Jennifer Lopez to star in Guess ad campaign

Guess Inc. said Tuesday that actress and singer Jennifer Lopez will be the star of the fashion brand’s spring 2018 jeans ad campaign. Other famous faces featured in past Guess campaigns include supermodel Claudia Schiffer, Anna Nicole Smith and Kate Upton. Guess shares are up 1.5% in Tuesday trading and up more than 49% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 16.1% for 2017 to date.

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NYSE’s breadth and volume data suggests investors aren’t scrambling to buy stocks

Despite the big, broad rally in the major stock market indexes, breadth readings for the NYSE suggest investors aren’t so worried about missing the boat to buy stocks. There are 1,960 stock gaining ground on the NYSE, compared with 925 declining stocks and 146 stock that are unchanged, according to FactSet, which means 64.7% of the stocks traded are rising. But volume of advancing stocks represents just 59.2% of the total volume. That has pushed the NYSE’s Arms Index up to 1.434. The Arms Index is a volume-weighted breadth measure, which tends to rise above the equilibrium 1.000 rating when the market falls, as the proportion of volume flowing into declining stocks tends to be higher than the volume flowing into advancing stocks. Basically, Tuesday’s Arms reading suggests investors are more worried about missing the opportunity to sell the stocks that are declining than they are about buying stocks that are rising. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is rallying 165 points, or 0.7% and the S&P 500 is gaining 0.7%, both toward record closes.

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ViiV Healthcare says FDA has approved its two-drug HIV regimen, in first such instance

ViiV Healthcare, which is majority-owned by GlaxoSmithKline and has Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi as shareholders, said on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration has approved its two-drug HIV regimen. The therapy, Juluca, is the first such HIV drug composed of just two drugs — dolutegravir and rilpivirine, both of which have been previously approved — while other HIV regimens are typically composed of at least three drugs. This advancement could make the regimen more tolerable for the patient, according to Dr. Debra Birnkrant, director of the Division of Antiviral Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Juluca is approved for individuals with HIV-1 who have been stable on a regimen for at least half a year, have no history of treatment failure and no known resistance to Juluca’s individual components, ViiV said. GlaxoSmithKline shares declined 0.8% in Tuesday trade; shares have dropped nearly 10% over the last three months, compared with a 7% rise in the S&P 500 and a nearly 8% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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Gold recoups some of its losses from a day earlier

Gold prices climbed Tuesday to recoup more than a third of what they lost a day earlier. Prices found some support on the back of weakness in the U.S. dollar, as investors awaited Wednesday’s release of the Federal Open Market Committee minutes from the November meeting for clues on the Federal Reserve’s stance on the path for interest-rate hikes. December gold climbed $6.40, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,281.70 an ounce after losing 1.6% on Monday.

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SEC charges Long Island town and elected official with municipal bond fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged the town of Oyster Bay and its highest elected official on Tuesday with allegedly defrauding municipal bond investors when it failed to disclose side deals with a local businessman who had contracts with the town. This businessman allegedly cultivated the relationship with the town, then-town supervisor John Venditto and other officials with gifts, bribes, kickbacks, and political support. In return the town of Oyster Bay, New York allegedly agreed to indirectly guarantee four private loans-totaling more than $20 million-for this vendor and failed to disclose the indirect guarantees in connection with any of the 26 securities offerings the town issued between Aug. 2010 and Dec. 2015. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Oyster Bay and Venditto deliberately concealed the indirect loan guarantees, including one that could have required the town to make a termination payment of approximately 16% of the town’s operating budget -$16 million-within 60 days had the vendor defaulted on the loans. The SEC’s investigation is continuing. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York also filed an indictment on Tuesday that included securities fraud charges against Venditto.

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CBS News fires journalist Charlie Rose following sexual harassment accusations

CBS News said on Tuesday that it has fired TV host, and journalist Charlie Rose, effective immediately. The news, announced in a memo to staff from CBS News President David Rhodes, comes after eight women accused Rose of sexual harassment and sexual assault. In the memo Rhodes said that “Despite Charlie’s important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace–a supportive environment where people feel they can do heir best work. We need to be such a place.”

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Iranian man charged in HBO ‘Game of Thrones’ hacking case

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged an Iranian man with the hack into Time Warner Inc.-owned HBO’s computer system, that led to unaired episodes of the network’s hit show “Game of Thrones” being leaked online, according to news reports. HBO’s systems were hacked over the summer, and handfuls of TV episodes, documents and company emails were leaked online. The hacker, Behzad Mesri, according to reports, demanded $6 million in bitcoin at the time. According to reports, Mesri is a member of the Turk Black Hat Security hacking team and has ties to the Iranian military, however, it’s not believed that the HBO hack was on behalf of the Iranian government. Shares of Time Warner have declined nearly 8% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 16% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up close to 19%.

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Goldman Sachs growth plan hasn’t convinced Instinet analyst, who prefers Morgan Stanley

In the wake of a September investor presentation from Goldman Sachs , Instinet analyst Steven Chubak remains tepid on the stock, and prefers Morgan Stanley , he said in a note Tuesday. It will take Goldman time to realize higher earnings from its new strategies, Chubak noted, and about half of the anticipated revenue lift comes from segments that face long-term, structural headwinds, such as the shift from active asset management to passive. Goldman’s businesses are now skewed toward “lower-multiple areas,” such as fixed income, commodities and currency trading and consumer lending, while Morgan Stanley’s earning mix is “higher quality.” Goldman shares are down about 0.6% for the year to date, while Morgan Stanley’s are up 16.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 18.6% in that time and the S&P 500 is up 15.9%.

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Nasdaq hits all-time high as stocks open higher

Stocks opened higher higher Tuesday, with the Nasdaq hitting an all-time high and the Dow rising triple digits as investors focused on upbeat corporate earnings. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%, while the Dow advanced 112 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq rose 0.5%.

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Stone Energy to merge with Talos Energy, to create a $1.9 billion market cap E&P company

Stone Energy Corp. said Tuesday it will merge with privately held Talos Energy LLC, creating a company with an equity market capitalization $1.9 billion. The combined oil and gas exploration and production company will be named Talos Energy Inc., and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a stock ticker symbol of “TALO.” Under terms of the deal, each Stone share outstanding will be exchanged for one share of Talos Energy Inc., and current Talos stakeholders will be issued a total of 34.2 million common shares. Talos stakeholders will own 63% of the combined company while Stone shareholders will own 37%. Talos Chief Executive Timothy Duncan will be CEO of the combined company. Stone’s stock was halted for news. It has soared 40.6% over the past three months, but has shed 12.5% year to date. In comparison, the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has lost 10.7% this year and the S&P 500 has rallied 15.3%.

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