Category: Stock Market News

The Dow Chemical Co. said Friday it has completed the sale of part of its Brazil Dow AgriSciences’ corn seed business to CITIC Agri Fund for $1.1 billion. The sale is part of the required regulatory remedies of Dow’s merger with DuPont to form DowDuPont, which closed on Aug. 31. Shares of the net entity were not yet active premarket, but have gained 28% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

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American Woodwork Corp. said Friday it agreed to buy kitchen and bath cabinet maker RSI Home Products Inc. for $486 million in cash and stock. Including $589 million in debt, the would be deal valued at $1.075 billion. Under terms of the deal, the company will pay $346 million in cash and issue $140 million worth of American Woodmark stock to RSI shareholders. The deal is expected to add immediately to earnings. The company said it will suspend its share repurchase program. Separately, American Woodmark reported fiscal second-quarter net income that rose to $19.8 million, or $1.21 a share, from $17.6 million, or $1.07 a share, in the same period a year ago. That beat the FactSet earnings-per-share consensus of $1.20. Revenue rose to $274.8 million from $264.1 million, but missed the FactSet consensus of $280.6 million. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has rallied 32.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 has climbed 18.3%.

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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC on Friday said it was cutting 680 jobs, as more customers are turning to online banking. After a review, the bank said it will close 62 Royal Bank of Scotland branches and 197 NatWest branches. “Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40% and mobile transactions have increased by 73% over the same period. Over 5 million customers now use our mobile banking app and one in five only bank with us digitally,” a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement. Shares of RBS dropped 1.4% in London.

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Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Hyperloop One co-founder Shervin Pishevar is facing sexual misconduct allegations from at least five women, Bloomberg News reported late Thursday. Pishevar, an early investor and former board member of Uber Technologies Inc. and a friend of that company’s ousted CEO, Travis Kalanick, exploited his professional connections in making unwanted sexual advances, Bloomberg reported, including assault. The women asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation, and their complaints ranged from unsolicited displays of pornography to unwanted kisses to attempted sexual acts by force. Pishevar’s representatives told Bloomberg the charges “will be shown to be untrue.” Pishevar is co-founder of Sherpa Capital, and was also an early investor in Airbnb and Tumblr. He’s also a major donor to the Democratic party.

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President Donald Trump repeatedly urged top Republican senators to end the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian election meddling last summer, the New York Times reported Thursday night. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told the Times that Trump said he was eager to see the investigation end, saying “something along the lines of, ‘I hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible.'” Trump also reportedly spoke to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is on the intelligence committee, about ending the probe. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the Times that the requests were “inappropriate” and raised questions about the separation of powers. A White House spokesperson told the Times that Trump had done nothing wrong, and Republican senators downplayed the requests, saying that as a political newcomer, Trump didn’t know any better. The Senate investigation is separate from the one led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

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A homeless, undocumented immigrant was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges by a San Francisco jury late Thursday, in a case that drew national attention to so-called sanctuary city policies. After six days of deliberations, a jury found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty in the killing of 32-year-old Kate Steinle on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015. The defense had argued that the incident was a tragic accident, and that the gun Garcia Zarate, 45, was holding discharged accidentally and the bullet ricocheted for 78 feet before hitting Steinle. Garcia Zarate was convicted of a lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a gun. The high-profile case attracted national attention after it was found Garcia Zarate had been deported five times before, and had been released from jail in San Francisco after a drug charge despite a federal request to hold him for deportation again to Mexico.

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From:: Stock Market News

A homeless, undocumented immigrant was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges by a San Francisco jury late Thursday, in a case that drew national attention to so-called sanctuary city policies. After six days of deliberations, a jury found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate not guilty in the killing of 32-year-old Kate Steinle on the San Francisco waterfront in 2015. The defense had argued that the incident was a tragic accident, and that the gun Garcia Zarate, 45, was holding discharged accidentally and the bullet ricocheted for 78 feet before hitting Steinle. Garcia Zarate was convicted of a lesser charge of being a felon in possession of a gun. The high-profile case attracted national attention after it was found Garcia Zarate had been deported five times before, and had been released from jail in San Francisco after a drug charge despite a federal request to hold him for deportation again to Mexico.

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From:: Stock Market News

The Senate has finished voting for the evening and will resume votes on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, as the chamber continues to debate its tax bill. Republicans were working furiously to win support to pass the bill following a setback over a so-called trigger mechanism for raising revenue, and an analysis that showed growth from the bill wouldn’t pay for tax cuts. Lawmakers are now reportedly discussing options including automatic tax increases and a staggered increase in the corporate rate.

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President Donald Trump intends to nominate Jelena McWilliams to head the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday, citing White House sources. McWilliams is currently chief legal officer at Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fifth Third Bancorp , and previously worked as a Republican staffer on the Senate Banking Committee. The Journal said an official announcement may be made as soon as Thursday night.

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Ubiquiti Networks Inc. founder and Chief Executive Robert Pera must buy minority owners’ stakes in the Memphis Grizzlies NBA franchise or sell his majority ownership, according to a Thursday report. The Athletic reported Thursday afternoon that minority owners Steve Kaplan and Daniel Straus had exercised a unique clause in their ownership agreement that allowed them to establish a new valuation for the franchise five years after it was purchased and demand that Pera buy their shares or sell his shares at that price. Pera and his minority investors paid $377 million for the Grizzlies in 2012, but NBA franchises have appreciated greatly since then – former Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer paid $2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 and the Houston Rockets sold to hotel and casino magnate Tilman Fertitta for $2.2 billion last summer. The Athletic did not reveal the price set by the minority owners. Most of Pera’s wealth is tied up in Ubiquiti, as the chief executive owns 72.3% of the company, a stake worth $3.75 billion, according to FactSet. He has repeatedly promised investors that he will maintain a majority interest in the networking company, which was recently attacked by short seller Citron Research. Ubiquiti shares were unaffected Thursday afternoon, and have recovered from damage done after Citron’s attack; the stock is up 15.6% this year, slightly trailing the S&P 500 index’s 17.6% advance.

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From:: Stock Market News