Category: Stock Market News

U.S. stocks opened with slight gains on Friday, with major indexes eking out intraday records despite the May payrolls report, which came in below expectations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1 point to 21,151. The S&P 500 rose 1 point to 2,431. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 13 points, or 0.2%, to 6,259. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq hit records in early trading, while the Dow was points away from its own. The economy added 138,000 jobs last month, below forecasts. The report comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting, where it is expected to raise interest rates. However, the unemployment rate ticked down to its lowest level since 2001. For the week, the Dow is on track for a rise of 0.3% while both the S&P and Nasdaq are up 0.6%. Among the day’s biggest movers, Lululemon Athletica Inc. jumped nearly 17% after it reported first-quarter results that beat expectations. RH Inc. tumbled 21% after cutting its outlook.

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Shares of Canada Goose Holdings Inc were up 11% in premarket trade Friday after the company beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations. Canada Goose reported a net loss of $23.4 million Canadian dollars, or 23 cents per share, wider than a loss of C$9.2 million, or a loss of 9 cents per share. It reported an adjusted loss per share of 15 cents, compared to the 20 cent loss expected by FactSet analysts. It reported revenue of C$51.1 million, up from C$41.9 million in the year-earlier period and above the FactSet consensus of C$31.4 million. For 2018, the company expects revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens on a percentage basis. Shares of Canada Goose have gained 16% in the past month, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 1.6%.

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Shares of media and entertainment company Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. were upgraded to buy from hold on Friday by analysts at SunTrust. Lead analyst Matthew Thornton said the company’s “2018 guidance overhang has been removed with operating income before depreciation and amortization, film and TV expectations reset and looking attainable.” Thornton sees positives in Lions Gate’s 2018 film slate, with the release of “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” and “Wonder,” and he believes the studio has franchise potential with 2019 release “Chaos Walking” and the “Kingkiller Chronicles.” Starz, which Lions Gate acquired last year for $4.4 billion, is set to release its number one show “Power” in June and number two show “Outlander” in September. According to Apptopia the Starz app showed solid growth through May and its number one show has yet to drop. In Thornton’s view, Starz is Lions Gate’s key valuation driver. He also said that with it’s more than $500 million high-margin library revenue, Lions Gate could be an acquisition target. Shares of Lions Gate were inactive in premarket trade on Friday but are up more than 3% in the year to date and 19% in the trailing 12-month period. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up close to 9% in the year and more than 15% in the last 12 months.

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U.S. stock futures cut earlier gains on Friday after a closely watched employment reading from the Labor Department came in weaker than expected. The Friday jobs report showed that 138,000 jobs were created in May, compared with an average estimate of economists polled by MarketWatch for 185,000 jobs. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which had risen by as many as 85 points, were only up 32 points, or 0.2% at 21,164, futures for the S&P 500 index were up 1.40, or less than 0.1%, while futures for the Nasdaq-100 showed a gain of 11 points, or 0.2%, at 5,833. One bight spot in the report, the unemployment rate fell to 4.3%. However, market participants had been expecting Friday’s labor-market figures to help confirm continued strength in employment after a private-sector reading for May from the Automatic Data Processing Inc. came in better-than-expected on Thursday, showing a gain of 253,000.

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Endocyte Inc. stock plummeted 30.4% in premarket trade Friday after the company said it plans a “strategic restructuring” that includes an about 40% reduction in its workforce and clinical trial changes, including ending enrollment in one trial. The company plans to terminate 47 employees, largely in the third quarter, and said it expects total restructuring costs of about $2.4 million, including severance, clinical trial termination charges and other costs. “The company is continuing to review the potential impact of the restructuring, and is unable to estimate any additional restructuring costs or charges at this time,” the company said in its 8-K financial filing on Friday. Endocyte said it is stopping enrollment in a trial for its EC1456 trial, though it will continue to enroll a small number of patients in the compound’s ovarian cancer surgical study. The company will also pare down the number of patients in an early-stage trial for its EC1169 compound for taxane-exposed metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, excluding patients who are new to treatment. Endocyte said it will continue developing its chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T-cell) SMDC adaptor platform and its dual-targeted DNA crosslinker drug EC2629. Endocyte shares closed at $2.73 on Thursday. Shares have risen 16.2% over the last three months, compared with a 2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. generated a modest 138,000 new jobs in May and employment growth earlier in the spring was weaker than initially reported, adding to evidence that a tight labor market is making it harder for companies to fill open jobs. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted a 185,000 increase in nonfarm jobs. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.3% from 4.4%, touching the lowest level since 2001. Yet the decline stemmed more from people leaving the labor force than an increase in the number of people finding work. Average wages rose 0.2% to $26.22 an hour, the government said Friday.. Hourly pay increased 2.5% from May 2016 to May 2017, unchanged from the prior month. The average workweek was flat at 34.4 hours. The government cut its estimate of new jobs created in April to 174,000 from 211,000. March’s gain was reduced to 50,000 from 79,000.

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Bluebird Bio Inc. shares jumped 7.3% in premarket trade Friday after the company was upgraded to buy from hold at Maxim Group, with a price target of $100, above the company’s $79.20 share price as of Thursday’s close. The American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, which begins Friday and runs through Tuesday, could be a big opportunity for the company’s shares, with the company scheduled to present data on multiple myeloma, said Maxim Group analyst Jason Kolbert. Kolbert said he believes positive data from December for Bluebird Bio’s bb2121 — which is being developed in partnership with Celgene Corp. — along with positive results for the same type of cancer approach in May from another biotech company, “increase the probability for positive data for bb2121 at ASCO.” Bluebird Bio is scheduled to present safety and efficacy data from a trial enrolling 18 patients on Monday, with the results including one-year follow-up data for the first nine patients. Bluebird Bio shares have dropped 9% over the last three months, compared with a 2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Icahn Automotive Group, a division of Icahn Enterprises L.P. , said Friday that it will acquire Precision Auto Care, an automotive service company with more than 250 corporate-owned and franchised Precision Tune Auto Care locations in the U.S. Precision Auto Care has been in business for 40 years and spans across 26 states, concentrated in Georgia and the Carolinas. Icahn Automotive Group consists of Pep Boys and Auto Plus, a parts distributor. Icahn Enterprises shares are down 18.6% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 8.5% for the period.

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Merck & Co. Inc. said premarket Friday that a late-stage clinical trial comparing its cancer drug Keytruda to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s [: BMY] cancer drug Yervoy found patients on Keytruda had better results. The trial, which enrolled 834 patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who were either new to treatment or had received one prior treatment, found that treatment with Keytruda was associated with a 30% improvement in survival. About half of patients on Keytruda remained alive nearly three years after starting the therapy, the company said, compared with 39% of patients on Yervoy. The company also reported that Keytruda nearly doubled the progression-free survival rate at nearly three years, with 31% of patients on Keytruda surviving without disease progression, compared to 14% of patients on Yervoy. The results are scheduled to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting on Sunday. Merck shares were not active in premarket trade. Shares have declined 1.2% over the last three months, compared with a 4.1% decline in Bristol-Myers shares and a 2% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Office Depot Inc. said Friday it has reached a deal to sell its China operations to Shanghai M&G COLIPU Office Supplies Co. Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. The office supplies retailer announced its intention to sell all of its international businesses in 2016. The deal is expected to close in the next few months. Shares were not active premarket, but have gained 14% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.5%.

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