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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Consumer prices minus food and energy picked up a bit in October while retail sales rose modestly, according to government data released Wednesday. The overall CPI rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in October, while core prices rose a slightly stronger 0.2%. Over the past 12 months, core consumer inflation has risen 1.8%, up from a 1.7% gain in September, That’s the highest rate since April. Retail sales rose 0.2% in October on modest across-the-board gains after a revised 1.9% surge in the prior month.

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Shares of Acorda Therapeutics Inc. plummeted 38% toward a five-month low in premarket trade Wednesday, after the biopharmaceutical company said it halted new enrollment for studies of its Parkinson’s disease treatment tozadenant following some patient deaths. The company said of the 890 patients exposed to tozadenant in phase 3 and phase 2b studies, there have been seven cases of sepsis, five of which were fatal. None of 234 patients exposed to placebo developed sepsis. As a result, the company said it has increased the frequency of blood cell count monitoring in its phase 3 tozadenant program, as four of the sepsis cases were associated with agranulocytosis, or lowered white blood cell counts, with two of the patients having no white blood cells. Acorda said further discussion with the independent data safety monitoring board and the Food and Drug Administration were pending. Acorda’s stock had run up 33% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF had slipped 1.4% and the S&P 500 had gained 4.6%.

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Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. shares slid 4.5% in Wednesday premarket trading after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that missed expectations. Net income fell to $35.7 million, or 27 cents per share, from $52.6 million, or 36 cents per share, last year. Adjusted EPS was 45 cents, below the 47-cent FactSet consensus. Sales also fell, totaling $974.2 million from $976.4 million last year. The FactSet consensus was $990.0 million. Same-store sales decreased 1.4%, below the 0.8% growth FactSet forecast. The company said Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria caused store closures from late August through the end of the fiscal year, hurting sales and same-store sales. But even after those weather-related challenges, Chief Executive Chris Brickman said “revenue fell short of our expectations.” Sally Beauty plans to restructure its international operations and will invest in e-commerce, which will allow two-day delivery to more than 90% of U.S. homes by the middle of fiscal 2018. The company completed the restructuring of its North American operations, incurring a charge of $22.7 million from staff cuts and facility closures. The company expects charges for the European restructuring of $12 million to $14 million. For fiscal 2018, Sally Beauty expects same-store sales to be about flat, below the FactSet consensus for 0.9% growth. Sally Beauty shares are down 37% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 18.3% for the period.

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SandRidge Energy Inc. said Wednesday it has reached an agreement to acquire Bonanza Creek Energy in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $746 million. SandRidge said it will pay $36 per Bonanza Creek share. The deal will add 67,000 contiguous net acres in the oil window of DJ Basin of Colorado. “SandRidge will benefit from the greatly increased scale and substantial cost and operational synergies as a result of the transaction,” Chief Executive James Bennett said in a statement. The deal is expected to boost cash flow starting in 2018. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Bonanza Creek shares surged 14% in premarket trade after resuming trading following a halt for the news. SandRidge shares fell 1.6%, and have fallen 22% in 2017, while Bonanza Creek has lost 73%. The S&P 500 has gained 15% in 2017.

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SandRidge Energy Inc. said Wednesday it has reached an agreement to acquire Bonanza Creek Energy in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $746 million. SandRidge said it will pay $36 per Bonanza Creek share. The deal will add 67,000 contiguous net acres in the oil window of DJ Basin of Colorado. “SandRidge will benefit from the greatly increased scale and substantial cost and operational synergies as a result of the transaction,” Chief Executive James Bennett said in a statement. The deal is expected to boost cash flow starting in 2018. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Both stocks were halted in premarket trade for the news. SandRidge shares have fallen 22% in 2017, while Bonanza Creek has lost 73%. The S&P 500 has gained 15% in 2017.

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Target Corp. reported Wednesday fiscal third-quarter profit and sales that beat expectations, but the stock tumbled 2.7% after the discount retailer provided a less-than-rosy profit outlook for the current quarter and said it expected a “highly competitive” holiday sales environment. Net income for the quarter to Oct. 28 fell to $480 million, or 88 cents a share, from $608 million, or $1.06 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 91 cents, beating the FactSet consensus of 86 cents. Revenue increased 1.4% to $16.67 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $16.60 billion, as same-store sales growth of 0.9% beat expectations of a 0.4% increase. Comparable traffic increased 1.4%, while comparable digital sales rose 24%. The company expects fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.05 to $1.25, compared with the FactSet consensus of $1.24, and raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance range to $4.40 to $4.60 from $4.34 to $4.54. Fourth-quarter same-store sales are expected to be flat to up 2%, surrounding the FactSet consensus for 0.5% growth. The stock has run up 10.6% over the past three months through Tuesday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has tacked on 3.1% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.6%.

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Inflation has been too low for too long and the U.S. central bank has to alter its communications with the markets to convince investors the central bank is willing to let it run hotter than the 2% target, said Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Fed, on Wednesday. In a speech in London, Evans said the Fed must alter its statement to make clear that its inflation target of 2% is not a ceiling. “Our communications should be much clearer about our willingness to deliver on a symmetric inflation outcome, acknowledging a greater chance of inflation at 2.5% in the future than what has been communicated in the past,” Evans said. Many economists and Fed officials think the low inflation seen this year is due to transitory factors. But Evans said “it gets harder and harder for me to feel comfortable” with the transitory explanation “with each low monthly reading.”

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SendGrid Inc. priced its initial public offering higher than expected and will offer more shares than originally planned, which will lead the email-marketing company to a total take of at least $131 million. SendGrid, which sells a software platform that helps companies manage email communications with customers, announced Tuesday evening that it will sell 8.2 million shares at $16 apiece. The 8-year-old startup had previously planned to sell 7.7 million shares at a price of $13.50 to $15.50 a share. Underwriting banks, led by Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan, have access to another 1.23 million shares that could be sold and push the total take higher. SendGrid is on track to report $100 million in annual revenue for the first time this year, and is approaching profitability after raising more than $80 million in venture investment. Shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein downgraded Roku Inc. to underperform because the stock’s recent gains have made it difficult to justify the current valuation, he wrote in a Tuesday note to clients. Roku fell 13% to $36.95 during the regular session, and edged down less than 1% after hours. At its current prices, Helfstein says that Roku is the “most expensive publicly traded internet-based company on the basis of Platform revenue or Platform gross profit.” Helfstein said that even though the company is a leading streaming device and software maker, and beat expectations with its third-quarter results, that does not justify that three-fold gain the stock as made since it went public at $14. Helfstein set a price target of $28. Roku shares have climbed 163% from the initial public offering price, with the S&P 500 index gaining 2.8%.

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Hedge fund manager John Paulson took a fresh stake in avionics and information technology firm Rockwell Collins in the third quarter, while closing a position in American Internatonal Group , according to a quarterly regulatory filing on Tuesday. The 13-F filing by Paulson & Company showed the hedge fund held 112,400 shares of Rockwell Collins as of Sept. 30. The filing also showed Paulson and Company no longer held a stake of more than 4.14 million shares of AIG. Paulson also eliminated small stakes in Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. , the filing showed.

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