Tag: stock market

Splunk Inc. shares surged in the extended session Thursday after the company beat Wall Street sales and earnings expectations. Splunk shares rose 7.1% to $72.25 after hours. The company reported third-quarter net losses of $50.8 million, or 36 cents a share, compared with losses of $91 million, or 69 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 17 cents a share. Revenue rose to $328.7 million from $244.8 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted earnings of 14 cents a share on revenue of $309 million. For the fourth quarter, analysts model adjusted earnings of 32 cents a share on revenue of $384 million. Executives forecast fourth-quarter revenue of between $388 million and $390 million. Splunk stock has gained 35% this year, with the S&P 500 index rising 15%.

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Barnes & Noble Inc. said Thursday it does not accept a proposal to take the bookstore chain private as “bona fide,” or genuine, as the company behind the proposal, Sandell Asset Management Corp., is the “beneficial owner” of 1 million common Barnes & Noble shares worth approximately $7 million. Chairman Leonard Riggio “has no intention of rolling his shares into such a transaction, and the company believes a debt financing of $500 million is highly unlikely,” Barnes & Noble said in a statement. The stock had surged as much as 19% earlier Thursday after The Wall Street Journal said Sandell had proposed to take the company private at more than $9 a share on a deal worth about $750 million, including debt, that would require $500 million in debt financing. Riggio, who holds a roughly 18& stake in the company, would not agree to the deal, according to the report, which cited a person familiar with the situation. The stock has fallen 36% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained around 15%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – President Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner, has been asked by a Senate panel to turn over emails from 2016 about Wikileaks and documents about a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite.” Democrat Diane Feinstein and Republican Charles Grassley are leading the Senate investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. They are also seeking emails about Kushner’s contact with former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The senators said they are aware of such emails but that Kusher has not provided them copies.

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The House of Representatives passed its version of a tax overhaul Thursday, advancing a key Republican priority. The bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, would cut the corporate rate to 20%; set up four tax brackets; and switch the U.S. to a so-called territorial tax system. House passage is just one step, however. The Senate Finance Committee is working on a separate measure that differs in key respects, notably by repealing Obamacare’s individual insurance mandate. The House and Senate must agree on a single measure before sending it to President Donald Trump. The House bill passed 227 to 205.

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Shares of book store chain Barnes & Noble Inc. surged 16% Thursday, after the Wall Street Journal said an investor is proposing to take the company private at more than $9 a share. Sandell Asset Management Corp. has proposed a deal worth about $750 million, including debt, that would require $500 million in debt financing, the paper said. The remaining $250 million would come from current shareholders, who would roll their stakes over into a new private entity. Chairman Leonard Riggio would not agree to the deal, the paper said, citing a person familiar with the situation. Riggio holds a roughly 18% stake in the company. Shares were last up 16% after resuming trade following a halt. The stock has fallen 31% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained about 15%.

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A judge declared a mistrial in the bribery trial against Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, the Associated Press reported. Menendez and a doctor were charged with a bribery scheme. Menendez potentially could be retried.

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The Senate on Thursday confirmed Joseph Otting as comptroller of the currency, by a vote of 54-43. President Donald Trump nominated Otting, a former regional banker, for the post in June. Otting will oversee federally chartered banks in his role. Otting will replace Keith Noreika, who has held the post in an acting capacity.

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General Electric Co. stock was up 0.1% in morning trade, but pared earlier gains of as much as 1.2%. The industrial conglomerate’s long-term credit rating was cut one notch to A2 from A1 at Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the “severe deterioration” in GE’s Power business, that will last through at least 2019. Moody’s affirmed GE’s short-term rating of Prime-1, and said the ratings outlook was stable, but said GE’s credit metrics “are not expected to be consistent with expectations for the A2 rating over the next several years.” The stock, which closed at Tuesday at a near six-year low, has tumbled 11% since new Chief Executive John Flannery detailed GE’s turnaround plan on Monday, and has plunged 23% since the day after GE reported third-quarter results on Oct. 20. “Moody’s does not anticipate that GE will allocate a meaningful portion of any proceeds from planned asset disposals to debt reduction in the near term to help expedite the restoration of credit metrics,” Moody’s said in a statement. GE’s stock has plummted 42% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 19%.

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Shares of biotech Arsanis Inc. surged 40% in their first minutes of trade Thursday, after the company priced its initial public offering at $10, well below its price range of $15 to $17. The stock added more than $4 to trade above $14. Waltham, Mass. and Vienna, Austria- based Arsanis is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is focused on applying monoclonal antibody immunotherapies to address serious infectious disease. The company sold 4 million shares to raise $40 million. Proceeds will be used to fund operating expenses, capital expenditure requirements and debt service payments into mid 2019, including the completion of trials of its ASN100 treatment for the prevention of Staphylococcus aureus, or pneumonia in high-risk, mechanically ventilated patients, for which there is currently no approved treatment. The S&P 500 was up 0.8%.

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Data from the U.S.Energy Information Administration on Thursday showed that domestic supplies of natural gas fell by 18 billion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 10. That was the first weekly decline since March. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 14 billion. Total stocks now stand at 3.772 trillion cubic feet, down 271 billion cubic feet from a year ago, and 101 billion cubic feet below the five-year average, the government said. December natural gas rose 1.6 cents, or 0.5%, from Wednesday’s settlement to $2.098 per million British thermal units, little changed from $3.092 before the data.

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