Tag: stock market

Shares of Marathon Patent Group Inc. , an intellectual property licensing and management company, surged more than 30% in premarket trade Monday, as bitcoin surged to a fresh high close to $10,000. Marathon is viewed as a cryptocurrency play, since it acquired mining company Global Bit Ventures Inc. in early November. “We believe the acquisition of Global Bit Ventures will take advantage of an ongoing revolution in digital transactions conducted on blockchains as we see increasing adoption and proliferation of blockchain protocols in our everyday lives,” Chief Executive Doug Croxall said when announcing the deal. Last week, the company reported results for its third quarter, that showed a narrowing of its net and operating losses. The stock has fallen 13.5% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 16%.

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Lowe’s Cos. shares rose 0.5% in premarket trade Monday, after Raymond James upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform following the company’s third-quarter earnings. “Lowe’s shares are more attractive (versus historical levels) on a forward multiple basis – specifically versus its primary retail competitor and the overall market (S&P 500),” analyst Budd Bugatch wrote in a note. “In addition, underlying industry indicators, as well as comments from key industry suppliers, remain generally supportive of the home improvement industry moving into 2018.” Rising wages and house price appreciation are expected to encourage homeowners to take on small home-improvement projects as well as spending on maintenance and repairs, said the analyst. Lowe’s shares have gained 11.4% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 16%.

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Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday that Sears and Kmart stores are offering free home delivery for online purchases worth more than $399 through Monday, Dec. 25. The move is part of a number of special offers the department-store chain is offering for the holiday season, including discounts on appliances, cashback and points on purchases made with a Sears credit card. Sears shares were not yet active premarket, but are down 58% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 16%.

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Alkermes PLC shares rose 2.4% in premarket trade Monday on news of the company’s partnership with Biogen Inc. on the multiple sclerosis drug ALKS 8700. Biogen shares rose 0.6% in premarket trade. Under the agreement, Alkermes will receive $28 million upfront — which represents Biogen’s share of development costs in 2017 — and is eligible for up to $200 million in clinical and regulatory achievements. Biogen will pay for ALKS 8700 development expenses starting in 2018 and will be responsible for the therapy’s commercialization. The company also expects to register an initial milestone payment of $50 million as an expense this year, according to the agreement. ALKS 8700 is in late-stage clinical development to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. Alkermes shares have risen 1.3% over the last three months and Biogen shares have risen 8.4%, compared with a 6.5% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Life Sciences company Quanterix Corp. on Monday launched its initial public offering, and said it will offer 3.34 million shares priced at $14 to $16 a pop. The company would raise $50.1 million at the midpoint of the price range. The company is planning to list on Nasdaq, under the ticker symbol ‘QTRX’. J.P. Morgan, Leerink Partners and Cowen are joint bookrunners on the deal with BTIG and Evercore ISI acting as co-managers. Proceeds of the deal will be used to expand the company’s commercial operations, improve and update its Simoa technology, support a 2018 product launch, move to a larger corporate headquarters, pursue regulatory approval to develop certain instruments, to pursue acquisitions and for general corporate purposes.

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Prince Harry, fifth in line to the British throne, is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle, the Prince of Wales announced Monday. “The wedding will take place in Spring 2018. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course,” Clarence House, the official account of Prince Charles, said in a statement posted to Twitter. Divorcee Markle, who at 36 is three years older than her royal fiance, only appeared in public with Prince Harry at an official event in September, but rumors of their engagement have been building in recent weeks. The couple got engaged in London earlier this month, according to the royal statement. The biracial American will be known as Princess Harry of Wales, unless the Queen follows recent practice and awards her grandson a new dukedom, in which case she would become a duchess.

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Leandra English, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, filed a lawsuit Sunday night seeking a restraining order to block White House budget director Mick Mulvaney from taking charge of the agency, according to news reports. English, who was named acting CFPB director by former director Richard Cordray, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington against President Donald Trump and Mulvaney, who Trump named the agency’s temporary director on Friday. English’s suit claims she is the rightful director under procedures spelled out by the Dodd-Frank Act.

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Nvidia Corp. and GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric Co. , announced a deal Sunday that will extend the companies’ 10-year partnership and use Nvidia’s sophisticated artificial-intelligence chips to speed up processing of health-care data. That includes the new Nvidia-powered Revolution Frontier CT system, which will process images two times faster for GE’s 500,000 imaging devices worldwide. Nvidia’s chips will also help speed the processing of the 50 petabytes of data that the average hospital produces annually. “Our partnership with GE Healthcare brings together great expertise in medical instruments and AI to create a new generation of intelligent instruments that can dramatically improve patient care,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in a statement. GE Healthcare CEO Kieran Murphy concurred: “By partnering with Nvidia, GE Healthcare will be able to deliver devices of the future — intelligent machines capable of empowering providers to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnoses for patients around the world.”

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Meredith Corp. has agreed to a deal to buy Time Inc. in a magazine-industry consolidation valued at $1.85 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The Journal reported that Iowa-based Meredith has agreed to pay $18.50 a share in cash — a 46% premium from Time’s stock at the time acquisition talks were first reported on Nov. 15. On Friday, Time shares closed at $16.90. Time shares jumped 2% in after-hours trading Sunday, and Meredith rose 1.3%. The bid by Meredith, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens and Martha Stewart Living, among others, is reportedly backed by the billionaire Koch brothers. It is unclear how much influence the Kochs would have on Time, which includes Time magazine, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly among its stable of publications.

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Meredith Corp. is nearing a deal to buy Time Inc. in a magazine-industry consolidation that could be valued at more than $1.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The Journal reported that Iowa-based Meredith has agreed to pay $18 to $19 a share — at least a 42% premium from Time’s stock at the time acquisition talks were first reported on Nov. 15. On Friday, Time shares closed at $16.90. The bid by Meredith, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens and Martha Stewart Living, among others, is reportedly backed by the billionaire Koch brothers. It is unclear how much influence the Kochs would have on Time, which includes Time magazine, People, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly among its stable of publications.

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