Tag: stock market

Galena Biopharma Inc. shares jumped 25.5% in pre-market trade Wednesday after the company said its GALE-401 drug would enter a phase 3 trial. Galena said it had a “productive” meeting with the Food and Drug Administration confirming that the drug and clinical trial were appropriate for a new drug filing with the regulator. GALE-401 is being developed to treat essential thrombocythemia, a rare blood disorder. The phase 3 trial is planned to start during the second quarter of 2017, the company said. Galena shares have dropped 93.3% year-to-date, compared with a 11.0% rise in the S&P 500 . Galena shares were valued at $1.96 as of Tuesday’s close.

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A 5.9 magnitude earthquake has struck 18 kilometers north-northeast of Daigo, Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Wednesday. Daigo is located in the Kuji District, Ibaraki Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. No further details were immediately available.

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Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. lost roughly two-thirds of its market value in late trading Tuesday after the company announced that one of its drugs had come up short in a study. Anthera said that the drug Sollpura, which is meant to help a specific kind of maldisgestion in cystic fibrosis patients, “narrowly missed” the primary endpoint for the study. The company said the structure of the study may have hindered the results by not allowing some patients to increase their dosage during the testing, and plans to initiate a new experiment in the first quarter of 2017. Anthera stock closed at $2.01 Tuesday, but fell to less than 70 cents in late trading.

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U.S. stocks finished slightly higher Tuesday in sluggish trade following the Christmas holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.23 points, or 0.1%, to end at 19,945.04, according to preliminary figures, remaining just shy of the psychologically important 20,000 milestone. The Nasdaq Composite , however, notched a record close, finishing with a gain of 0.5% at 5,487.44. The S&P 500 notched a minor rise, up 0.2% at 2,268.88.

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Oil futures ended solidly higher Tuesday, extending a year-end rally on expectations an agreement by major oil producers to curb production will help balance a long oversupplied market in 2017. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 88 cents, or 1.7%, to close at $53.90 a barrel. Based on the most active contract, the U.S. crude benchmark is up nearly 9% in December and is on track for a rise of more than 45% since the end of 2015.

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Shares of Endologix Inc. tumbled 15% Tuesday, as analysts weighed in on the news that the company was placing a temporary shipping hold on its AFX device because of manufacturing issues. Analysts at Leerink said the AFX Endovascular AAA System, which treats abdominal aortic aneurysms and was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011, accounts for about 63% of the company’s estimated sales for 2016. The news “is another piece of disappointing news from ELGX,” analysts wrote in a note, citing the recent CE Mark suspension for AFX in Europe and delays in approval of its Nellix device. The company said that the issue was discovered during its product testing and doesn’t relate to Nellix or its Ovation aortic treatments. Endologix shares have dropped 27.4% year-to-date, compared with a 10.9% rise in the S&P 500 . Shares were priced at $7.19 as of Friday’s close.

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Amazon.com Inc. said on Tuesday it shipped more than one billion items through Amazon Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon this holiday season. The online retailer also said it had its best holiday season ever for Amazon devices, with the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet and Amazon Echo topping its best-sellers list. Sales of Echo-family devices were up more than nine times compared with last year and the company shipped millions of Alexa devices worldwide, according to a news release. And more than 72% of Amazon customers worldwide shopped via a mobile device. Amazon shares have increased more than 13% in the year to date, outperforming the S&P 500 , which is up more than 11%.

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United Parcel Service Inc. said Tuesday it expects record e-commerce sales to create another record, when shoppers return an expected 1.3 million packages to retailers on National Returns Day Jan. 5. UPS said it expects to return more than 5.8 million packages in the first full week of January. In 2016, shoppers returned more than 1 million packages on National Returns Day and 5 million packages in the peak week. The company’s Pulse of the Online Shopper survey found shoppers are experiencing improvements with how retailers cope with online returns. The survey found 70% of online shoppers made an additional purchase when they returned an item to a store, and 45% make one when processing a return. UPS shares were up 0.6% in early trade, and have gained 21% in the year, while the S&P 500 has gained about 11%.

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U.S. stocks opened with minor gains Tuesday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained within striking distance of the psychologically important 20,000 milestone. Retail stocks were expected to be in focus as investors gauge the strength of the holiday shopping season. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 2,267, while the Dow advanced 18 points, or 0.1%, to 19,952. The Nasdaq Composite gained 10 points, or 0.2%, to 5,473.

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Capnia Inc. shares were halted in pre-market trade Tuesday on news that the company and privately-held Essentialis Inc. had agreed to merge. At the merger’s close, Capnia said it expects to issue stock priced at 96 cents-per-share, for gross proceeds of $8 million. The rare disease therapeutics company formed of the merger will focus on a diazoxide choline controlled release tablet to treat the rare disorder Prader-Willi syndrome. The syndrome, which causes unrelenting hunger and various metabolic, endocrine, cognitive and behavioral symptoms, currently has “no effective treatments,” Capnia’s chief executive officer, Anish Bhatnagar, said. The proceeds of the merger would help finance a mid/late-stage clinical trial for the drug in the second half of 2017, the companies said. Capnia shares have dropped 56.2% year-to-date, compared with a 10.8% rise in the S&P 500 . Shares were valued at 81 cents as of Friday’s close.

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