Category: Stock Market News

The semiconductor market has gotten off to a good 2017, with the best monthly growth in over six years, boosted by strong sales growth in China, according to data provided by the Semiconductor Industry Association. Global chip sales jumped 13.9% from a year ago to $30.6 billion in January, the largest year-over-year growth since November 2010, SIA said. Sales to China soared 20.5%, followed by 13.3% growth in the Americas, 12.3% in Japan and 4.8% in Europe. “The global semiconductor industry is off to a strong and encouraging start to 2017, posting its highest-ever January sales and largest year-to-year sales increase in more than six years,” said SIA Chief Executive John Neuffer. The PHLX Semiconductor Index has rallied 11% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.3%. Among individual stocks, Intel Corp.’s has gained 3% over the past three months and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s has run up 38%.

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U.S. stock-market indexes opened lower on Monday, as global equity investors grew concerned after North Korea over the weekend launched four missiles into the Sea of Japan. The S&P 500 was down 9 points, or 0.4%, at 2,373. The Nasdaq Composite began the session down 21 points, or 0.4% at 5,849. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 70 points or 0.3%, to 20,931 at the open.

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Shares of Procter & Gamble Co. fell 0.8% in premarket trade Monday, after the consumer products giant was downgraded at B. Riley, which cited concerns over rising valuation as fundamentals have weakened. Analyst Linda Bolton Weiser cut her rating to neutral, after being at buy for the past seven months. She slashed her stock price target to $91, which was just 0.6% above Friday’s closing price of $90.50, from $106. Weiser said that while the stock has rallied 11% since Dec. 1, global category growth has slowed to about 2% from about 3%, and the company’s plan for double-digit percentage price cuts in blades and razors is slated to begin in the June quarter. “The slowdown in consumption growth (in markets like China, U.S., U.K.) has caused retailers to reduce inventory, impacting PG’s sales growth,” Weiser wrote in a note to clients. The stock has gained 8.4% over the past 12 months, while the SPDR Consumer Staples Select Sector ETF has advanced 6% and the S&P 500 has run up 19%.

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Apparel sales across men, women and children grew 3% in 2016, reaching $218.7 billion, according to a report from the NPD Group published Monday. However apparel has struggled to grow more than 3% since 2013 as gains in one segment are offset by declines in others. Athleisure continues to be the top-selling segment, growing 11% in 2016 to become a $45.9 billion market. Jeans, dresses and tailored clothing also sold well for the year, the group said. And the shift to online sales persisted, with e-commerce sales rising to 19% of all U.S. men’s, women’s and children’s apparel sales. In 2011, it was 11%. “Online’s continued growth has come at the expense of in-store sales, affecting the more traditional apparel department, national chain, and specialty channels,” NPD said. “The growth that occurred n the online, off-price, and mass channels came from a consumer focus on convenience, value and price.” The SPDR S&P Retail ETF is down 4.7% for the past year, while the S&P 500 index is up 19.2% for the same period.

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Goldman Sachs on Monday downgraded shares of GoPro Inc. stocl to sell from neutral, citing the many challenges facing the company as the core action camera market becomes saturated, including product launch issues in the holiday season and a disappointing entry to the drone market. Goldman lowered its stock price target to $6 from $9.50. “We expect GoPro to continue to struggle fundamentally,” analysts wrote in a note. “In its core action camera market, the company exited a disappointing holiday season with excess inventory, as noted by key supplier Ambarella . It also faces a new competitor, YI Technology, whose products are competitive with GoPro’s but at a $100 (25-33%) lower price point.” The company’s recent restructuring may hamper its ability to differentiate through content, said the note. GoPro shares were down 3.3% premarket, and are down 63% in the last 12 months, while the S&) 500 has gained 19%.

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Advaxis Inc. shares surged 10.6% in pre-market trade Monday after the company said the Food and Drug Administration would allow its ADXS-NEO, a cancer immunotherapy drug partnership with Amgen , to proceed to clinical trials. ADXS-NEO’s approach targets neoantigens, which are seen as a promising avenue of cancer drug development, and the drug is only the second of this type with an Investigational New Drug application accepted by the FDA, according to a company spokesperson. Advaxis said it plans to start a phase 1 trial for the drug in multiple tumor types later this year. Amgen shares slumped 0.2% in pre-market trade Monday. Shares of Advaxis have risen 3.5% over the last three months, and shares of Amgen have surged 24.2% over the last three months, compared with a 7.7% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Snap Inc.’s stock surged again, rising 4.4% in active premarket trade Monday, to put the social media company on course for a third-straight gain since going public. Meanwhile, futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.3%. Trading volume was 1.7 million shares about an hour ahead of the open, making the stock the most actively traded in the premarket. Although most analysts who have already started coverage of the company said they believe the stock was too expensive, it closed Thursday at $24.48, or 41% above its initial-public-offering price of $17, and rallied another 11% on Friday to $27.09. In comparison, Twitter Inc.’s stock closed up 73% on its debut on Nov. 7, 2013, then slumped 7.2% the following session. The first three-day win streak was came about a month after the debut. Facebook Inc. shares closed 0.6% above its $38 IPO price at $38.23 on its first day of trade, then fell 19% over the next two sessions and 32% over the next two weeks. The first three-day win streak also came a month after the debut.

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Shares of TG Therapeutics Inc. rocketed 57% toward a five-month high in premarket trade Monday, after the biopharmaceutical company announced positive results from a phase 3 trial of its treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. TG said the trial of TG-1101 met its primary endpoint of efficacy and safety, demonstrating “statistically significant improvement in the overall response rate. ” This study demonstrates that the addition of ublituximab, can significantly enhance the response rates without compromising safety,” said Jeffrey Sharman, the phase 3 study chair. The stock had lost 4.5% over the past three months through Friday, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF had climbed 10% and the S&P 500 had gained 7.7%.

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Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commssion on Friday to sell 2.88 million shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. , equivalent to a 10% stake. Pershing stated in the regulatory filing that it does not have immediate plans to divest of the shares but that it “reserve[s] the right to do so.” Pershing had disclosed its stake in the fast-food chain in September and indicated an interest in boosting shareholders’ value and streamlinging the company’s cost structure. Chipotle shares fell 0.7% in after hours.

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U.S. stocks finished higher for the week Friday and fractionally higher for the session as Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen signaled a March rate hike was likely appropriate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2.74 points to finish at 21,005.71, led higher by shares of Caterpillar Inc. and Merck & Co . For the week, the Dow closed up 0.9%, for a fourth week of gains. The S&P 500 index closed 1.20 points higher at 2,383.12, with financial and health-care stocks leading gains. For the week, the S&P 500 closed up 0.7%, for a sixth winning week. The Nasdaq Composite index finished up 9.53 points, or 0.2%, at 5,870.75, for a 0.4% gain on the week, notching a sixth straight week of gains.

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