Category: Stock Market News

Incyte Corp. shares soared 10.1% in extremely heavy Wednesday trade after news that it and Eli Lilly & Co. plan to reapply for approval of rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib by the end of January 2018, with a decision expected mid-year. Eli Lilly shares rose 2.5% in heavy Wednesday trade. The Food and Drug Administration previously failed to approve the drug, asking for more clinical data on dosage and to clarify safety concerns. The two companies said they had discussed the matter with the FDA in late August and that the resubmission package would include new safety and efficacy data. Baricitinib is intended for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis, can be taken once a day and is expected to generate more than $2 billion in sales a year. Incyte shares have surged 5.7% over the last three months and Eli Lilly shares have surged 2.8%, compared with a 1.9% rise in the S&P 500 .

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U.S. oil prices finished Wednesday with a loss, at their lowest level in more than four weeks. The Energy Information Administration reported a bigger-than-expected weekly drop in U.S. crude supplies, but gasoline stockpiles were flat and traders expect next week’s government report to reveal the impact of Hurricane Harvey-related crude production and refinery shutdowns. October West Texas Intermediate crude fell 48 cents, or 1%, to settle at $45.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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U.S stock benchmarks were riding higher on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 index on pace to register four straight closes in positive territory. That would mark the S&P 500 index’s longest win streak since the 7-session period ended May 26, according to FactSet data. The S&P 500 is up nearly 14 points in most recent trade, or 0.6%, at 2,459. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.2% at 21,912, and the Nasdaq Composite Index was trading 1.1% higher and on track for three straight wins of its own. Wall Street has been resilient of late, shaking of geopolitical and meteorological headwinds, including North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile over Japan’s airspace, rising tensions between the U.S. and its Asian allies; and Hurricane Harvey, which has devastated Texas’s Gulf Coast region. Upbeat data on Wednesday helped to support Wednesday’s gains. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of the goods and services produced across the U.S., rose at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted annual rate of 3.0% in the second quarter, the strongest quarter of growth since the first quarter of 2015 and above the 2.6% growth estimated in July. And private-sector job growth reported by ADP Inc. came in at a better-than-expected 237,000 job created in August.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained some upward thrust Wednesday afternoon, with blue chips scoring a boost from Goldman Sachs. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , the world’s most prominent investment bank, were up about $4.04, or 1.8%, contributing nearly 30 points to the price-weighted gauge. Each $1 move in the benchmark translates to a 6.84-point swing. Broadly speaking, financials, including Goldman, were benefiting from better-than-expected economic reports, including private-sector job growth at 237,000 in August, well above estimates for 185,000 and an update on U.S. economic growth showing U.S. GDP grew at a 3% pace in the second quarter. Those upbeat reports may support another rate hike for the Federal Reserve before the end of the year, market participants are betting. Higher rates tends to be a boon to a bank’s lending models. Shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. were tilting higher, up 0.8%, while a broad gauge of the financial sector, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF were the best performer among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors early Wednesday. More broadly, the S&P 500 index was up 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index was trading 1% higher on the day.

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Vera Bradley Inc. shares reversed early gains Wednesday to trade sharply lower, after the company announced some executive changes on its earnings call. The company said Beatrice Mac Cabe has been named its chief creative officer, while founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard will take a smaller role to give her time to pursue other projects outside the company. Theresa Palermo, executive vice president for marketing, is leaving and will be replaced by Stephanie Scheele as interim chief marketing officer. Shares fell about 9%, after earlier gaining about 8% premarket when the company posted better-than-expected earnings. On the call, executives gave further detail on its Vision 2020 plan, which will move it to a less clearance driven business model and cut sales and marketing costs. Shares have fallen 22% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 10%.

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Biotechnology stocks rallied on Wednesday, with one of the biggest exchange-traded funds dedicated to the sector on track for its third straight daily advance. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF gained 1.3%, bringing its week-to-date rise to 3.6%. Among the biggest gainers in the sector, Gilead Sciences Inc. popped 5.6%, bringing its gain over the past three months to 23.7%. The stock is on track for its largest percentage gain since November, as well as its highest close since September 2016. Separately, Incyte Corp. added 4.5% while BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. advanced 4.8%. Biogen Inc. gained 2.4% while Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. was up 2%. On the downside within the pharmaceutical sector, U.S.-listed shares of Novartis AG were down 1%. The company’s CAR-T cell therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, making it the first gene therapy to be available in the U.S.

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Novartis AG’s CAR-T cell therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday, making it the first gene therapy to be available in the U.S. Novartis’ Kymriah was approved for young people up to age 25 with a form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. CAR-T, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, uses a patient’s immune T-cells and re-engineers them to better fight cancer. As such, each dose of Kymriah is customized to the individual patient’s T-cells through genetic modification. Novartis said on Wednesday that it will work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services so medicine prices can be “based on the clinical outcomes achieved, which would eliminate inefficiencies from the health care system.” For Kymriah, Novartis is also working with CMS “to allow for payment only when pediatric and young adult ALL patients respond to Kymriah by the end of the first month.” Novartis did not give any specifics as to what the price range might be. Even before Novartis’ Kymriah was approved, there was concern about pricing of the new therapy, given that new therapies are typically priced based on level of innovation and cancer is a particularly expensive area. On Wednesday, the FDA also expanded approval of Roche’s Genentech’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Actemra to treat CAR-T cell-induced cytokine release syndrome, which consists of high fever and flu-like symptoms and can be life-threatening; nearly 70% of patients had CRS completely resolved in two weeks using one or two doses of Actemra, the FDA said. Kite Pharma, which is also working in the CAR-T space, has also been racing to gain FDA approval; the biotech’s $11 billion acquisition by Gilead Sciences Inc. was reported earlier this week. Gilead shares surged 5.5% in extremely heavy midday trade. Novartis shares declined 1% in heavy midday trade. Novartis shares have risen 2.8% over the last three months, compared with a 1.6% rise in the S&P 500 .

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading slightly higher early Wednesday, with blue chips scoring a boost from Goldman Sachs. Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , the world’s most prominent investment bank, were up about $2.83, or 1.3%, contributing about 20 points to the price-weighted gauge. Each $1 move in the benchmark translates to a 6.84-point swing. Broadly speaking, financials, including Goldman, were benefiting from better-than-expected economic reports, including private-sector job growth at 237,000 in August, well above estimates for 185,000 and an update on U.S. economic growth showing U.S. GDP grew at a 3% pace in the second quarter. Those upbeat reports may support another rate hike for the Federal Reserve before the end of the year, market participants are betting. Higher rates tends to be a boon to a bank’s lending models. Shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. also were tilting higher, up 0.5%, while a broad gauge of the financial sector, the Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF were the best performer among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors early Wednesday.

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As the rainfall from now tropical storm Harvey continues to pour down on southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, a new tropical storm is forming over the far eastern Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday. The storm, named Irma, poses no immediate threat to land, the center said in its latest advisory. However, “some strengthening is
forecast during the next 48 hours and Irma could become a hurricane
on Friday,” said the advisory. For now, Irma has maximum sustained winds of 50 miles an hour.

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Shares of Analog Devices Inc. surged more than 4% Wednesday to lead S&P 500 gainers, after the maker of analog, mixed-signal, and digital signal processing integrated circuits used in electronic equipment posted better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal third quarter and offered upbeat guidance. The company said it had net income of $68.9 million, or 18 cents a share, in the quarter, down from $93.6 million, or 74 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to $1.26, well ahead of the FactSet consensus of $1.14. Revenue rose to $1.43 billion from $869.6 million, also ahead of the FactSet consensus of $1.41 billion. “Looking ahead to the October quarter, we continue to see signs of positive business conditions and are planning for revenue in the fourth quarter to be in the range of $1.45 billion to $1.55 billion, with strong profitability,” Chief Executive Vincent Roche said in a statement. The FactSet consensus is for fourth-quarter revenue of $1.45 billion. The company is expecting adj. EPS of $1.29 to $1.43 for the fourth quarter, compared with a FactSet consensus of $1.24. Shares have gained 14% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 9%.

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