Tag: stock market

Gilead Sciences Inc. shares rose in the extended session Tuesday after the biotech topped Wall Street estimates on earnings and revenue for the quarter. Gilead shares advanced 2.2% to $84.48. The company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $3.32 on revenue of $8.51 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast $3 a share on revenue of $8.16 billion. Gilead forecast full-year 2016 revenue of $30 billion to $31 billion. Analysts have forecast $31.97 billion. Separately, Gilead said its board authorized an additional $12 billion in share buybacks, and a 10% dividend increase for the second quarter.

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U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Tuesday following steep declines in global equity markets and a renewed slide in oil prices. The S&P 500 dropped 36.35 points, or 1.9%, to 1,903.03. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 295.64 points, or 1.8%, to 16,153.54. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite ended the day down 103.42 points, or 2.2%, at 4,516.95.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s stock is tumbling 4.9%, as a broad-market selloff and a sharp drop in Treasury yields weighs heavily on the financial sector. Goldman’s stock price decline of $7.78 is shaving off about 53 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which is down 282 points. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note has dropped to a 9 1/2-month low of 1.864%. Declines in longer-term rates often hurt banks, as it lowers the spread they earn from funding fund longer-term loans with shorter-term borrowings. Among other financial sector heavyweights, Bank of America Corp.’s stock is slumping 5.5%; volume of 125.6 million shares makes it the NYSE’s most-active issue. Elsewhere, shares of Dow component J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. are shedding 3.1%, of Citigroup Inc. are sliding 4.8% and of Wells Fargo & Co. are giving up 1.9%.

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Oil futures fell Tuesday to settle below $30 a barrel, as expectations for cuts in crude output from major producers faded and the market readied for weekly data that are expected to show an increase in U.S. supplies. March West Texas Intermediate crude finished at $29.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down $1.74, or 5.5%. That was the lowest finish since Jan. 21, according to FactSet data.

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Hillary Clinton was declared the official winner of the Iowa causus early Tuesday afternoon after the state Democratic party finally tallied up all the votes. Her margin was laser thin. Clinton garnered 49.86% of the vote to 49.57% for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley won just 0.57% of the vote.

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Apple Inc. will unveil a smaller-screen iPhone, a new iPad Air and new Apple Watch bands at a product event on March 15, according to a report in 9to5Mac. While Apple has historically kept new iPhone introductions to its flagship hardware event in September, the iPhone 5se would be a low-budget phone, possibly selling for $450, according to the report. Its four-inch screen would essentially replace the similarly-sized iPhone 5s, but with more up-to-date innards, such as an A9 chip. The company will also unveil the iPad Air 3 and provide updates to Apple Watch, according to 9to5Mac. Shares of Apple fell 1.2% to $95.28 amid a broad market selloff. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The recent stock-market selloff “is not all that unexpected” nor “necessarily worrisome” as investors were naturally going to readjust the pricing of risk in the wake of the December’s interest-rate hike, said Kansas City Fed President Esther George, on Tuesday. “Monetary policy cannot respond to every blip in financial markets,” George said in a speech on the economic outlook at the Central Exchange in Kansas City. There has been no “substantial shift” in the outlook that would justify pausing further gradual rate hikes, she said. While there are risks to the economy from the energy sector, elevated inventories and the global economy, George discounted fears of a U.S. recession, saying the economic fundamentals remain strong and core inflation measures have recently picked up. George, one of the most hawkish of the regional Fed presidents, is a voting member of the committee this year.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform have released a memo on the documents obtained about the pricing of drugs by Valeant Pharmaceuticals . The memo shows how Valeant set drug prices — it lifted the price of Isuprel by 525% and Nitropress by 212% — and Valeant’s public-relations strategy, which was to focus on patient assistant programs. From 2014 to 2015, Valeant increased the prices of more than 20 additional “U.S. Prescription Products” by more than 200%, the document says ahead of a hearing on Thursday about pricing.

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The value of announced deals worth more than $50 million in the U.S. retail and consumer sector totaled $238.1 billion in 2015, a record high according to PwC. The 2015 total was up from $193.9 billion in 2014, with the $53.1 billion merger that created the Kraft Heinz Co. the largest transaction of the year. The number of transactions worth more than $50 million was down 14% last year to 156, however. Retail and consumer companies are under pressure to respond to trends and move quickly on market opportunities, PwC said in a report published Tuesday. Low interest rates and shareholder activism also fueled deal activity, the report said. The number of deals worth more than $1 billion, 31, rose 11% year-over-year. The food and beverage subsector had the most, with eight. “We expect deal activity in the food and beverage (including alcohol), household and personal products and consumer products sub-sectors to remain steady, driven by key trends, such as, changing consumer preferences, emerging competition, low growth in mature markets, channel fragmentation and an increased focus on health and wellness,” PwC said.

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Alphabet Inc. officially surpassed Apple Inc. as the largest company by market capitalization on Tuesday morning. The company’s shares rose more than 3% to $795 in high-volume trade, which gives its stock a valuation of $546.8 billion, versus Apple’s $530.9 billion market cap. This is the first time Alphabet has been valued higher than Apple since January 11, 2010, when they briefly crisscrossed. Apple surpassed ExxonMobil as the world’s most valuable company in 2011, and has held the title for more than four straight years. The oil giant has since been pushed down even further in the ranks by Microsoft Corp. , which is now the third most valuable company with a market cap of $430 million. Alphabet’s rise to the world’s most valuable company follows stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings. The company’s shares are up 50% over the last 12 months, versus a 5% decline for the S&P 500.

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