Market Pulse: Stec, Vanguard, Revlon, Isis, Keynote, coal stocks
24/06/2013 20:52
(For more market insights, including options activity, click on STXNEWS/US ; for the Day Ahead newsletter http://link.reuters.com/mex49s; for the Morning News Call newsletter, http://link.reuters.com/mef29t) June 24 (Reuters) - Some U.S. stocks on the move on Monday: WALL ST FALLS TO TWO-MONTH LOW ON FED, CHINA WORRIES U.S. stocks dropped to a two-month low, extending a slide as investors worried about the impact on equities from the Federal Reserve's plan to exit its economic stimulus and a cash squeeze in China that could hurt its economy. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 1.28 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX 1.64 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC 1.52 percent. .N ** VANGUARD HEALTH SYSTEMS INC VHS.N , $28.68, up 67 pct (0931 ET) ** TENET HEALTHCARE CORP THC.N , $43.64, up 4 pct (1415 ET) U.S. hospital operator Tenet Healthcare said on Monday it will buy smaller rival Vanguard Health Systems for about $1.73 billion, putting it in a better position to benefit from the expected millions of Americans about to get insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform. ID:nL3N0F02BV ** WESTERN DIGITAL CORP WDC.O , $58.88, down 2 pct (1046 ET) ** STEC INC STEC.O , $6.71, up 87 pct (1418 ET) Hard drive maker Western Digital will buy troubled Stec to become one of the top players in the high-growth solid-state drive (SSD) industry that has flourished despite high prices of the storage devices. The offer of $6.85 per share represents a 91 percent premium to Stec's closing share price on Friday. ID:nL3N0F02O8 ** KEYNOTE SYSTEMS INC KEYN.O , $19.80, up 46 pct (0932 ET) The company, which provides web and mobile cloud monitoring tools, said it would be taken private by an affiliate of private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC for about $395 million in cash. The $20-per-share offer represents a 48 percent premium to the stock's closing price on Friday. ID:nBw3jkcCca The company's stock has been down 4 percent since the beginning of the year and trades at nearly 20 times forward 12-month earnings, compared with a sector median of about 18. ** AK STEEL CORP AKS.N , $3.12, down 6 pct (1542 ET) The steelmaker said its shipments and financial results would be hurt in the current and the next quarter due to an outage at its Ohio facility. AK Steel said it did not have a specific estimate for total costs associated with the repair, but it expects uninsured losses of $10 million to $27.5 million. ID:L3N0F03H4 ** ISIS PHARMACEUTICALS INC ISIS.O , $27.06, up 23 pct (1047 ET) The shares rose after the drugmaker said its experimental drug reduced triglycerides, a type of fat, in blood and increased the level of "good" cholesterol. ID:nL3N0F0304 ** SOLAZYME INC SZYM.O , $10.83, down 14 pct (1047 ET) The bioproducts company said it had agreed with Roquette Frères SA, a food ingredient supplier, to dissolve their joint venture, which was set up to develop microalgae-based healthy food ingredients and oils. Solazyme said the venture was being terminated due to divergent views on an acceptable commercial strategy and timeline for the manufacturing and marketing of joint venture products. ID:nBw8KmZsja ** CELL THERAPEUTICS INC CTIC.O , $1.06, down 13 pct (0941 ET) Cell Therapeutics said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed a partial clinical hold on the company's experimental blood cancer drug after the death of a patient. ID:nL3N0F02A0 ** JAMES RIVER COAL CO JRCC.O , $1.72, down 14 pct (1301 ET) ** ARCH COAL INC ACI.N , $3.5, down 10 pct (1301 ET) ** PEABODY ENERGY CORP BTU.N , $14.83, down 7 pct (1301 ET) ** CONSOL ENERGY INC CNX.N , $27.83, down 6.5 pct (1301 ET) ** ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES INC ANR.N , $5.07, down 7 pct (1301 ET) ** WALTER ENERGY INC WLT.N , $10.94, down 14 pct (1307 ET) President Barack Obama is expected to outline a climate change plan on Tuesday centered around reducing pollution from carbon emissions. Obama's measures may include a strategy to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants, which account for roughly 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. ID:nL2N0EY07E Walter Energy shares continued their slide, falling 16 percent to touch a year low of $10.68 on Monday. Reuters Loan Pricing Corp reported on June 14, citing sources, that Walter Energy pulled a planned $1.55 billion credit refinancing. ID:nL2N0EQ1L3 ** HALOZYME THERAPEUTICS INC HALO.O , $6.75, up 10 pct (1414 ET) Morningstar Inc analysts said Roche ROG.VX would continue to maintain a competitive advantage as sales of some of its key breast cancer drugs, including Herceptin, were poised to grow. This boosted shares of Halozyme, which is entitled to royalties from the Swiss drugmaker on sales of Herceptin. ** CHIQUITA BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC CQB.N , $11.05, up 8.6 pct (1010 ET) BB&T Capital Markets upgraded the banana producer's stock to "buy' from "neutral," saying it expects the company's business restructuring to yield fruit in 2014 and grow operating margins. ** GOGO INC GOGO.O , $14.74, down 7.8 pct (1019 ET) The in-flight WiFi provider's shares, which debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday, continued to fall. The shares fell in their market debut as investors questioned the company's high valuation in the wake of a two-day slide in U.S. stocks. The IPO of 11 million shares was priced at the top of the company's planned $15 to $17 range, valuing Gogo at about $1.5 billion. ID:nL3N0EX2Z5 ** WHITING PETROLEUM CORP WLL.N , $44.65, down 3 pct (1032 ET) ** BREITBURN ENERGY PARTNERS LP BBEP.O , $16.81, down 6 pct (1033 ET) Whiting Petroleum said it would sell some oil and gas properties in its enhanced oil recovery projects in Texas County, Oklahoma to BreitBurn for $859.8 million to raise money to develop its core assets. ID:nL3N0F02X2 ** YAHOO INC YHOO.O , $24.05, down 5 pct (1059 ET) The company's stock fell on what Topeka Capital Markets analyst Victor Anthony said was due to China shares' worst daily loss in almost four years on Monday. ID:nL3N0F01LD Yahoo owns about 24 percent in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd ALIAB.UL , China's largest e-commerce firm. ** ALLERGAN INC AGN.N , $84.54, down 8.8 pct (1109 ET) Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Aaron Gal said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's released draft guidance for generic Restasis -- Allergan's eye drops to treat chronic dry eye disease -- would not be "prohibitively difficult" to execute. Restasis is Allergan's second biggest drug and Gal said the FDA had "previously indicated clinical trials would be necessary to obtain approval and such trials are prohibitively expensive." ** SPECTRUM PHARMACEUTICALS INC SPPI.O , $7.47, down 7 pct (1005 ET) Credit Suisse downgraded the company's stock to "underperform" from "neutral", saying near-term growth opportunities are limited, and it sees a risk to the company's outlook on its colon cancer drug, Fusilev. The drug's second-quarter sales and second-half run rate are likely to disappoint, the brokerage said. The company last month reaffirmed its annual sales forecast of about $80-$90 million for Fusilev. ** PULTEGROUP INC PHM.N , $17.93, down 5 pct (1128 ET) ** HOVNANIAN ENTERPRISES HOV.N , $5.25, down 6 pct (1128 ET) Goldman Sachs started coverage of the two stocks with a "sell" rating, citing the homebuilders' exposure to slower growth markets and low investments. ** SAKS INC SKS.N , $13.83, up 3.2 pct (1047 ET) The department store operator is a serious acquisition target of Canadian firm Hudson Bay Co HBC.TO , according to retail news website Women's Wear Daily. (http://r.reuters.com/tef29t) ** ROVI CORP ROVI.O , $22.22, down 5.8 pct (1102 ET) Pacific Crest cut its rating on the digital media service provider's stock to "underperform" from "sector perform", saying the value of Rovi's patents could be deteriorating, which could affect its ability to generate patent licensing revenue. ** KKR & CO LP KKR.N , $17.80, down 4.8 pct (1048 ET) Funds managed by KKR will buy clinical research group PRA International from Genstar Capital LLC for an undisclosed amount, PRA said on Monday, underscoring growing private equity interest in the contract research industry. ID:nL3N0F014B ** FACEBOOK INC FB.O , $23.58, down 4 pct (0940 ET) The social network has inadvertently exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers over the past year, it disclosed late on Friday. ID:nL2N0EX1RI ** BARRICK GOLD CORP ABX.N , $15.88, down 6 pct (1048 ET) The gold producer will lay off up to a third of its corporate staff at its headquarters in Toronto and other offices, sources said, as the world's top bullion producer intensifies a downsizing plan amid a slump in the price of gold. ID:nL2N0F001C ** RANDGOLD RESOURCES LTD GOLD.O , $63.88, down 4 pct (0940 ET) ** FREEPORT-MCMORAN COPPER AND GOLD INC FCX.N , $27.30, down 4.5 pct (1044 ET) ** GOLDCORP INC GG.N , $23.55, down 4 pct (0946 ET) ** ROYAL GOLD INC RGLD.O , $44.80, down 3 pct (0947 ET) ** NEWMONT MINING CORP NEM.N , $29.11, down 3 pct (0949 ET) ** IAMGOLD CORP IAG.N , $4.24, down 2.75 pct (0949 ET) ** YAMANA GOLD INC AUY.N , $9.18, down 3 pct (0950 ET) Goldman Sachs cut its year-end 2013 gold price forecast to $1,300 an ounce from $1,435, citing a decline in U.S. interest rates as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to scale down its stimulus program. ID:nL3N0F01MG ** AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC AIG.N , $42.30, down 3 pct (1400 ET) AIG's unit extended the date for a Chinese consortium to get regulatory approvals to buy the airplane-leasing business till July 31. AIG announced the deal to sell International Lease Finance Corp last December for $4.8 billion to a consortium including New China Trust, one-fifth owned by Barclays Plc BARC.L , China Aviation Industrial Fund and P3 Investments Ltd. ID:nL2N0EX1T4 ** REVLON INC REV.N , $20.90, up 6.8 pct (1232 ET) The cosmetics maker is valued at a steep discount to rivals such as Estée Lauder EL.N , L'Oréal OREP.PA , and the newly public Coty COTY.N and could get as much as $40 per share if it were being taken over, according to a report by business weekly Barron's on Saturday. (http://r.reuters.com/keg29t) ** APPLE INC AAPL.O , $402.32, down 2.7 pct (1049 ET) Chief Executive Tim Cook's one-time stock award worth over $413 million as of Friday is now partly subject to the performance of the shares, a move that followed discussions with the company's largest shareholders. ID:nL2N0EX1PZ ** ORAMED PHARMACEUTICALS INC ORMP.O , $7.12, up 5 pct (0949 ET) The Israeli drugmaker on Friday pulled a proposed public offering of its common stock due to adverse market conditions. Its stock had lost 36 percent in four days until Thursday. ID:nPn6215958 Oramed is slated to present an abstract titled 'Dose response to oral insulin capsules in fasting, healthy subjects,' at the American Diabetes Association from Monday through Friday. ID:nPn215957A ** KANDI TECHNOLOGIES GROUP INC KNDI.O $6.82, up 2 pct (1301 ET) The Chinese electric car maker refuted a short seller's allegations that the stock would take a hit from the company having to raise money to pay off a short-term loan. The company said on Monday it had already repaid the $22 million notes it owed to the Ping An Bank. ID:nGNXUYBFDa (Compiled by Kanika Sikka; Editing by Maju Samuel) ((kanika.sikka@thomsonreuters.com)(within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, outside U.S. +91 80 6749 1130)(Reuters Messaging: kanika.sikka.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS USA STOCKS/PULSE