Fed fines HSBC $175 million for lack of oversight of its foreign-exchange traders

The Federal Reserve on Friday announced it has fined HSBC Holdings plc $175 million for “deficiencies” in the British bank’s oversight over its traders in the foreign-exchange market. The central bank said the bank failed to detect that its traders misused confidential customer information and used electronic chatrooms to talk to competitors about their trading positions. The Fed order requires HSBC to improve its risk management concerning foreign-exchange trading.

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Biotech Prothena shares fall after it scraps psoriasis trial

Shares of biotech Prothena Corp. Plc slid 3.3% Friday, after the company said it was scrapping a psoriasis treatment after a trial failed to show the effects the company was seeking. Dublin-based Prothena said the trial of PRX003 me its primary goal of targeting CD146, a melanoma cell adhesion molecule, but it failed to show “a well-defined relationship between biological activity and meaningful clinical effect,” as the company was hoping. The trial involved 33 patients and the company has learned from it. But it will not be pushing for a Phase 2 trial, a move that will save it $30 million to $50 million, according to Instinet analyst Christopher Marai. “We expected that data from the small trial would be difficult to interpret and believe investor expectations for a positive read-out were low,” he wrote in a note. “We would buy on any weakness following this update.” Marai recommends owning the stock ahead of a year he expects will be filled with catalysts, including data from trials of NEOD001, an investigational treatment for AL amyloidosis, a disease that can affect the heart, kidneys, skin, nerves and liver. The analyst rates the stock a buy with an $87 price target, or 30% above its current trading level. Shares have gained 34% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.

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Sarepta Therapeutics shares dive on safety issues in FDA database

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. shares declined as much as 8% in morning trade Friday on safety issues reported in the Food and Drug Administration’s Adverse Events Reporting System (FAERS) for the company’s controversial Exondys 51 therapy. The FAERS database showed 13 serious events connected to the Duchenne muscular dystrophy therapy, including three patient deaths. But “we believe these reported issues are generally expected outcomes of a progressive fatal disease like DMD and are not necessarily due to any mechanistic or safety flaws of the drug itself,” said Leerink Partners analyst Joseph Schwartz. Company management told Leerink that the reported deaths happened in patients late in the disease, towards the end of their lives, according to Schwartz. FAERS, which the FDA recently made more accessible and user-friendly, “while insightful, requires a bit more diligence for full interpretation,” Schwartz said. Sarepta did not immediately return MarketWatch’s request for comment. Shares were most recently down 2.9%. Shares have surged 37.2% over the last three months, compared with a 4% rise in the S&P 500 .

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GoPro falls, analyst questions pricing of new Hero 6 camera

GoPro Inc. stock fell more than 4% at times in Friday morning trades after analysts checked in on new cameras announced Thursday by the company. Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese noted that the $499 price of GoPro’s new entry in its flagship Hero line, the Hero 6, could prevent it from reaching a mass audience. “The improved specs will appeal to the GoPro enthusiast, but the average consumer will likely opt for the HERO5 or competitor cameras given its high price,” Reese wrote. Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt noted that the pricing was the same as the 2014 Hero offering, the Hero 4 Black; 2014 was the last year GoPro managed to turn a profit. In 2015, Chief Executive Nick Woodman reportedly admitted a mistake in pricing a new camera too high, beginning a slide that has damaged GoPro’s balance sheet and stock price since amid production issues. GoPro shares fell to as low as $10.98 in early trading Friday, after closing Thursday at $11.48, and have fallen 33.6% in the past year as the S&P 500 has gained 16.7%.

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Trump met with Kevin Warsh about top Fed job: WSJ

President Donald Trump met with Kevin Warsh about his potential nomination to be the next Federal Reserve chairman, the Wall Street Journal said Friday. Warsh was a Fed governor from 2006 until 2011 and was a member of former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s inner circle of advisers. Prior to that, Warsh worked in White House for President George W. Bush. He is the son-in-law of Ron Lauder, a friend of the president. The report, which quotes a White House official, said Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with Warsh on Thursday.

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Dow’s drop defies positive broad-market breadth

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is pulling back in morning trade Friday from the previous day’s record close, but broader-market internals suggest the stock market is gaining ground. The number of advancing stocks is outnumbering decliners by a 1,381-to-1,161 margin on the NYSE and by a 1,287-to-941 score on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is little changed and the Nasdaq Composite is up 0.1%, but the Dow was down 36 points, with 21 of 30 components losing ground.

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Stocks open little changed, eye weekly and monthly gains

U.S. stock-market indexes opened little changed on Friday but were on track to post modest weekly gains. The main indexes were also on track to end the month higher and record an eighth consecutive quarterly advance. The S&P 500 was flat at 2,510. The benchmark index is on track for 1.6% monthly and 3.6% quarterly gain. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index was up 8 points, or 0.1%, to 6,461 and up 5% over the quarter, despite a barely positive monthly performance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 33 points, or 0.2%, to 22,347 at the open. The blue-chip index is on track for a nearly 2% monthly gain and set to end the quarter 4.7% higher. Among the best performers on Wall Street, Tyson Foods, Inc. jumped after the company upgraded its outlook and announced layoffs.

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Honeywell boosts dividend by 12%

Honeywell International Inc. said Friday it will raise its annual dividend by 12% to $2.98 a share from $2.66 a share. The new dividend will be effective starting in the fourth quarter, when the aerospace and automotive products and services company will pay a quarterly dividend of 74.5 cents a share on Dec. 8, to shareholders of record on Nov. 17. “Honeywell remains committed to growing our dividend faster than earnings for shareholders,” said Chief Executive Darius Adamczyk. The FactSet consensus for 2017 earnings per share of $7.09 is 7.4% above the 2016 EPS of $6.60. Honeywell’s stock has climbed 6.2% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 3.7%.

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Conn’s stock jumps toward 21-month high after an analyst upgrade

Shares of Conn’s Inc. shot up 6.8% in premarket trade Friday, putting them on track to open at the highest level since December 2015, after Oppenheimer turned bullish on the department store chain, citing an improved outlook for the company’s credit business and for earnings. Analyst Brian Nagel raised his rating to outperform, after being at perform since May 2015. He set a $40 stock price target, which is 56% above Thursday’s closing price of $25.65. “In our view, now under the direction of new CEO Norm Miller, and his freshly assembled team of senior leaders, the [Conn’s] credit business is on a much more solid footing,” Nagel wrote in a note to clients. “The market appears to meaningfully underappreciate the nearer- and longer-term EPS power of a better functioning [Conn’s] business model.” Conn’s had suffered last year as its credit-financing business suffered from rising delinquencies, pushing its stock down to a five-year low in September 2016, but has since rallied nearly four fold. Over the past three months, the stock has run up 35% through Thursday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has gained 3.1% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 3.7%.

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Roku stock soars again, to add over $1 billion to market cap in 2 days

Shares of Roku Inc. surged 12% in active premarket trade Friday, putting the streaming device company to add over $1 billion in market capitalization in just its second day as a public company. The stock closed at $23.50 on Thursday, which was $9.50, or 68%, above its initial public offering price of $14. With 94.75 million shares outstanding and the stock trading at $26.40 ahead of the open, the $12.40 rise off the IPO price would add $1.17 billion in market cap to the company, nearly double the pre-IPO valuation of $1.33 billion. Trading volume topped 1 million shares more than an hour before the open.

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