Tag: stock market

Nivalis Therapeutics Inc. plans to lay off 80% of its workforce, including President and Chief Executive Jon Congleton, as part of its restructuring plan. That will leave the company with 5 employees out of its current total 30. The reduction in staff is aimed at preserving the company’s cash as it explores various options. The clinical-stage pharmaceutical company said it expects to book restructuring-related costs of $3 million but will have $45 million to $47 million to pursue strategic deals. Meanwhile, Nivalis named Chief Financial Officer Michael Carruthers as interim president, effective Jan. 15. Shares rose 2.3% after hours.

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Shares of WPX Energy Inc. fell nearly 3% late Thursday after the Tulsa, Okla., energy company announced it had agreed to buy assets in the Permian basin in Texas. The company’s Permian acreage would increase to more than 120,000 net acres and the deal includes 23 producing wells, WPX said in a statement. WPX’s projected capital spending plan for the year would not increase, the company said. The deal would be worth $775 million and the company expects to pay for it using a combination of proceeds from an equity issuance and cash on hand. Shares of WPX had ended the regular trading day down 1.3%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Vice President Joe Biden was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama just eight days before the two are set to leave office. Obama on Thursday called Biden the “best vice president in history.” Biden is only the second sitting vice president to receive the award. President Gerald Ford gave his vice president, Nelson A. Rockefeller, the award in 1977 shortly before their terms ended. The other vice presidents to receive the award are Hubert Humphrey (in 1980, posthumously) and Richard Cheney, although Cheney was given his award in 1991 for his service as defense secretary under George H.W. Bush.

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The U.S. Senate easily passed a bill allowing James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, to be defense secretary. The law is needed because Mattis has not served the necessarily seven years between military service and the defense secretary job. The House is expected to pass the bill as early as Friday.

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A chart of Bank of America Corp.’s stock suggests that upside momentum had peaked nearly two months ago, or just one week after the election, although the stock’s price had continued to rise. That is a pattern that chart watchers refer to as bearish technical divergence, and is believed to warn investors against buying on dips. The stock’s Relative Strength Index (RSI), a momentum indicator that compares the magnitude of recent gains with the magnitude of losses, reached a 34-year high of 88.6 on Nov. 15–rises above 70.0 implies an overbought condition–and has steadily declined since to 61.9 as of Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, the stock has run up 14% since Nov. 15, and remains just below the eight-year high of $23.39 hit in intraday trading on Dec. 15. This technical warning comes before the bank reports fourth-quarter results before Friday’s open. Falling below the Dec. 29 intraday low of $21.77, which is 5.1% below current levels, would break the bullish pattern of higher lows that has been in place the past six months. The stock has run up 43% over the past three months, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has climbed 20% and the S&P 500 has gained 6%.

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Oil futures climbed Thursday for a second straight session, buoyed by further indications that major producers are cutting back crude output. Strong demand growth in China and a fall in the U.S. dollar also provided support. February West Texas Intermediate crude rose 76 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $53.01 a barrel. Natural-gas futures, meanwhile, saw the February contract climb 16.2 cents, or 5%, to finish at $3.386 per million British thermal units. Prices for the fuel ended at a nearly two-week high after U.S. government showed a larger-than-expected drop in weekly natural-gas supplies.

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Soybean futures rose to their highest level since mid-December Thursday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its estimate on domestic production in 2016. The government estimated soybean output at a record 4.307 billion bushels, but that’s down 54 million from last month on lower yields. “Total production and yield for the U.S. soybean crop were lowered more than traders had expected and any lowering of production in the face of growing global soybean demand is also going to make the markets nervous, particularly given the surge in soybean imports by China over the past year,” said Sal Gilbertie, president and chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading LLC. March soybeans traded at $10.34 a bushel in Chicago, up 2.2%.

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Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk tweeted earlier Thursday that early results around a software “Easter egg” are “promising” and could enable a Model S equipped with “ludicrous mode” to go from zero to 60 miles an hour in 2.34 seconds. The mode currently allows the priciest Model S trim to achieve that same pace in 2.5 seconds. The boost would take the Model S around the same accelerating speeds of ultra-luxury cars such as Porsche’s 918 Spyder and the concept car Faraday Future unveiled at the CES technology conference last week.

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ClubCorp Holdings Inc. shares surged 11.4% in afternoon trade Thursday, after the private clubs owner-operator said it has hired Jefferies & Co. and Wells Fargo Securities LLC as advisers as it reviews its strategic options. The Dallas, Tx.-based company said it has formed a strategic review committee to consider ways to enhance shareholder value. The committee is made up of independent directors, who are working with management to oversee the process. ClubCorp properties include Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, The Woodlands Country Club in Texas and the Metropolitan Club Chicago. Shares are now up 6.7% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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The decision by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey in late October to publicly announce the agency was again examining the emails of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be investigated, the Justice Department’s inspector-general announced Thursday. Pollsters have said support for Clinton dropped after those revelations. The probe will look at whether FBI policies or procedures were followed as well as whether investigative decisions were based on improper considerations. The probe also will look at whether the Justice Department official improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign, and the FBI’s tweeting of FOIA documents ahead of the election.

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