry conditions and margins this quarter were weaker than a year ago.” The stock has climbed 14% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.6%.

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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s stock surged 3.9% in premarket trade Friday, after the cruise ship operator beat first-quarter profit expectations and raised its full-year outlook. Earnings in the latest quarter rose to $99.1 million, or 46 cents a share, from $45.2 million, or 20 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came in at 57 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 32 cents. Revenue increased to $1.92 billion from $1.82 billion, topping the FactSet consensus of $1.91 billion, with passenger ticket revenue matching expectations while onboard and other revenue beat estimates. For 2016, the company raised its adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $6.15 to $6.35 from $5.90 to $6.10. The stock has tumbled 25% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.6%.

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Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday it had net earnings of $1.8 billion, or 43 cents share, in the first quarter, down sharply from $4.9 billion, or $1.17 a share, in the year-earlier period. The oil giant said revenues slid to $48.7 billion from $67.6 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 31 cents and revenue of $44.8 billion. “The organization continues to respond effectively to challenging industry conditions, capturing enhancements to operational performance and creating margin uplift despite low prices,” Chief Executive Rex W. Tillerson said in a statement. Sharply lower commodity prices and weaker refining margins were partly offset by strong results from the company’s chemicals business, where earnings rose 38% to $1.4 billion. Shares rose about 1% in premarket trade, and are up 13% in the year so far, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained just 2.3%.

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