Category: Stock Market News

Drug store chain CVS Health Corp. said Thursday it will offer a low-cost version of the authorized generic to the allergic reaction treatment EpiPen, that will be priced at $109.99 for a two-pack. That compares with the $649.99 cash price of an EpiPen and the $339.99 being charged elsewhere for the authorized generic, an epinephrine auto-injector made by Impax Labs . “As a health care company focused on helping people on their path to better health, we recognized that there was an urgent need in the marketplace for a less expensive epinephrine auto-injector for patients with life-threatening allergies,” CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes said in a statement. Mylan Laboratories was widely criticized last summer for hiking the price of the EpiPen sixfold in the last several years. The product is used by many parents whose children are at risk of suffering from anaphylactic shock if they ingest certain allergens. CVS shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are down 13% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained about 17%.

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JetBlue Airways Corp.’s stock rose 0.8% in premarket trade Thursday, after the air carrier reported an increase in a key traffic metric during December. Traffic for the month rose 4.5% from a year ago to 3.97 billion revenue passenger miles, while capacity grew 3.1% to 4.72 billion available seat miles. That translated to a 1.1 percentage point increase in load factor to 84.1%. Revenue per available seat mile slipped 1.5% from a year ago. The stock has gained 9.1% over the past 12 months through Wednesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has soared 45% and the S&P 500 has rallied 17%.

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President-elect Donald Trump’s fiscal policy plans are more a story for 2018-2019 than this year, said St. Louis Fed President James Bullard on Thursday. In an interview on CNBC, Bullard said he thinks the economy remains in a low interest-rate environment that is not going to change from a “snapping fingers.” Bullard said he still thinks economic conditions will justify only one interest rate this year and the Fed has time to wait and see what develops. The St. Louis Fed president said he does not believe that a low unemployment rate will necessarily boost inflation. He noted that the market still expects low inflation going forward. The recent pullback in the 10-year Treasury bond yields is the market settling down and waiting to see if Republicans can deliver on their promise of faster economic growth.

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Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 0.7% in premarket trade Thursday, after the air carrier reported fourth-quarter total revenue that beat expectations and provided an upbeat outlook. Earnings fell to $622 million, or 84 cents a share, from $980 million, or $1.25 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 82 cents, matching the FactSet consensus. Total revenue slipped to $9.46 billion from $9.50 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $9.40 billion. Passenger unit revenue declined 2.7%, but that was less the Delta’s guidance of a decline of 3% to 5%. Load factor slipped to 85.1%, in line with the FactSet consensus, from 85.2%, as system capacity increased 0.9%. For the first quarter, Delta expects passenger unit revenue to be flat to up 2%, with capacity flat to down 1%. “As we move into 2017, we are seeing our unit revenues turn positive which should return the company to margin expansion by the back half of the year,” said Chief Executive Ed Bastian. The stock has rallied 9.5% over the past 12 months through Wednesday, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has run up 45% and the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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Germany’s economy expanded by the fastest pace since 2011 last year, with gross domestic product rising 1.9% year-on-year in inflation-adjusted terms. That’s up from 1.7% in 2015 and beating the government’s own forecast of 2016 growth of 1.8%. “The German economy has once again defied several deep hits. Despite the stock market crash in China, Brexit, Turkey, Trump and Italy, the economy performed its best growth year since 2011. Strong domestic demand has shielded the German economy against most external risks,” said Carsten Brzeski, ING’s chief economist for Germany. “The year 2017 will in our view look very much like 2016, only with a bit less of everything,” he added. German stocks, however, traded lower on Thursday, pressured by a rise in the euro . The DAX 30 index dropped 0.5% to 11,592.02.

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Novo Nordisk A/S shares dropped 5.4% on Thursday after a U.S. law firm filed a class action lawsuit against the Danish pharmaceutical company on behalf of the Lehigh County Employees’ Retirement System in Pennsylvania. The complaint, filed by Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, alleges Novo Nordisk “reported materially false and misleading earnings and forecasts in that they were inflated through the collusive price fixing of the company’s insulin drugs.” The complaint also alleges the drug maker “misrepresented and concealed the true extent of the pricing pressures it was experiencing from pharmacy benefit managers.” Novo Nordisk is the world’s largest insulin maker for the treatment of diabetes. The lawsuit covers the time between April 30, 2015 to Oct. 27, 2016.

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China’s implied oil demand in November hit the second highest level on record at an average 11.44 million barrels a day, according to an analysis of Chinese government data by S&P Global Platts released Thursday. That was 4.1% higher than the same month a year earlier. The increase came as the nation’s imports of key oil products rose to a six-month high of 1.1 million barrels a day, the report said. “Gasoline and jet fuel demand for the transport sector are likely to rise significantly prior to the start of the holidays as people across the country travel home to celebrate the new year, which falls on January 28,” said Song Yen Ling, senior analyst with Platts China Oil Analytics. February West Texas Intermediate crude was at $52.30 a barrel in electronic trading, after settling Wednesday at $52.25 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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The San Diego Chargers intend to move to Los Angeles, ESPN reported Wednesday night. The official announcement may come as early as Thursday. After more than two decades with no NFL teams, Los Angeles will now have two, after the St. Louis Rams moved back last year. The teams will share the same stadium, a $2.6 billion facility in Inglewood that broke ground in November. ESPN reported the team has yet to formally notify the NFL or San Diego officials about the move. The Chargers played in San Diego for 55 years, but spent their first season in Los Angeles in 1960. The move also has implications for the Oakland Raiders, who had a league-approved option to move to L.A. if the Chargers decided to stay put. The Raiders’ choices are now to move to a proposed stadium in Las Vegas, or work out a new stadium deal in Oakland. The Chargers’ move leaves the nation’s 17th-largest metro area — bigger than Denver, St. Louis or Charlotte — with only one pro team, baseball’s Padres. The NBA’s Clippers left San Diego for Los Angeles in 1984.

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The Department of Treasury on Wednesday added Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to its sanctions list along with six other North Korean officials. Two North Korean government agencies–the Ministry of Labor and the State Planning Commission–were also sanctioned to further punish the Communist country for its human rights abuses. U.S. citizens are banned from conducting business with persons and organizations on the Treasury’s sanctions list. Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong Un, was widely reported to have run North Korea while her brother was hospitalized for an extended period in 2014.

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Shares of Applied Optoelectronics Inc. rallied in the extended session Wednesday after the optical network equipment company forecast earnings well above its original outlook. Applied Optoelectronics shares jumped 19% to $27.08 after hours. The company expects adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of 77 cents to 82 cents a share on revenue of $84.5 million to $84.8 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 50 cents a share on revenue of $77.5 million, based on the company’s previous earnings guidance of 46 cents to 51 cents a share on revenue of $75 million to $79 million.

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