Category: Stock Market News

DepoMed Inc. announced Monday afternoon that it will allow Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc. to handle sales of its most lucrative product, the Nucynta line of painkillers, and slash its workforce. DepoMed said that it would take royalties as Collegium markets and sells Nucynta, and eliminate its painkiller salesforce and any brand advertising for the product. The company plans to lay off 40% of its workforce, about 70 employees, and move its headquarters out of Newark, California, to a state on the East Coast or in the Midwest. “Taking these steps, in terms of headcount reductions and office relocation, will provide additional financial and strategic benefits,” DepoMed Chief Executive Arthur Higgins,who took the reins of the company earlier this year after an activist-investor battle, said in a prepared statement. DepoMed will receive a minimum royalty of $135 million a year while cutting $70 million in annual expenses, the company said. Through nine months of this year, DepoMed has reported $183.3 million in Nucynta sales, more than half of its $286.3 million in total revenue. DepoMed and Collegium shares were both halted in late trading ahead of the announcement at 4:25 p.m. Eastern time and were expected to begin trading again at 5 p.m. Eastern time.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission charged California-based audit firm Anton & Chia LLP with conducting flawed audits and reviews of financial statements for microcap companies Accelera Innovations Inc., Premier Holding Corp., and CannaVEST Corp. Accelera’s public filings, for example, allegedly included revenue, assets, and liabilities from an entirely different company and Anton & Chia allegedly facilitated the fraud. Anton & Chia’s co-owners Gregory A. Wahl and Georgia Chung as well as former partner Michael Deutchman and former audit manager Tommy Shek are being charged along with the firm for their roles in the audits and/or interim reviews. Accelera Innovations Inc. , Premier Holding Corp. , and CannaVEST Corp. have been charged with fraud by the SEC. Anton & Chia partner Richard J. Koch and former partner Rahuldev Gandhi have already settled SEC charges for their roles in the audits and interim reviews by agreeing to pay $15,000 penalties and been suspended from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an accountant for five and three years, respectively.

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Coupa Software Inc. late Monday reported a narrower-than-expected loss and better-than-predicted sales in the third quarter, and the stock initially gained, although the gain was short-lived and shares were recently down 2.5%. Coupa said it lost $11.3 million, or 21 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $6.7 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Coupa lost 5 cents a share, compared with a loss of 22 cents a share a year ago. Sales reached $47.3 million, compared with $35.4 million a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of 11 cents a share on sales of $45 million. The stock ended the regular trading session down 6.5%.

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Coupa Software Inc. late Monday reported a narrower-than-expected loss and better-than-predicted sales in the third quarter, and the stock initially gained, although the gain was short-lived and shares were recently down 2.5%. Coupa said it lost $11.3 million, or 21 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $6.7 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Coupa lost 5 cents a share, compared with a loss of 22 cents a share a year ago. Sales reached $47.3 million, compared with $35.4 million a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of 11 cents a share on sales of $45 million. The stock ended the regular trading session down 6.5%.

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Oil prices settled lower on Monday for the first time in three sessions. A second-straight weekly rise in the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs, reported by Baker Hughes last week, fed concerns over rising U.S. crude production, offsetting support from OPEC’s decision last week to extend its output-cut deal with other major producers to the end of next year. January West Texas Intermediate oil lost 89 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $57.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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The staff of the Los Angeles Times has voted in favor of joining the NewsGuild, the labor union that represents nearly 25,000 media workers at The New York Times , Reuters , The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the Associated Press, among others. The staff has now filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board and for voluntary recognition from management. Shares of the paper’s parent company, Tronc Inc., were up 0.6% Monday, and have gained 29% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

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Gold prices ended lower on Monday, pressured as the U.S. Senate over the weekend passed a tax reform proposal. The passage helped strengthen the U.S. dollar and fueled a rally in most U.S. benchmark stock indexes, dulling haven investment demand for gold. February gold fell $4.60, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,277.70 an ounce.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said they will meet with President Donald Trump and their Republican counterparts on Thursday. The pair had cancelled a White House visit after Trump had tweeted that he didn’t expect the meeting to produce an agreement. “We’re glad the White House has reached out and asked for a second meeting. We hope the President will go into this meeting with an open mind, rather than deciding that an agreement can’t be reached beforehand,” the two Democrats said in a statement. The cooperation of Senate Democrats in particular is needed to keep the government open and reach a deal to keep so-called Dreamers in the country.

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Standard & Poor’s on Monday placed its BBB-plus ratings on CVS Health Corp. on Creditwatch negative after the drugstore chain said it is buying Aetna Inc. for $69 billion, the bulk of which will be paid for with debt. “In our view, CVS’ financial risk profile will weaken considerably as a result of the significant increase in debt, given the scale of the acquisition as well as execution risks that could affect operating performance,” S&P wrote in a note. The rating agency said it expects to resolve the Creditwatch by lowering the rating by one notch, as soon as more information on the deal and financing becomes available. It expects the company’s adjusted debt-to-EBITDA to be in the 4.5 times to 4.8 times range after the deal closes and to remain above 4.0 times for at least a year. CVS said it plans to suspend its share buyback program and use the funds to reduce debt. CVS and Aetna’s most active bonds were little changed on Monday, according to MarketAxess. CVS shares were trading down 5%, and are now down about 10% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

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The largest exchange-traded fund to track the technology sector fell on Monday, diverging from the broad market’s strong upward bias as semiconductor and large-capitalization internet stocks tumbled on the day. The fund fell 1.3%, compared with the 0.4% rise of the S&P 500 . Chipmakers were among the biggest drags within the sector, with the PHLX Semiconductor index down 2.9%. Every component of the semiconductor index fell on Monday amid valuation concerns and fear that supply of memory chips was catching up with demand. Advanced Micro Devices fell 7.1% while Micron Technology shed 5.8%. Nvidia Corp lost 5.7% on the day. The group has been one of the strongest sectors of the market this year, with the index up about 35% in 2017. Separately, some of tech’s biggest 2017 gainers were also lower on the day. Facebook fell 1.9% while Microsoft Corp. was down 2.1%.

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