Tag: stock market

Penn National Gaming Inc. said Monday it agreed to buy Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. in a deal valued at $2.8 billion. Under terms of the deal, Pinnacle shareholders will receive $20.00 in cash and 0.42 shares of Penn National shares for each Pinnacle share they own. Based on Friday’s closing prices, that values Pinnacle shares at $32.47 each, which is 4.9% above Friday’s closing price of $30.95. The per-share bid would give Pinnacle a market capitalization of $1.87 billion. As part of the deal, Penn National agreed to sell Pinnacle’s gaming operations in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio for $575 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2018. Shares of both Penn National and Pinnacle are halted for news until 7:30 a.m. ET. Shares of both companies have more than doubled year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 19.5%.

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AES Corp. said Monday it will sell its 51% stake in the subsidiary that owns its Philippines business interests for $1.05 billion to SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. The deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2018, includes its interest in the 630 MW Masinloc coal-fired plant, the 335 MW Masinloc 2 coal-fired plant under construction and the 10 MW Masinloc energy storage project. AES said it bought a 92% interest in Masinloc, with International Finance corp. as a minority partner, in 2008 in a deal valued at $1.1 billion. In 2014, AES sold 41% of Masinloc to EGCO Group for $453 million. AES’s stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has lost 7.1% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 19.5%.

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Republican Sen. John McCain will return home to Arizona and miss his party’s final tax bill vote expected this week, CBS News reported on Sunday. The House is expected to take up the bill on Tuesday. Republicans likely have the votes they need for passage after two holdouts, Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Marco Rubio of Florida, pledged their support last week. McCain was hospitalized recently due to side effects from his chemotherapy treatments.

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A major power outage at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, was grounding flights Sunday afternoon and leaving passengers stranded. The outage was affecting several areas of the airport, Atlanta Airport said in a statement on Twitter. Georgia Power officials said they were aware of the problem and working on a solution, according to media reports. The outage was first reported at 1:15 p.m. Eastern. Passengers can check the FAA website for updates.

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has sent to the anti-sexual-violence organization RAINN a sum equaling the contributions made in 2007 and 2010 to Gillibrand’s campaign funds by Donald Trump, the New York Daily News reported, saying a spokesman for the New York Democrat had confirmed the development. Gillibrand found herself in a war of words late this week with now-President Trump, as she called for his resignation over the sexual-misconduct claims lodged against him and he responded by ripping Gillibrand for seeking donations from him in the past, saying she had begged and would “do anything” for the requested contributions. The sum Gillibrand reportedly sent to RAINN was $5,850.

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday he would use the Congressional Review Act as a vehicle to force a Senate vote on the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal this week of Obama-era rules on net neutrality, according to a Reuters report. Those rules barred internet service providers from discriminating against content, content providers or consumers, provided the content in question is legal. The commission voted 3-2, along party lines, on Thursday to repeal those rules. Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, who joined the commission during the Obama administration as a Republican member put forth by Sen. Mitch McConnell, reportedly said the rollback of the rules could benefit consumers as broadband providers such as AT&T and Comcast offer wider ranges of internet service options. Even if Schumer succeeds in getting senators on the record on net neutrality the move is not expected to have an impact on the rollback.

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Procter & Gamble Co. shares ticked higher in the extended session Friday after the consumer goods company certified that activist investor Nelson Peltz secured a seat on its board. P&G shares rose 0.8% to $92.58 after hours. In a statement, P&G said “results between Ernesto Zedillo and Nelson Peltz were extremely close, with Mr. Peltz receiving almost 50% of shares voted.” The company continued: “Because the election results were so close, and because a large number of shareholders voted for Nelson Peltz to be a Director, the Board has engaged in numerous discussions with Mr. Peltz regarding a Board seat.” P&G said it will work with Peltz, who will join the board on March 1, as it does not agree with such strategies as “taking on excessive leverage, or substantially reducing R&D spending, or advocating for a break-up of the Company, or moving the Company out of Cincinnati.” Last month, Peltz won an elected board seat, which the company considered to be a preliminary result.

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Fitch Ratings hiked Portugal’s credit rating two notches to BBB, returning it to investment-grade status. Large institutional investors like pension funds are often required to abstain from buying bonds ranked below investment-grade. The move would also make its sovereign paper eligible for entry in benchmark bond indexes and could, therefore, draw billions of dollars of inflows. The ratings company justified its move saying they expected government debt levels to fall. Portuguese bond yields touched a three-year low on Friday on anticipation of an upgrade. Debt prices rise when yields move higher.

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Campbell Soup Co. is in “advanced talks” to buy snack maker Snyder’s-Lance Inc. , CNBC reported late Friday, citing sources familiar with the potential deal. The acquisition could be announced as early as next week and would be Campbell’s largest, the report said. The deal could be delayed or fall apart, the sources said. It would value Snyder’s at about $50 a share, according to the report. Shares of Campbell Soup were flat in late trading Friday after gaining 2% at the end of the trading day, while Snyder’s-Lance shares rose 5% after finishing the regular session up 5.3%.

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All main stock benchmarks closed at records on Friday with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average extending their weekly winning streak to four as Republicans prepared to outline their final version of the tax bill. Stocks have been sensitive to developments from Capitol Hill on the tax bill and any news that is viewed as a step closer to enacting tax cuts tend to buoy market sentiment. The Dow rose 140 points, or 0.6%, to close at 24,648. The S&P 500 climbed 23 points, or 0.9%, to end at 2,675 while the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 80 points, or 1.2%, to close at 6,936.

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