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Gold futures edged higher Thursday to eke out a positive finish as traders watched the dollar and assessed the impact of a sweeping tax overhaul passed by Congress a day earlier. February gold on Comex rose $1 to finish at $1,270.60 an ounce.
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American depositary receipts of Embraer SA jumped 25% Thursday after a report on The Wall Street Journal said Boeing Co. is in takeover talks with the Brazilian single-aisle aircraft maker. The deal would attach a relatively large premium for Embraer, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter. The talks are on hold as parties wait for indication whether the Brazilian government would approve the deal. According to the report, it is far from certain the Brazilian government would sign off on the combination, and there’s a higher-than-usual probability that there won’t be any deal. Embraer was state-owned until the 1990s. Shares of Boeing fell 0.5%.
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Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. shares fell 12.3% in Thursday trading after the home goods retailer reported third-quarter earnings that Credit Suisse analysts call “weak.” Earnings per share of 44 cents beat the 37-cents FactSet consensus, but were down from 85 cents last year. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was down 350 basis points, “the largest decline to date, validating our concerns on the rising cost of doing business in this sector.” Credit Suisse rates Bed Bath & Beyond shares neutral with a $25 price target. KeyBanc Capital Markets also highlighted the “significant competitive headwinds” that will put pressure on the margins over the near-term. “Factors that have pressured results in recent years are likely to continue,” analysts wrote. KeyBanc rates Bed Bath & Beyond shares underweight with a $17 price target. “[M]anagement highlighted that it is going to place more emphasis on its value proposition to consumers, including returning to price match guarantees, more responsive pricing at the brick & mortar stores, and adding more low-priced/treasure hunt items to emulate concepts that have succeeded in the current environment such as dollar stores,” wrote BTIG analysts. They rate the company’s shares neutral. Bed Bath & Beyond shares are down 52.7% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 18.8% for the period.
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Biogen Inc. shares dropped 3% in morning trade Thursday after the company put out a negative update for its Alzheimer’s disease drug. An Independent Data Monitoring Committee’s 12-month analysis found that the therapy, BAN2401, “did not meet the criteria for success” based on the trial’s primary endpoint. The phase 2 trial will continue through 18 months as planned, with a final analysis at the end, which is expected in the second half of next year. Biogen and Eisai Co. have been partners on BAN2401 since 2014, an agreement that included another Alzheimer’s disease drug, E2609, which is also still being developed. Last month, the companies expanded the agreement and, as part of it, eliminated milestone payments for BAN2401. BAN2401’s phase 2 trial enrolled 856 patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. The Independent Data Monitoring Committee’s analysis, called a “Bayesian analysis,” was used in the hope that “it would enable us to demonstrate clinical success faster than more traditional study designs,” said Lynn Kramer, chief clinical and medical officer of the Eisai Neurology Business Group. The companies emphasized that 16 interim analyses that looked at potential for futility did not find it, and that the Bayesian analysis at 12 months found “success was judged at an 80% of higher probability of achieving a Clinically Significant Difference.” Despite the company’s Thursday share decline, EvercoreISI analyst Umer Raffat said that the trial wasn’t well understood and it shouldn’t affect company shares much. “Today, all we learned is that the efficacy delta is ~10%),” Raffat said. “Trial continues to mo 18. This is key.” Biogen shares have risen nearly 3% over the last three months, compared with a 7.5% rise in the S&P 500 and a 10.6% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .
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Stock indexes opened higher on Thursday to trade near record levels. Market activity could be subdued as investors look beyond the tax bill for fresh reasons to snap up equities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 75 points, or 0.3%, to 24,802. The S&P 500 was up 8 points, or 0.3%, to 2,687. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 17 points, or 0.2%, to 6,978.
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Shares of Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. rallied 1.5% in early morning trade Thursday, after the home builder reported fiscal fourth-quarter gross margin percentage that improved, and profit and sales that fell less than some analysts had expected. Net income for the quarter to Oct. 31 declined to $11.8 million, or 8 cents a share, from $22.3 million, or 14 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue decreased 10% to $721.7 million. The average of two analysts surveyed by FactSet was for earnings per share of 1 cent and revenue of $594.3 million. Sales of homes fell to $666.8 million from $777.5 million, while homebuilding gross margin percentage improved to 13.7% from 13.0%. Hovnanian’s stock has lost 0.5% year to date, while the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF has climbed 57% and the S&P 500 has rallied 20%.
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Thursday confirmed that it had reached an agreement with the Treasury Department to allow the government-sponsored mortgage enterprises it regulates, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , to retain $3 billion in capital. The two companies were slated to reduce their capital buffers to zero, under a 2012 directive from Congress. FHFA director Mel Watt noted that the tax reform measures that just passed Congress would have caused the companies to require a draw from Treasury, because the value of deferred tax assets on their balance sheets would have declined so drastically. But, Watt said, “FHFA considers the $3 billion capital reserve sufficient to cover other fluctuations in income in the normal course of each Enterprise’s business.”
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Shares of Long Island Iced Tea Corp. blasted higher by nearly 6-fold in premarket trade Thursday, after the seller of ready-to-drink beverages said it was changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp., and will shift its focus to exploring investment opportunities that leverage the benefits of blockchain technology. The company said it plans to request Nasdaq for a new stock ticker symbol, and has reserved the web domain of “www.longblockchain.com.” The company said it will continue to operate Long Island Brand Beverages as a wholly-owned subsidiary. “The company is already in the preliminary stages of evaluating specific opportunities involving blockchain technology. The discussions are only in the preliminary stages but indicate the areas of focus for the company,” the company said in a statement. The stock, up 482% ahead of the open, on track to open at the highest price seen during regular session hours since February 2015. Through Wednesday, the stock had tumbled 41.5% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 19.7%.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is testing a personal shopping service targeting “busy NYC moms” and a store concept that does away with cashiers, according to a Recode report. Code Eight, a Walmart subsidiary, is testing the service, which has placed an online job listing detailing the target shopper as a “high net worth urban consumer.” Shoppers can currently choose items from the health and beauty, household essentials and apparel and accessories categories, text a photo of the item and have them delivered for free within two business days. Household items can be delivered within 24 hours. Walmart’s startup incubator Store No. 8 is working on the store concept, called Project Kepler, Recode writes. It has elements of Amazon.com Inc.’s Go store, which also eliminates cash registers, but has been delayed by glitches. Wal-Mart shares are up nearly 43% for the year so far, outpacing the S&P 500 index , which is up 19.7% for the period, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which is up 25.1% for 2017 so far.
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Shares of Paychex Inc. fell 1.7% in premarket trade, after a slight beat of fiscal second-quarter profit revenue expectations was offset by a downbeat profit outlook. Net income for the quarter to Nov. 30 increased to $217.0 million, or 60 cents a share, from $202.1 million, or 56 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 59 cents, in line with the FactSet consensus. Total revenue increased 7% to $826.5 million, topping the FactSet consensus of $823.5 million, as better-than-expected human resource services revenue offset a slight miss in payroll service revenue. For fiscal 2018, the company expects adjusted EPS to increase 7% to 8%, while the FactSet consensus of $2.39 implies growth of 8.6%.
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