Tag: stock market

Merck & Co. Inc. shares fell 1.5% in premarket trade Friday, after the company said it received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding its application to include data on cardiovascular effects in the prescribing information of medicines using Sitagliptin, a treatment for type 2 diabetes. A CRL is a communication from the FDA that a drug application will not be approved in its current form. Merck said it is reviewing the letter and will discuss its next steps with the FDA. Merck shares have gained 7% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Merck & Co. Inc. shares fell 1.5% in premarket trade Friday, after the company said it received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding its application for approval for medicines using Sitagliptin, a treatment for type 2 diabetes. A CRL is a communication from the FDA that a drug application will not be approved in its current form. Merck said it is reviewing the letter and will discuss its next steps with the FDA. Merck shares have gained 7% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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KFC, the Yum Brands Inc. chicken chain, said Friday that it has committed to purchasing chicken raised without antibiotics important to humans by the end of 2018. The move is a response to changing customer preferences, said KFC U.S. President Kevin Hochman, and required collaboration among 2,000 farms. The brand has also made recent commitments to ensure all core products are free of artificial colors and flavors by 2018 and make its menu free of food dyes by this year, with the exception of beverages and third-party products. Yum shares are inactive in premarket trading, and are up 10.5% for the last year. The S&P 500 index is up 15.5% for the last 12 months.

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The U.S. Navy launched dozens of cruise missiles against targets in Syria on Thursday night. NBC News, which first reported the attack, said more than 50 Tomahawk missiles were launched from two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, and at least one airfield was hit. The attack comes days after the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against an opposition-held town, killing dozens of civilians. The U.S. condemned the attack, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no place in that country’s future. President Donald Trump was expected to address the nation from his Mar-a-Lago estate later Thursday night.

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Okta Inc. raised at least $187 million in an initial public offering that values the enterprise software startup at more than $1.35 billion. The company, which offers software that helps identify users across different corporate applications, announced Thursday afternoon that it had priced shares at $17 apiece, the top of a range that was increased earlier this week to $15 to $17 from an initial target of $13 to $15 a share. The valuation is a step up from the startup’s last private funding round, which sold shares at $12.02 and established a valuation of about $1.2 billion. The successful IPO continues a strong wave of stock debuts from enterprise-tech firms in the wake of the blockbuster debut for Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. Underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Co., have access to another 1.65 million shares that could sell to boost the company’s windfall and valuation. Shares are expected to begin trading Friday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol OKTA.

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C&J Energy Services Inc. shares fell in the extended session Thursday after the oilfield services company announced a secondary offering of its stock. C&J shares fell 13% to $32.55 after hours. The company said it is offering 6 million shares of stock and an unnamed stockholder is selling 1 million shares. Underwriters will get about 1 million shares to cover overallotments. The company currently has 56.2 million shares outstanding.

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Shares of Ruby Tuesday Inc. fell late Thursday after the restaurant chain reported a net loss and falling revenue in the fiscal third quarter. Ruby Tuesday said it lost $19.8 million, or 33 cents a share, compared with a loss of $3.1 million, or 5 cents a share, in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Total revenue fell 16.8% to $225.7 million, which included a net reduction of 105 company-owned restaurants compared with the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. Ruby Tuesday closed 95 restaurants in connection with its reorganization last year. Same-restaurant sales fell 4%, compared with a 3.1% decline in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the company lost $3.8 million, or 6 cents a share, in the quarter. Ruby Tuesday also said it named James F. Hyatt II its chief executive, effectively immediately. Shares of Ruby Tuesday fell 1.8% late Thursday after ending the regular trading day up 6.9%.

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PriceSmart Inc. shares slipped in the extended session Thursday after the warehouse club’s quarterly results fell short of Wall Street estimates. PriceSmart shares declined 3% to $90 after hours. The company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of 90 cents a share on revenue of $772.3 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 92 cents a share on revenue of $794.4 million.

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Twitter Inc. filed suit against the U.S. government Thursday on the grounds that government departments are violating free speech rights by directing Twitter to reveal the identities of users who had created “alternative” agency accounts critical of the administration. Specifically, the suit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protections and the Twitter account @ALT_USCIS, an immigration resistance account. The account and other related accounts purport to be run by government employees. The defendants had issued an administrative summons to Twitter on March 14, which directed Twitter to reveal the identity of that account. However, Twitter argues that the summons was unlawful and would violate free speech rights. “Permitting [Customers and Border Protections] to pierce the pseudonym of the @ALT_USCIS account would have a grave chilling effect on the speech of that account…and on the many other ‘alternative agency’ accounts that have been created to voice dissent to government policies,” the filing states. Twitter filed the suit in the Ninth Circuit Court and is asking the court to declare the summons unlawful and stop the enforcement of the summons.

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Oil futures rose for a third straight session and settled at a nearly one-month high on Thursday, finding support on expectations that a seasonal pickup in refining activity will help draw down massive U.S. crude stockpiles. West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 55 cents, or 1.1%, to close at $51.70 a barrel, the highest settlement for a most-active contract since March 7. Analysts said expectations a seasonal pickup in refining activity will lead to a fall in U.S. supplies helped offset disappointment a day earlier in an unexpected rise in inventories.

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