Category: Stock Market News

President-elect Donald Trump threatened Toyota Motor Corp. with a “big border tax” if the company builds a plant in Mexico instead of the U.S. In a tweet, Trump said Toyota is planning to build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build its Corolla cars for the U.S. market. “No way!,” Trump said. “Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.” Toyota’s shares were off about 0.4% after Trump’s tweet.

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Shares of biotech KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. surged 8% Thursday, after the company reported positive guidance from a meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding its benznidazole, a treatment for the neglected rare tropical illness, Chagas disease. The company, which was headed by investor Martin Shkreli until his arrest on fraud charges in late 2015, said the FDA will accept its approach to showing safety and efficacy using data drawn from previous studies. The regulator said benznidazole is expected to be eligible for a priority review voucher, which is given to sponsors of treatments for certain neglected tropical diseases. “This guidance makes it clear that we are on the right track with our development of benznidazole for Chagas disease, and we expect we will progress expeditiously toward a submission,” Chief Executive Cameron Durrant said in a statement. Shares, which trade over-the-counter, are down 82% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained about 12%.

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Shares of Twilio gained 2% after the stock was upgraded to overweight from sector weight at Pacific Crest Securities Thursday. The analysts upgraded the company, saying they believe the core business of Twilio, which makes programmable cloud software for developers and enterprises and makes up 90% of revenue, is in a position to see continued steady growth. That growth could lead Twilio to profitability by the end of the year, they said. Additionally, they say a 55% stock drop in the fourth quarter of 2016 has created “an increasingly favorable risk/reward” for investors. They established a price target of $36. Shares of Twilio have fallen 10% in the past month, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 3%.

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Oil futures pared earlier gains Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies fell much more than expected, but stocks of gasoline and distillates spiked higher. Crude stockpiles declined by 7.1 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 30. The American Petroleum Institute late Wednesday reported a fall of 7.4 million barrels, though analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a decline of 1.7 million barrels. Gasoline supplies, however, rose 8.3 million barrels while distillate stockpiles jumped up by 10.1 million barrels, according to the EIA. Reports on supplies this week were delayed by a day because of the New Year’s Day holiday. February crude traded up 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $53.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down from $53.90 before the data.

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Natural-gas futures turned lower Thursday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that supplies of natural gas fell by 49 billion cubic feet for the week ended Dec. 30. That was well below the 106 billion cubic feet expected by Citi Futures. Total stocks now stand at 3.311 trillion cubic feet, down 364 billion cubic feet from a year ago and 21 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. February natural gas lost 9.1 cents, or 2.8%, to $3.176 per million British thermal units. It traded at $3.288 before the data.

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Watch maker Fossil Group said Thursday it is planning to double its wearables product line-up in 2017 to more than 300 new products and will add extra brands to its stable. These include Armani Exchange hybrid smartwatches, and Misfit’s Vapor, the first touchscreen smartwatch featuring a heart rate, GPS and standalone music functions. The company said it launched more than 140 new wearables in 2016 across 40 countries. Shares fell 6% in early trade, and are down 24% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday that has purchased ShoeBuy, an IAC/InterActive Corp. property, for about $70 million. ShoeBuy, an online apparel and accessories retailer, was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Boston. The site will continue to operate as a standalone and complementary site to Jet.com, the e-commerce site that Wal-Mart purchased for $3.3 billion in an August 2016 deal. ShoeBuy’s Chief Executive Mike Sorabella, the company’s executives and its 200-plus employees will join the Wal-Mart organization, and the site’s suppliers will have the option to expand their reach by selling merchandise on Jet.com. Wal-Mart shares are down 0.5% in Thursday trading, but up 9.2% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 12.5% for the last 12 months.

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Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings on Thursday placed ratings on department store chain Macy’s Inc. on CreditWatch negative, meaning it could downgrade the credit in the near term. S&P rates Macy’s at BBB, or two notches above speculative, or “junk” status. The move comes after Macy’s late Wednesday warned on 2016 profit after weaker-than-expected holiday sales. It also announced it was cutting 6,000 jobs. “The
extent of any downgrade will incorporate our view of Macy’s ability to cope with the weak operating trends in the department store sector that continue to reflect symptoms of secular changes in the retail industry,” said S&P. “While many department stores have considerable excess real estate, consumers are increasingly shifting their purchases online, drawn by convenience, selection, and price transparency.” Macy’s shares were trading down 12%, while the S&P 500 was flat.

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Sears Holdings Corp. said Thursday that it will shutter an additional 150 stores in an effort to increase financial flexibility and improve operating performance. Shares are up 5.9% in early trading. Sears announced earlier in premarket that it will sell its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. , a deal that has a cumulative value of $775 million, including use of the Craftsman license royalty-free for 15 years. Sears will generate up to $1 billion in liquidity through a $500 million loan, secured by real estate properties valued at more than $800 million and a previously announced standby letter of credit facility of up to $500 million, the company said. Sears will close 109 Kmart stores and 41 Sears stores. While these locations generated $1.2 billion in sales over the past year, they had an adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $60 million for that period. Same-store sales at both Sears and Kmart for the first two months of the fourth quarter so far have declined in the range of 12% and 13%. Sears shares are down 45.5% for the last year while the S&P 500 index are up 12.6% for the same period.

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U.S. stocks opened marginally lower on Thursday, as investors turned cautions after mixed labor-market data and poor numbers from retailers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 16 points or 0.1%, at 19,922. The index struggled to pass through the psychologically important 20,000 level for weeks. The S&P 500 declined 2 points, or 0.1%, to 2,268, hovering near its all-time high set in December. The Nasdaq Composite began the session down 3 points, or 0.1%, at 5,473.

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