Category: Stock Market News

Cars.com Inc. shares hit prices the young stock has never seen Monday, jumping 11% in after-hours action following a report that activist investor Starboard had acquired a significant stake in the company. The Wall Street Journal reported that Starboard believed Cars.com was undervalued due to heavy short selling and is a potential buyout target for private-equity firms, according to anonymous sources. The company was split off from Tegna Inc. earlier this year, and had a valuation of slightly less than $2 billion at Monday’s closing price. After the Journal report hit, share prices spiked to nearly $31, easily topping the company’s high of $29.47.

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McDermott International Inc. and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. NV , which provide infrastructure and other products for the oil and gas industries, announced Monday afternoon that they plan to merge in an all-stock transaction. The companies estimated the enterprise value of the transaction at $6 billion, with McDermott investors owning about 53% of the combined company and CB&I the other 47%, and expect annualized cost savings of about $250 million by 2019. McDermott Chief Executive David Dickson will remain in charge, and the company will retain McDermott’s headquarters in Houston, Texas. “Together, we will have a broadened reach across the entire energy industry that addresses evolving customer needs, along with a much stronger and more flexible financial profile than CB&I would independently,” said CB&I CEO Patrick Mullen, who will remain with the company through a transition period. The board will include five directors from each company, along with Dickson. When the transaction is complete, CB&I shareholders will receive 2.47221 shares of McDermott for each CB&I share they own, unless McDermott completes a planned 3-to-1 reverse stock split ahead of the closing, which would reduce that number to 0.82407 shares. The companies’ stocks bounced around in late trading after the announcement, initially adding more than 1% apiece but then falling back, with McDermott suffering a 0.5% decline and CB&I gaining 0.2%.

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Shares of Extended Stay America Inc. rose in Monday’s extended session after the long-term stay hotel chain said Chief Executive Gerry Lopez will step down and serve as a senior adviser until March 18. Lopez will be succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Halkyard, effective Jan. 1. The company also raised its 2017 profit outlook to a range of $158 million to $163 million from $155 million to $161 million and increased its revenue target to $1.28 billion to $1.284 billion versus $1.273 billion to $1.279 billion previously. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are projecting average sales of $1.276 billion this year. Extended Stay shares gained 2.2% after hours.

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The U.S.-listed shares of of Vipshop Holdings Ltd. shot up 41% on very heavy volume in afternoon trade Monday, after the Beijing-based online discount retailer disclosed that Tencent Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. will invest a total of $863 million in the company. Volume swelled to 68.6 million shares, nearly 10 times the full-day average, and enough to make the stock the most actively traded on major U.S. exchanges. The company said in an SEC filing that Tencent will subscribe for newly issued Class A ordinary shares worth $604 million and JD.com will subscribe for $259 million worth of shares. The purchase price will be $65.04 per ordinary share, which is equivalent to $13.08 per American Depositary Share (ADS), which is still 9.8% above current levels. The purchases are expected to be completed “in the near future,” and with shares subject to a two-year lock restriction. Vipshop has also entered into business cooperation agreements with Tencent and JD.com. Vipshop’s stock has now gained 7.9% year to date, while Tencent’s ADS have more than doubled, JD.com’s stock has soared 64% and the S&P 500 has gained 20%.

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Shares of On Track Innovations Ltd. were swept up in cryptocurrency mania, soaring 103% in very active afternoon trade Monday, after the cashless-payment company said was “developing capabilities” to implement the use of bitcoin. Volume ballooned to 45.4 million shares, compared with the 30-day average of about 127,700 shares, according to FactSet. “At OTI we are working hard and intend to rapidly become bitcoin acceptable in transactions via NFC, Bluetooth or QR code,” said Chief Executive Shlomi Cohen. “We also look forward to integrating bitcoin acceptance in our innovative ATM and secure cashless vending products.” The stock had closed at a 13-month low of 94 cents on Thursday. The day’s surge comes as bitcoin futures rallied 5.2% to $19,050.00 and the S&P 500 climbed 0.6%.

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Oil futures ended slightly lower Monday, failing to hang on to early gains as Nigerian oil workers agreed to suspend a strike. West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 14 cents, or 0.2%, to end at $57.16 a barrel. Bloomberg reported that Nigerian oil workers agreed to reopen talks with management next week.

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Shares of LongFin Corp. more than doubled Monday, to pace the Nasdaq exchange’s gainers, as the newly-public financial technology company continued to draw investor interest after its purchase of a blockchain company. The stock had rocketed to an intraday high of $142.82, which was about 6.5-times Friday’s closing price of $22.01, before paring gains. The gains follow a tripling of the stock on Friday, after the company said it bought Ziddu.com, a blockchain-empowered company that provides microfinance lending against collateralized warehouse receipts in the form of Ziddu coins, which are loosely pegged to crytpocurrencies Ethereum and bitcoin. LongFin’s stock closed its first day of trading at $5.17 on Dec. 13, which was 3.4% above its initial public offering price of $5.00. Meanwhile, bitcoin futures rallied 5.3% to $19,060 and the S&P 500 gained 0.6%.

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Matthew Petersen, one of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, has withdrawn his name from consideration after a video went viral of him failing to answer basic legal questions, according to a report. The report in the Huffington Post cited an aide to a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Petersen was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He could not answer multiple questions at a Senate hearing last week.

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Gold rose for a fourth session to settle higher Monday as the imminent passage of the tax bill prompted investors to bet that inflationary pressure will mount on lower taxes. However, strong gains in equities, which are also expected to benefit from tax cuts, are keeping the gold’s upside capped. February gold added $8, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,265.50 an ounce.

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The Nasdaq Composite Index rallied to a record on Monday, breaking above the 7,000 level for the first time in its history. The index rose 0.9%, or 63 points, to hit an intraday record of 7,000.96. Among the biggest boosts to the index was Apple Inc. , the largest U.S. stock by market capitalization, which rose 1.4%. Alphabet Inc. , the parent company of Google, rose 1% on the day while Amazon.com Inc. was up 0.9%. The gains came on growing confidence congressional Republicans will succeed in getting a major tax bill passed this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 24,835 while the S&P 500 was up 0.7% at 2,693. Thus far this year, the Nasdaq is up 30%, boosted in large part by the outperformance of large-cap technology and internet stocks.

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