Tag: stock market

Shares of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. soared in Tuesday’s extended session after the company announced positive results from a phase 3 study of a drug to treat x-linked hypophosphatemia, a genetic kidney disorder. “Patients treated with burosumab demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in serum phosphorus levels, with 94% of patients achieving normal levels compared to 8% on placebo,” said the company in a statement. As the next step, the drug company plans to hold discussions with regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe. The study was jointly conducted with Japan’s Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co. Ultragenyx jumped 19% after hours.

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The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a fall of 840,000 barrels in U.S. crude supplies for the week ended April 14, according to sources. The API data, however, also showed a climb of 1.4 million barrels in gasoline supplies, while inventories of distillates declined by 1.8 million barrels, sources said. Supply data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday morning. Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a decrease of 50,000 barrels in crude inventories. May crude was at $52.29 a barrel in electronic trading, down from the contract’s settlement of $52.41 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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Shares of Intuitive Surgical Inc. rallied in Tuesday’s extended session after the medical-devices maker posted strong quarterly results. Intuitive Surgical reported its first-quarter earnings rose to $179.8 million, or $4.67 a share, from $136.4 million, or $3.54 a share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company would have earned $5.09 a share. Revenue increased to $674.2 million versus $594.5 million a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast the company to report earnings of $4.97 a share on revenue of $666 million. Intuitive Surgical said it shipped 133 da Vinci robotic surgery systems in the first quarter, up from 110 in the same period last year. Shares gained 3% after hours.

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Shares of IBM Corp. fell 4% in after-hours trade Tuesday after the company reported year-over-year revenue and earnings declines. The PC-turned-software company reported first-quarter net income of $1.75 million, or $1.85 a share, compared with $2 billion, or $2.09 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time items, IBM reported earnings of $2.38 a share, topping the FactSet consensus estimate of $2.35. Revenue for the three-month period fell to $18.16 billion from $18.7 billion last year, and missed the Street estimate of $18.4 billion. That was despite a 60% improvement in its software-as-a-service business. IBM maintained its fiscal 2017 outlook calling for earnings of at least $13.80 a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are projecting full-year earnings of $13.77 a share. IBM’s shares traded down around $163.34 in after-hours trade. They’ve recently underperformed both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 . The stock gained 2% in the past three months and 12% in the past year, while the Dow 30 gained 4% in three and 14% in the past year.

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Oil prices fell Tuesday, building on losses seen a day earlier. Prices held ground at their lowest level in more than a week, with traders showing concern that recent data point to the likelihood of further growth in U.S. crude production. Expectations that Saudi Arabia and Russia are sticking to their pledge to cut output, however, kept losses for oil prices in check. May West Texas Intermediate crude shed 24 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $52.41 a barrel.

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United Continental Holdings Inc.’s stock slumped 4% in afternoon trade, enough to make it the biggest decliner on the Dow Jones Transportation Average , after the air carrier reported first-quarter results. The United Airlines’ parent’s stock-price decline of $2.86 shaved about 16 points off the Dow transports, which were down 0.35%. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Levy said in the post-earnings-report conference call with analysts Tuesday that the carrier’s corporate customers have expressed concern over last week’s event, in which a passenger was dragged forcibly off a plane to make room for traveling United employees. “They want us to fix this. They want us to do the right thing,” Levy said, according to a transcript of the call provided by FactSet. He said the concerns have been managed well and the corporate accounts are largely supportive. Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said the carrier was involving its front-line employees and some customers to help take a more “commonsense” approach. He plans to communicate on April 30 the results of the review and actions to be taken in response to last week’s event. The stock has shed 6.8% in 2017, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has eased 0.1%, the Dow transports have slipped 1% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%

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Gold prices shook off earlier losses Tuesday to finish higher for a fifth straight session. Prices got a boost as the ICE U.S. Dollar Index traded near the session’s low, providing support for the yellow metal, which is traded in the greenback. Political uncertainty in France and the U.K. and declines in U.S. equities also contributed to gold’s gains. June gold rose $2.20, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,294.10 an ounce.

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Facebook Inc. launched a new augmented-reality platform at its annual developer conference, F8, in San Francisco on Tuesday. In a keynote speech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he no longer viewed glasses and spectacles – such as those created by Alphabet Inc. , Microsoft Corp. and Snap Inc. — as the first mainstream augmented reality platform. Instead, he believes the cameras on existing smartphones will lead the adoption of augmented reality. Zuckerberg said the technology will be able to read the depth of the room to better recognize and interact with objects in the physical world. This would be a more advanced kind of augmented reality than what is portrayed in the trendy game Pokémon Go. In that game, digital images are placed over objects in the real world, however they have little other connection and interaction with the surrounding world. Facebook also launched AR Studio on Tuesday, which would help consumers and developers build their own objects in augmented reality. Shares of Facebook fell 0.2% to $141.13 in afternoon trade. They’ve gained more than 10% in the past three months, outperforming the S&P 500 , up 3%.

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Steven Stephens, the Cleveland man accused of shooting a pensioner and posting video of it on Facebook, has been found dead in his car, media reports said Tuesday. The 37-year old had been on the run since the weekend and is reported to have shot himself after a car chase with police, they said. Stephens posted a video of himself allegedly approaching an older man and shooting him in the head on Sunday. He later went on Facebook Live , the instantaneous broadcasting tool, to talk about this and other alleged crimes. It took Facebook several hours to remove the posts, prompting criticism of the social media giant’s ability to monitor its own content.

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W.W. Grainger Inc. shares slid 8.7% Tuesday, after the company said its pricing strategy had derailed its first quarter. The supplier of maintenance, repair and operating products said net income fell 6% to $175 million, or $2.92 a share, in the first quarter, down from $187 million, or $2.98 a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 1% to $2.5 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of $2.99 and sales of $2.563 billion. “Overall, the first quarter clearly fell short of our expectations, driven primarily by the stronger than anticipated customer response to our U.S. strategic pricing actions, with a greater volume of products sold at more competitive prices,” Chief Executive DG Macpherson said in a statement. The company is now planning to full forward pricing actions planned for 2018 to the 2017 third quarter and lowered its full-year outlook to reflect the change. The company is now expecting 2017 sales go grow 1% to 4%, compared with prior guidance of 2% to 6%. It expects EPS of $10.00 to $11.93, down from prior guidance of $11.30 to $12.40. The company said it will work to improve margins and reduce costs in Canada, which remains challenged. Shares were halted for the news, and had not traded premarket after the halt was lifted. But they are down 4% in 2017, underperforming the S&P 500 , which has gained 5%.

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