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Apple says 50% of devices have upgraded to iOS 9

Apple Inc. said on Monday that last week’s rollout of iOS 9 marked the “fastest iOS adoption ever,” with more than 50% of existing devices upgrading to the new mobile operating system just five days into its launch. “Customer response to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus has been incredibly positive,” Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller said in a statement. The new iOS, he said, is on pace to be downloaded by more users than any other software release in Apple’s history. The company began taking preorders for its newest smartphones, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, on September 12. It will begin selling the new hardware in retail stores this Friday. Shares of Apple were up 0.6% to $114.09 in premarket trade. They are down about 10.5% over the last three months, just underperforming the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 9%.

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Weatherford stock slumps on news of stock and convertible debt

Weatherford International Plc shares slumped more than 9% in premarket trading Monday, after the energy company announced the launch of concurrent underwritten public offerings of shares and mandatory exchangeable subordinated notes for a combined sum expected to total $1.0 billion. The oilfield services company said it intends to use the proceeds to pre-fund potential acquisitions and for general corporate purposes, including reducing debt. Citigroup and Wells Fargo are joint bookrunners on the combined offering. Shares are down 11.6% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has lost about 5%.

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Fed’s Bullard says rates could rise in October

James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, said in an interview with CNBC on Monday that there’s still a chance the central bank could raise interest rates at its October meeting. Reiterating comments from over the weekend, Bullard stressed he had not supported the Fed’s decision to leave rates at an all-time low at the meeting last week. Bullard did not get to vote at the meeting, but will be a voting member of the Fed’s policy committee in 2016. Market expectations currently point to no changes at the October policy decision, partly because there is no press conference after the meeting for Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen to explain a potential move. In that regard, Bullard said in the interview with CNBC that he is an advocate of having press conferences after each meeting to avoid heavy pressure on some of the gatherings. Fed communications should be “smoothed out by making every meeting exactly the same,” he said. The Fed meets on Oct. 27-28.

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Denbury Resources suspends dividend in face of falling oil prices

Denbury Resources Inc. said on Monday it was suspending its quarterly dividend starting in the fourth quarter, as the oil and natural gas company looks to maintain financial flexibility amid falling oil prices. Denbury said it will pay the third-quarter dividend of 6.25 cents a share on Sept. 29. The company said the dividend suspension will free up $22 million a quarter, to be used to pay down debt, increase capital spending or buy back stock. Denbury said it was reinstating its share repurchase program, which was suspended in November 2014 and had $222 million remaining. “Although our oil commodity hedges and proactive reduction in capital spending have buffered us to a large degree from this oil price downturn, the benefit from our hedges will begin to diminish in the fourth quarter of 2015,” said Chief Executive Phil Rykhoek. “We expect to reinstate a dividend in the future, but the timeline for doing so is uncertain and will likely be highly dependent on oil prices.” The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has tumbled 64% year to date, while the S&P 500 has lost 4.9%.

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NovoCure launches IPO of 12.5 million shares

NovoCure Ltd. on Monday announced the launch of an initial public offering of 12.5 million shares, including 5.0 million shares to be sold by selling shareholders. The oncology-focused biotech said it expects to price shares at $26 to $29 each to raise about $189 million. The company will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including clinical trials and research & development. The company is expected to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NVCR”. J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Evercore Group are joint bookrunners. Wells Fargo is lead manager with JMP Securities and Wedbush acting as co-managers.

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