Leerink Partners Reiterates Market Perform on Merck (MRK) Following 3Q EPS Beat

Market Wrap: Suprise Dip in Confidence for Oct.; Apple Gains on iPhone Sales; Walgreens Boots Moves to Acquire Peer

October 27, 2015 5:36 PM EDT

Market wrap for October 27th

End of the Day: S&P 500 down 5.3 to 2,065.89; Dow Jones down 41.6 to 17,581.4; Nasdaq down 4.6 to 5,030.15

Market Brief: Consumer confidence slumped in October, while consensus estimates were looking for a tick higher in the number.

Apple, Alibaba, and Twitter posted quarterly results after markets closed.

Walgreens Boots moved to acquire peer Rite Aid.

Cummins plans job cuts

IBM shares were hit on an SEC inquiry disclosed with its quarterly filing today.

Crude prices fell 2.3 percent to $42.97 per barrel... More

Pre-Open Stock Movers 10/27: (TRIV) (UQM) (BABA) Higher; (RRTS) (RCII) (MRVL) Lower (more...)

October 27, 2015 9:31 AM EDT

TriVascular Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIV) 50.8% HIGHER; Endologix (NASDAQ: ELGX) and TriVascular Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIV) announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Endologix and TriVascular will combine in a stock and cash transaction. The transaction is valued at $9.10 per TriVascular share, or a total of approximately $211 million, based on Endologix's closing stock price of $13.81 per share on October 23, 2015.

Roadrunner Transportation (NYSE:... More

Wall St. slips on rate uncertainty; Apple up after the bell

October 27, 2015 7:15 AM EDT

By Caroline Valetkevitch

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks slipped on Tuesday on uncertainty over the U.S. rate outlook and disappointing results from Ford and other companies.

Upbeat results from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) after hours, however, could give the market a boost on Wednesday.

Shares of Apple, the biggest company by market capitalization, rose 2.8 percent to $116.89 after it reported higher-than-expected earnings and revenue. Apple's stock ended the regular session down 0.6 percent at $114.55.

Nasdaq 100 e-mini futures also edged up after Apple's results.

"Both earnings and revenues... More

Top U.S. drugmakers ride new products to strong results

October 27, 2015 6:53 AM EDT

(In Oct 27 story, paragraph 9 corrects number of Ibrance patients to 15,000 from 50,000)

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Growing sales of expensive new cancer drugs and other newer medicines propelled top U.S. drugmakers Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE), Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (NYSE: BMY) to stronger-than-expected third-quarter profits.

The results, announced on Tuesday, demonstrate that the "patent cliff" that had been hurting earnings as huge-selling drugs like Pfizer's Lipitor and Bristol's Plavix went generic is now... More

Merck (MRK) Tops Q3 EPS by 4c; Lifts FY15 EPS Outlook

October 27, 2015 6:47 AM EDT

Merck (NYSE: MRK) reported Q3 EPS of $0.96, $0.04 better than the analyst estimate of $0.92. Revenue for the quarter came in at $10.1 billion versus the consensus estimate of $10.11 billion.

Merck sees FY2015 EPS of $3.55-$3.60, versus prior guidance of $3.45-$3.55 and the consensus of... More

Leerink Affirms Merck (MRK) at 'Market Perform'; Additional KEYTRUDA Data Still Needed

October 26, 2015 2:29 PM EDT

Leerink affirms Merck (NYSE: MRK) at Market Perform with a price target of $67 after the company announced topline results from the KEYNOTE-010 study of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) demonstrating that the trial met its primary objective.

Analyst Seamus Fernandez commented: This morning, MRK announced the successful... More

Trading Radar for 10/26: Apple (AAPL), Twitter (TWTR), Alibaba (BABA), Comcast (CMCSA), Pfizer (PFE) Report

October 26, 2015 2:16 PM EDT

The Trading Radar highlights key earnings and economic announcements for the next trading session:

Before Markets Open:
Economics:
8:30am EDT

Durable Orders - Street sees (1.3%)

9:00am EDT

Case-Shiller 20-City Index - Street sees 5.0%

Earnings:

AIXTRON SE (Nasdaq: AIXG) - consensus loss $0.08
AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) - consensus loss $0.23
AVX Corp. (NYSE: AVX) - consensus EPS $0.20
Active Power (Nasdaq: ACPW) - consensus loss $0.02... More

Merck (MRK) Announces KEYTRUDA Met Primary Endpoint in KEYNOTE-010 Study

October 26, 2015 9:02 AM EDT

Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced topline results from the KEYNOTE-010 study of KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) demonstrating that the trial met its primary objective.

KEYNOTE-010 is a randomized, pivotal Phase 2/3 trial comparing two doses of KEYTRUDA (the FDA-approved 2mg/kg dose and a higher, investigational 10mg/kg dose, each given every 3 weeks), to docetaxel, a commonly used chemotherapy. Patients were enrolled who had failed prior systemic therapy for advanced NSCLC and whose tumors had PD-L1 (programmed death... More