Stockwinners Market Radar for July 12, 2017 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

18:53 EDT Sempra's IEnova unit awarded $155M liquid fuels project in Veracruz - Sempra Energy announced that its Mexican subsidiary Infraestructura Energetica Nova, or IEnova, has been awarded a 20-year contract by the Veracruz Port Administration in Mexico to build and operate a receipt, storage and send-out liquid fuels marine terminal on the Mexican Gulf Coast. With an expected investment of approximately $155M, the new liquid fuels terminal will have a capacity of 1.4M barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to supply the central region of Mexico. Operations are expected to commence in the second half of 2018. IEnova will be responsible for the development of the liquid fuels terminal project, including obtaining permits, engineering, procurement, construction and financing, as well as maintenance and operations. IEnova estimates that the project will create approximately 500 direct jobs and up to 2,000 indirect jobs during construction.

18:28 EDT Enterprise, Navigator Gas to jointly develop ethylene marine export terminal - Enterprise Products (EPD) and Navigator Holdings (NVGS) announced the execution of a letter of intent to jointly develop an ethylene marine export terminal on the Houston Ship Channel. Enterprise would manage the construction, operations and commercial activities of the proposed terminal, which would be located at Enterprise's Morgan's Point complex. Enterprise's Morgan's Point facility has a 45-foot draft and includes Enterprise's ethane marine export terminal, the world's largest. The ethylene export terminal would be connected to Enterprise's high-capacity ethylene salt dome storage and ethylene pipeline system, which is currently under construction. Enterprise's ethylene storage facility will have approximately 600 million pounds of capacity with an injection/withdrawal rate of 210,000 pounds per hour expandable to 420,000 pounds per hour. Enterprise's ethylene pipeline system will be connected to multiple producers and consumers of ethylene on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Formation of the 50/50 joint venture to build, own and operate the ethylene marine export terminal is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements and approval by the respective boards of directors of Enterprise and Navigator Holdings. The commercialization of the project is subject to sufficient long-term customer commitments.

18:01 EDT Celanese raises acetyl intermediate prices - Celanese Corporation will increase list and off-list selling prices for the following acetyl intermediate products. The price increases will be effective immediately or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases. Vinyl Acetate Monomor prices will be RMB200 per MT in China and $50 per MT in Asia outside China, Ethyl Acetate will be EUR150 per MT in Europe, and Aceitc Anhydride will be 2.5c per pound in the U.S. and Canada, $60 per MT in Latin America, and EUR50 per MT in Europe.

17:41 EDT Global Net Lease appoints James Nelson CEO - Global Net Lease announced that its board has unanimously approved the appointment of independent director and industry veteran James Nelson to serve as GNL's CEO and President, effective on or about August 15. Nelson abstained from the vote. Nelson will continue to serve on GNL's board following his appointment. GNL's board consists of six members, four of which are independent.

17:18 EDT United Technologies: $409M government contract 'mistakenly announced' on July 11 - CORRECTION: A not-to-exceed $409M indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for United Technologies Corp. - Pratt and Whitney, East Hartford, Connecticut, to conduct research and develop next-generation thermal, power and controls, was mistakenly announced on July 11, 2017. The contract has not yet been awarded.

17:07 EDT U.S. Energy Department announces $46.2M for 48 projects - Earlier today, the Department of Energy announced $46.2M for 48 projects as part of its SunShot Initiative.These projects are intended to develop innovative, early-stage solar power technologies, which are aimed at lowering costs and improving reliability and efficiency."The SunShot Initiative is a proven driver of solar energy innovation," SunShot Initiative Director Charlie Gay said. "These projects ensure there's a pipeline of knowledge, human resources, transformative technology solutions, and research to support the industry." The projects span two SunShot programs: Photovoltaics Research and Development 2: Modules and Systems , which will advance research in solar photovoltaic technology; and Technology to Market 3, which supports early-stage solar technology research. In addition, cost share requirements will leverage additional private sector funding, yielding a total public and private investment of nearly $65M. The funds provided are cooperative agreements that involve substantial federal oversight and consist of go/no go technical benchmarks, which reinforce attentive project stewardship. Publicly traded companies in the space include: First Solar (FSLR), NextEra Energy (NEE), 8point3 Energy (CAFD), SunPower (SPWR), NextEra Energy (NEE) and 8point3 Energy (CAFD). Reference Link

16:59 EDT Nevada Gold completes $2M share buyback, authorizes additional $2M stock buyback - Nevada Gold & Casinos announced the acquisition of 755,644 shares of its common stock for $2.15 per share from Louise Rogers Ornelas, a longtime shareholder and supporter of the company. The shares were purchased for cash and partially funded by a $700,000 draw on the company's bank credit line. This stock purchase, along with our previous purchases, completes the $2M stock buyback authorized by the board of directors of the company in July 2016. Consequently, the board of directors has authorized an additional $2M for future stock purchases, either in the open market or in private transactions. "We are pleased to have completed the $2M stock repurchase program, and received the board's authorization to purchase an additional $2M in company stock, reflecting the Board's confidence in the company's business strategy and strong future cash flow position," said William J. Sherlock, Nevada Gold's Chairman of the Board. "We were able to acquire Mrs. Ornelas' shares at an attractive price, and appreciate her longtime support and confidence in the Company."

16:48 EDT China Commercial Credit enters into LOI to acquire Sorghum Investment - China Commercial Credit announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent with the parent company of Sorghum Investment Holdings Limited, an enterprise in the smart finance industry specializing in providing efficient and optimized financial solutions, online investment and match-for-loan services to individuals and small business owners in China. Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, CCCR will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Sorghum. As the transaction proceeds, the company will publicly disclose required information either through press releases or SEC filings, as appropriate. Completion of the transaction is subject to due diligence investigations by the relevant parties, the negotiation and execution of a definitive share exchange agreement, satisfaction of the conditions negotiated therein including the approval of the company's board of directors and shareholders, approval by NASDAQ of the post-transaction entity's new listing application, and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. There can be no assurance that a definitive agreement will be entered into or that the proposed transaction will be consummated. Further, readers are cautioned that those portions of the LOI that describe the proposed transaction, including the consideration to be issued therein, are non-binding.

16:47 EDT Box up in after hours after COO Levin replaced by former Apple executive - Stephanie Carullo is a former Apple executive. Carullo was VP of U.S. education sales at Apple a multi-billion dollar business. After leaving Apple, she briefly led Partnerships at Hampton Creek and has since been advising startups in Silicon Valley. Box is up fractionally to $18.73 after the announcement.

16:43 EDT Taseko Mines reports on state of Gibraltar mine - Taseko Mines updated the operating status of the Gibraltar Mine in light of the wildfire conditions in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. While there are no fires in the immediate vicinity of Gibraltar and receiving supplies is not an issue at this time, the severity of the situation has impacted its employees' ability to travel to the mine. Mining and milling operations are continuing but have been scaled back due to the reduced workforce availability. CEO Russell Hallbauer stated, "Currently, the wildfire situation remains extremely critical with many evacuation alerts and orders in effect for Williams Lake and neighbouring communities. (...) we are adjusting schedules for employees who are unavailable to work because of fire threat to their homes and property. (...) We will balance Gibraltar operations with employee requirements as this dynamic situation develops."

16:35 EDT Gartner: Global PC shipments down 4.3% in Q2 - Worldwide PC shipments totaled 61.1M units in the second quarter of 2017, a 4.3% decline from the second quarter of 2016, according to preliminary results by Gartner (IT). The PC industry is in the midst of a 5 year slump, and this is the 11th straight quarter of declining shipments. Shipments in the second quarter of this year were the lowest quarter volume since 2007. "Higher PC prices due to the impact of component shortages for DRAM, solid state drives and LCD panels had a pronounced negative impact on PC demand in the second quarter of 2017," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner "The approach to higher component costs varied by vendor. Some decided to absorb the component price hike without raising the final price of their devices, while other vendors transferred the costs to the end-user price." HP Inc. (HPQ) reclaimed the top position from Lenovo in the worldwide PC market in the second quarter of 2017. HP Inc. has achieved five consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth. Shipments grew in most regions, and it did especially well in the U.S. market where its shipments growth far exceeded the regional average. Lenovo (LNVGY) was second in market share, with Dell in third and Apple (AAPL) in fourth. Other publicly traded companies in PCs and PC components include Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), Micron (MU), Seagate (STX), Western Digital (WDC), and NVIDIA (NVDA).

16:34 EDT MFC Bancorp receives pending approvals for arrangement - MFC Bancorp has received the requisite approvals of its shareholders and the Supreme Court of British Columbia for its previously announced plan of arrangement. The arrangement will become effective July 14, at which time, among other things: the outstanding common shares of MFC will be consolidated on a 100 for 1 basis, with any fractional shares held by registered shareholders being eliminated for cash consideration and, immediately afterwards, such MFC Shares will be split on a 1 for 20 basis; and after the above consolidation and split, each outstanding MFC Share will be exchanged for a common share of 0.1c par value of MFC Bancorp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MFC that was formed under the laws of the Cayman Islands; and 0.01c in cash. As a result of the Arrangement, MFC will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of New MFC. The New MFC Shares will commence trading on the NYSE on a post-Arrangement basis on July 14 under the company's existing symbol "MFCB". The board of directors and officers, board committees and committee charters of New MFC will be in substantially the same form as that of MFC.

16:31 EDT Cobalt surges 35% after pact to expand Anchor, making unit more marketable - Timothy Cutt, Cobalt's CEO, stated, "Expansion of the Anchor unit to include Cobalt's two blocks to the south is key to optimizing the development plan and increasing oil recovery from Anchor as the reservoir clearly extends onto these blocks. This agreement makes Anchor even more attractive of a development going forward, whether for us or for a potential purchaser in our ongoing sales efforts." Shares of Cobalt are up almost 35% or 79c to $3.08 per share in after-hours trading.

16:17 EDT Cobalt agrees to expand Anchor unit - Cobalt International Energy announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with its co-owners in the Anchor development to unitize and include Cobalt's two leases immediately south of the current Anchor unit into the existing Anchor unit. The transfer of interests in the two leases and the revised Anchor unit are subject to customary regulatory approval. Following such approval, Cobalt will retain a 20% working interest in the revised Anchor Unit.

16:16 EDT Invesco reports preliminary AUM $858.3B as of June 30 - Representing a decrease of 0.1% month over month.

16:11 EDT Pembina, Veresen announce Court of Queen's bench approval for deal - Pembina Pipeline and Veresen are pleased to announce that following the approval of Veresen's Common and Preferred Shareholders announced on July 11, the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta has approved the previously announced plan of arrangement between Pembina and Veresen to create one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in Canada. Closing of the Transaction remains subject to certain conditions, including certain regulatory and government approvals and other customary closing conditions. Pembina and Veresen continue to expect the Transaction will close late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

16:07 EDT Yirendai granted dismissal of class action lawsuit - Yirendai announced that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed in its entirety a putative securities class action lawsuit brought against Yirendai and several executives concerning alleged misstatements or omissions in public releases and regulatory filings made by the company. The lawsuit was docketed under Lefter v. Yirendai Ltd. et al.

16:03 EDT Central Valley Community receives approvals to acquire Folsom Lake Bank - The board of Central Valley Community Bancorp, the parent company of Central Valley Community Bank, announced that required regulatory approval has been received by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and California Department of Business Oversight authorizing Central Valley Community Bancorp to acquire Folsom Lake Bank. Final closing of the acquisition is dependent upon a special Folsom Lake Bank shareholder meeting scheduled for August 10, as well as certain closing conditions contained in the merger agreement. The transaction is expected to be completed on October 1, and the Folsom Lake Bank name change to Central Valley Community Bank will also be effective as of this date. In addition, the conversion of all operational systems will be completed in Q1 of 2018.

16:00 EDT Essa Pharma trading halted, news pending

15:43 EDT Walgreens Boots Alliance raises quarterly dividend 6.7% to 40c per share - Walgreens Boots Alliance announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of 40c per share, an increase of 6.7%. The increased dividend is payable 12 September to stockholders of record 18 August, and raises the annual rate from $1.50 per share to $1.60 per share. This marks the 42nd consecutive year that Walgreens Boots Alliance and its predecessor company, Walgreen Co., have raised the dividend.

15:07 EDT Edelman & Guill Energy reports 7.64% passive stake in Keane Group

14:30 EDT Patriot's owner Bob Kraft says mobile devices helps driving future of eSports

14:23 EDT Home Federal Bancorp raises quarterly dividend 33.3% to 12c per share - Home Federal Bancorp, Inc. of Louisiana announced that its board of directors at their meeting on July 12, 2017, declared an increase of 33.3% in the quarterly cash dividend to 12c per share on the company's common stock. The dividend is payable on August 7, 2017, to the shareholders of record at the close of business on July 24, 2017.

14:10 EDT Unterberg says Fusion management record not up to par - Unterberg a 17.3% stake holder in Fusion Telecommunications delivered a letter to the Chairman of Fusion highlighting their concerns with Fusion's performance and the intent to present nominees for director. The letter said in part: "Our 17.26% equity stake should no longer be considered a vote of confidence in the company's senior management or its Board of Directors. Unterberg acquired its current stake through private placements and a shelf takedown starting in December, 2013; our intent was to remain passive supporters of the company's management. However, we have learned that passivity can be costly. We believe that your record in management, acquisitions and corporate governance has not met the standards of a public company...Fusion's acquisition-led growth strategy has been undermined, in our view, by poor execution on cross-selling products and cutting costs. This management failure has been exacerbated by the company's inability to raise equity capital, relying instead on expensive debt. Since 2012, Fusion has acquired seven companies for more than $120M, mainly through borrowing."

13:28 EDT OpGen Acuitas MCRo Gene Test approved by NY State DOH - OpGen announced that the New York State Department of Health has approved the Acuitas MDRO Gene Test for use by physicians and healthcare providers in the state. The approval of OpGen's CLIA laboratory to perform testing in New York State includes approval for the complete OpGen MDRO testing workflow, including MDRO gene testing on perianal swabs and clinical isolates. The NYSDOH regulates and oversees clinical diagnostic laboratories that test specimens from the state residents. The Acuitas MDRO Gene Test is a CLIA lab-based test able to provide information regarding the presence of ten MDRO resistance genes from one patient specimen. The ten drug-resistant genes identified by our Acuitas MDRO Gene Test are associated with CRE, ESBL and VRE organisms, and are gastrointestinal organisms frequently associated with antibiotic-resistant infections. The test results can be used by healthcare providers to identify patients colonized with organisms expressing the drug-resistant genes or who are actively infected.

12:51 EDT Hansson family increases stake in Nordic American Offshore to 10.8% - Alexander Hansson, the son of the Executive Chairman, Herbjorn Hansson, today bought 300,000 shares in NAO at an average price of $1.18 per share. Following the transaction, the immediate Hansson family holds shares equivalent to 10.8% of NAO.

12:22 EDT Microsoft announces updates to Paint 3D app on Windows 10 - An update to the Paint 3D app on Windows 10 brings new drawing and editing features that continue to make it easier to create 3D art. Reference Link

12:20 EDT Minnesota Attorney General sues CenturyLink over billing practices - Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit today against CenturyLink (CTL) for "billing higher amounts than its sales agents quoted customers for internet and cable television service." She added, "The company often refused to honor the prices quoted to consumers who catch the discrepancies on their bills." Sharers of CenturyLink are down 2% to $22.74 following Swanson's announcement. Level 3 Communications (LVLT), which is merging with CenturyLink, is down 1% to $57.71.

12:15 EDT Minnesota AG files suit against CenturyLink over billing practices

12:01 EDT Franklin Covey acquires Jhana - Franklin Covey announced its acquisition of Jhana, a San Francisco-based company specializing in creating and disseminating relevant, bite-sized content and learning tools for leaders and managers. Jhana's expertise in creating and delivering micro-learning content and tools for leaders and managers will add to the almost unlimited scope of content and delivery capabilities already offered to clients through FranklinCovey's All Access Pass.

11:49 EDT Sonoco-Alcore to implement additional price increases for tubes, cores in Europe - Sonoco-Alcore S.a.r.l. announced it will again raise prices for paper-based tubes and cores, effective from shipments beginning on July 24. "Prices of coreboard continue to rise, driven by fundamental changes in recovered paper markets. As this trend continues, we are forced to keep pace and apply a further increase to our tubes and cores," said Karsten Kemmerling, Director of Sales and Marketing - Tubes and Cores, Europe. "We continue to invest in our operations to generate manufacturing productivity, but this will not cover the significant increase in material costs. The outlook for the second half of this year could well be a further tightening of material availability and inevitably further price increases for our base raw material." Sonoco Alcore S.a.r.l. is wholly-owned by Sonoco and operates 29 tubes and cores plants and four paperboard mills in Europe.

11:24 EDT Activision Blizzard announces sale of first Overwatch League teams - Activision Blizzard (ATVI) earlier today announced the sale of the first Overwatch League teams for major global cities to seven "entrepreneurs and leaders" from traditional sports and esports, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon. The five other team owners announced were the company NetEase (NTES) and Noah Whinston, Ben Spoont, Andy Miller and Kevin Chou. For the first season of the league, regular-season matches will be played at an esports arena in the Los Angeles area, as teams develop their local venues for formal home and away play in future seasons. A full schedule and information about ticket sales will be announced closer to launch, which is slated later this year, Activision noted.

11:09 EDT Verizon CEO says he has 'no' intentions of buying Disney - Verizon (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam said he has "no" plans to buy Disney (DIS) when asked by Fox Business News' Charles Gasparino about rumors of a possible deal. When asked if he could make a move for Disney, McAdam, as he arrived at the annual Sun Valley conference hosted by Allen & Co., replied "nope." Reference Link

10:55 EDT PayPal rises after being added as payment option by Apple - PayPal (PYPL) is rising after Apple (AAPL) added it as a payment option, which JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang sees as a "significant," but difficult to size, win for the payment company. Also viewing the announcement as positive, his peer at Craig-Hallum argued that this is the type of "expanding relationships" that makes PayPal a potential "3 year double." APPLE AVAILABILITY: In a post to the company's corporate blog last night, PayPal COO Bill Ready announced that its customers will be able to pay for App Store, Apple Music, iTunes and iBooks purchases across iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices using their PayPal account. The functionality across Apple services started yesterday in Canada and Mexico, and will be rolling out in other countries including the U.S. "soon after," Ready stated in the post. 'SIGNIFICANT' DEAL: Commenting on PayPal's announcement, JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang told investors that while difficult to size, the deal is "significant" as it provides "yet another example of a payment foe" choosing to work with PayPal as a payment partner. The analyst reiterated an Overweight rating on PayPal's shares. THREE YEAR DOUBLE: In a research note of his own, Craig-Hallum analyst Brad Berning pointed out that PayPal's deal with Apple could expand the former's total payment volume addressable market by about $70B in 2018 with the potential to contribute 0.7%-2% to the TPV growth and 0.6%-1.7% to net revenue growth. The analyst also argued that this exemplifies the type of "expanding relationships" and "enhancing consumer experience" opportunities that lead him to believe PayPal can be a "three-year double" despite the run in the stock already. Berning reiterated a Buy rating and $65 price target on PayPal's shares. PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, shares of PayPal have gained about 3.5% to $56.65.

10:30 EDT Rising expectation for iPhone 8 delays not denting analysts' Apple targets - As the fall debut of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone 8 gets closer, the expectation for delays seems to be increasing as well. The company is said to be working to fix software problems that could cause production and delivery delays, according to media reports. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan also anticipates delayed shipments of the upcoming phone, at least for its highest-end version, but keeps a Buy rating and a $180 price target on Apple shares. Meanwhile, his peer at Goldman Sachs recommended staying long the stock into the iPhone 8 cycle on potential "significant upside" next year. SOFTWARE ISSUES: According to a report by Fast Company, Apple engineers and designers working on the company's iPhone 8 are facing a software issue that, if not rectified, could see major features disabled when the handset launches. Citing a source with knowledge of the matter, the publication said there was a "a sense of panic in the air" last month as the iPhone 8 team worked to resolve software related issues ahead of debut this fall. Apple is having problems deploying its first wireless charging solution, the report noted, adding that if the software problems are not resolved quickly, the iPhone could launch with features such as wireless charging and front-facing 3D camera disabled. LONG CYCLE EXPECTED: Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Mohan told investors in a research note this morning that his supply chain checks suggest that the iPhone 8 with OLED display will likely ship 3-4 weeks after its LCD counterparts, given production issues like the removal of the home button and placement of the finger print sensor below the OLED screen, and packaging of 3D sensor and low yields. The analyst also noted that he expects Apple to announce all three new iPhones, namely the LCD 7S, LCD 7S Plus and OLED 8, at its launch event in the fall. Mohan lowered his iPhone unit estimates for the September and December quarters, but raised March 2018 quarter. While shares may see some near-term weakness, the analyst reiterated a Buy rating and $180 price target on Apple shares, citing expectations for the iPhone 8 to drive a super long cycle with higher ASPs. He also sees potential for significant cash repatriation and associated optionality for incremental capital return and M&A and growth in Services revenue. STAYING LONG INTO PRODUCT CYCLE: In a research note of her own, Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski previewed Apple's upcoming third quarter earnings report, saying that she expects its June-end quarter results to be in line to slightly better than consensus but its guidance for next quarter has the "potential to be highly volatile." Apple typically launches its iPhones in September, but the expectations for a significant redesign of the new high-end model has stoked concerns that shipments could be delayed to October, which will play a role in the guidance, Jankowski explained. Revenue guidance below $48B would likely imply an October launch, while guidance of $48B-$50B may mean a September 29 launch and guidance of $51B-53B would imply a September 22 launch, she pointed out. While the exact timing could increase near-term volatility, Jankowski recommended staying long Apple shares into the product cycle, as she sees significant earnings per share upside in 2018. She reiterated a Buy rating and $170 price target on the shares. PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, shares of Apple were fractionally down to $145.28.

10:21 EDT UBS says sell Kimberly-Clark with takeover potential overestimated - UBS downgraded Kimberly Clark (KMB) to Sell from Neutral, saying that the stock's outperformance has been driven by unrealistic expectations about strategic action the company could take. FUNDAMENTAL WEAKNESS: Kimerly Clark has risen 11% this year, outperforming its peers and an index of consumer staple stocks, wrote UBS analyst Stephen Powers. However, Kimberly Clark's outperformance hasn't been driven by its fundamentals, according to Powers. For the first quarter, the company's growth excluding acquisitions came in two percentage points below expectations and "most data" indicates that its trends have deteriorated further since then, he wrote. PREMIUM OVERDONE: Kimberly Clark's stock reflects unrealistic beliefs about its "strategic optionality," Powers stated. The company's ability to boost its revenue is "limited" unless it builds more plants, and it's highly exposed to competition from private label manufacturers, the analyst believes. Kimberly Clark's products are more exposed to competition than any other company that Powers covers, the analyst stated. The company was forced to exit its European diaper business because of private label competition, he noted, adding that Procter & Gamble (PG) is also a headwind for Kimberly as the former reinvests the money it has gained from its cost saving efforts. TARGET: Powers cut his price target on Kimberly Clark shares to $120 from $134. PRICE ACTION: In morning trading, Kimberly Clark slid 0.8% to $124.76 per share.

10:01 EDT Eli Lilly reaches settlement agreement in U.S. Cialis patent litigation - Eli Lilly has entered into a settlement agreement with generic companies to resolve pending patent litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia regarding the Cialis unit dose patent. This patent was previously set to expire on April 26, 2020. As part of the agreement, Cialis exclusivity is now expected to end at the earliest on September 27, 2018. "The unit dose patent for Cialis is valid and infringed by companies seeking to market a generic version of Cialis. This is a royalty-bearing license agreement that provides us with more certainty regarding our U.S. exclusivity," said Michael J. Harrington, senior vice president and general counsel for Lilly. "Protection of intellectual property and the assurance of market exclusivity are extremely important to Lilly as we work to support the development of the next generation of innovative medicines." Patent expiration for Adcirca is still expected on November 21, 2017, or on May 21, 2018, if the FDA ration grants the company's application for pediatric exclusivity. There will be no change to the company's 2017 financial guidance or mid-term expectations through the remainder of the decade as a result of this settlement.

10:00 EDT Catalan Supreme Court approves extension of ICL Iberia operations - ICL updates that Spain's Catalan Supreme Court has approved a request by ICL's Spanish subsidiary, ICL Iberia, to continue its use of the Cogullo salt pile at ICL Iberia's potash operations located in Sallent, in the Bages region of Catalonia, Spain. ICL Iberia previously submitted a request for approval of additional solutions regarding its handling of the salt pile and an extension of the period for its dealing with the Sallent site beyond June 30. The court's decision enables the company to continue its activities at the Sallent mine for an additional period of one year, until June 30, 2018, with an option for an additional year, subject to jurisdictional approval, while ICL Iberia completes its construction of a mining ramp at Cabanasses, Suria, and consolidates its mining operations at that location. Following the decision, the Catalan regulatory authorities have adopted the position of the court and amended its regulations accordingly.The interim measures proposed by the company - and accepted by the Catalan court - will result in a reduction in the amount of salt transferred by ICL Iberia to the Cogullo deposit, and will not exceed maximum height and volume requirements.

09:36 EDT Amazon: Prime members' most popular purchase on Prime Day was Echo Dot

09:35 EDT Amazon: Tens of millions of Prime members made apurchase on Prime Day

09:34 EDT Amazon: Sales on July 11 surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday

09:31 EDT AT&T selected by DISA to support U.S. military services in Pacific region - AT&T will deliver a modern communications network to support U.S. military services in the Pacific region. The Defense Information Systems Agency awarded us a 10-year contract to replace its Hawaii network. "Our custom, high speed network will support Pacific Theater military operations from the Hawaiian Islands. Service personnel will use it to easily connect and share information vital to their mission. The network will support integrated voice, video and data services. It will be highly secure. And, we will manage it for DISA over the life of the contract."

09:26 EDT On The Fly: Pre-market Movers - HIGHER: Fastenal (FAST), up 5.5% after reporting quarterly results... RBS (RBS), up 1.8% after reaching a settlement with the Federal Housing Finance Agency... Ibio (IBIO), up 52.4% after its partner AzarGen Biotech was granted synthetic promoter technology patent ... NRG Energy (NRG), up 18.7% after announcing a transformation plan... Cara Therapeutics (CARA), up 12.7% after announcing summary data from its Oral CR845 Phase 1 trial... Amazon (AMZN), up just under 1% following Prime Day. LOWER: Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL), down 30% after the FDA determined in its complete response letter that it can't approve the Dextenza NDA in its present form... Alder Biopharmaceuticals (ALDR), down 13.1% after it filed to sell 12.5M shares of common stock... Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW), down 4.1% after confirming that it has been informed by the UK Serious Fraud Office is investigating the company.

09:20 EDT Tyler Technologies to provide public safety solution to Pennsylvania counties - Tyler Technologies signed an agreement with Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, for Tyler's New World public safety solution. Lehigh County signed the agreement and will act as the fiduciary, and the system will be used by both Lehigh and Northampton counties. The agreement, which is the single largest deal for New World public safety, will work with two counties' public safety answering points and deliver them one combined Computer Aided Dispatch and Mobile Data system. Due to 911 legislation passed in 2015, which funds a large percentage of all PSAPs operating budgets, non-county PSAPs in Pennsylvania are required to consolidate. The cities of Bethlehem and Allentown are both scheduled to lose their funding for their individual PSAPs in 2019. These cities are the last two municipalities to hold PSAP status and funding due to previous legislation. The New World CAD solution will help the two counties improve response times with its functionality that allows call takers and dispatchers to make critical decisions quickly. It will also provide valuable information through Tyler's Esri-based CAD mapping solution, improving the agencies' tactical analysis. Finally, with the addition of mobile messaging, agencies can perform critical tasks from the road and access mission-critical data, which will help them to easily communicate and share data with the other agencies.

09:16 EDT NRG Energy says already implementing some planned cost cuts - Says already implementing some planned cost cuts, says majority of savings from corporate-related costs; says only about 4% of cost savings from plant labor. Says in "advanced stages" of power plant sales. Says not identifying assets up for sale. Says plans to cut debt by $11B by selling renewables assets. Says cancelling Bacliff peaking plant in Texas, says cancellation will save $100M of planned 2017 capital. Says has clear line of sight to 80% of total improvements. Comments taken from NRG's presentation discussing its transformation plan.

09:08 EDT Hudson Pacific signs agreement with Netflix for Sunset Bronson space - Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP) announced that the company has signed an agreement with Netflix (NFLX) to occupy more soundstages, office and support space at Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood. Netflix has leased another 43,000 square feet at Sunset Bronson, including the historic mansion on Sunset Boulevard where the Warner Brothers had their office for decades. Last September, Netflix leased 99,000 square feet of soundstages and other space at Sunset Bronson. Hudson Pacific's growing relationship with Netflix now includes long-term lease agreements for approximately 560,000 square feet of office space, as well as soundstages, production office and support space at Sunset Bronson.

09:06 EDT Dow Chemical names Karen Carter chief inclusion officer - The Dow Chemical Company announced that Karen Carter has been named chief inclusion officer - a new role at Dow created to strengthen the integration of diversity and inclusion with business strategy and results. Carter will have global responsibility for enhancing the integration of diversity and inclusion across the company as a key driver and enabler of the company's long-term growth strategy. She will have direct accountability to Dow president and COO Jim Fitterling and Dow chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris. Carter has served in several strategic business leadership roles across Dow's Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Building and Construction, and Polypropylene Licensing and Catalyst businesses before assuming her most recent role leading Dow's North America Packaging & Specialty Plastics business.

09:04 EDT Toshiba does not have to provide database information access, court confirms - As Toshiba Corporation (TOSBF, TOSYY) announced in its June 28, 2017 press release titled "Litigation Against Western Digital Corporation", Toshiba Memory Corporation blocked the ability of Western Digital Corporation (WDC) to access certain databases starting on June 28, 2017, because WD had improperly obtained and used certain of Toshiba's and TMC's technical information stored in those databases. On July 6, 2017, WD, through its subsidiary SanDisk LLC, filed a motion seeking a temporary restraining order against TMC's blocking of information access before the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco. Today the court confirmed that Toshiba and TMC do not have to provide access to database information that is owned exclusively by Toshiba or its affiliates, including TMC. This was one of the primary areas of concern for TMC-protecting the valuable technology that Toshiba and TMC own. The court did, however, provide WD with access to other information that was available to WD on June 28, 2017, for a limited period of time while the parties provide additional briefing to the court. A hearing is set for July 28, 2017, when the court will consider these same issues more fully. There is no impact on TMC's memory production and joint development with SanDisk. Toshiba will review the decision and consider necessary measures such as appeal.

09:02 EDT Molson Coors, AriZona affiliate Hornell Brewing sign licensing agremeent - Molson Coors Brewing Company and Hornell Brewing Co., Inc., affiliate of AriZona Beverages, announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement whereby Molson Coors will market and distribute a new Flavored Malt Beverage brand - Arnold Palmer Spiked Half & Half - in the United States through its US division, MillerCoors. The brand will be introduced later this year in select markets followed by a full national launch in early 2018. The agreement opens opportunities for Molson Coors to potentially distribute the brand outside the US, as well as explore other product collaborations with Hornell Brewing and AriZona Beverages.

08:55 EDT Fastenal up 7% after Q2 results top estimates - In pre-market trading, shares are up 7.16% to $46.71.

08:50 EDT RBS to pay $5.5B in settlement of U.S. RMBS claims

08:40 EDT TOP Ships announces joint ventures, new vessel employment - TOP Ships announced that it has entered into two joint venture agreements, on a 50-50 basis, with Gunvor Group, one of the world's largest independent commodities trading houses by turnover, for two 50,000 dwt product tankers M/T Eco Holmby Hills and M/T Eco Palm Springs, currently under construction in Hyundai with expected deliveries in the first and second quarters of 2018, respectively. The company had previously announced that it had acquired 49% of each vessel and prior to entering into the joint ventures increased its shareholding to 50%. The company also announced that upon their delivery from Hyundai, each of the two product tankers will enter into time charter employment with Clearlake Shipping Pte, a subsidiary of Gunvor Group Ltd and one of the largest charterers of tanker vessels in the world, for three years firm plus two additional option years. The total potential gross revenue backlog from these contracts is estimated to be about $55M.

08:39 EDT iBio partner AzarGen Biotech granted synthetic promoter technology patent - IBIO is in collaboration with AzarGen, which has received grant status for the patent application: Synthetic Promoter Construct for Transgene Expresison from the US Patent office. AzarGen's synthetic promoters have been designed for high level transgene expression in transient and transgenic systems. AzarGen recently expanded its collaboration with iBio for the development of a bio-better version of a therapeutic monoclonal antibody product for the South African market.

08:36 EDT Safety-Kleen announces increases in used oil pricing, effective immediately - Clean Harbors announced that its Safety-Kleen subsidiary is upwardly revising its pricing related to managing the collection of used engine and industrial oils. Effective immediately, Safety-Kleen is increasing the cost of its charge-for-oil program across its used oil collection network, as well as increasing its service stop-fee for its stop-fee program. David Vergo, Safety-Kleen President, said, "The recent softness in crude oil markets, along with the associated declines in fuel pricing, have decreased the value of our recycled fuel oil and other products. This environment, coupled with chronic oversupply in the overall market, have led us to increase our used motor oil disposal pricing rates in order to mitigate the market-driven pressure on margins and avoid further deterioration in our existing spread. The rate adjustments are effective immediately or as contracts allow, across both the U.S. and Canada, and will stay in effect until oil prices demonstrably strengthen." "As we have done with past rate adjustments, Safety-Kleen is continuing to address energy market drivers that affect those margins," Vergo said. "We believe these rate changes are needed for Safety-Kleen to continue to deliver the safe, reliable and quality service we provide to more than 200,000 customers throughout North America."

08:33 EDT Praxair starts up new air separation plant at Samsung display complex - Praxair (PX) announced the start-up of a new air separation plant to supply 700 tons per day of nitrogen to Samsung's (SSNLF) display manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea. Samsung's Tangjeong complex is expanding to meet increasing demand for future generations of displays. OLEDs are used in a variety of products including televisions, mobile devices, digital cameras, virtual reality headsets and laptops. Praxair's nitrogen is being used for cooling and purging applications in Samsung's manufacturing process. This is Praxair's third plant supporting the facility. The company has been supplying Samsung's display operations with nitrogen, oxygen, argon, helium and other gases since 2005, including its LCD factory in Tangjeong.

08:31 EDT Medidata selected by Worldwide Clinical Trials to streamline site reimbursements - Medidata announced that after an exhaustive 18 month selection process which encompassed all of the leading site payments technologies, Worldwide Clinical Trials has selected Medidata Payments Cloud to streamline accurate, timely payments on behalf of their clinical trial sponsors.

08:25 EDT Google acquires Halli Labs; terms not disclosed - Halli Labs says in a Medium post, "We are thrilled to share the news that the Halli Labs team is joining Google. As we wrote in our introductory blog post, Halli Labs was founded with the goal of applying modern AI and ML techniques to old problems and domains -- in order to help technology enable people to do whatever it is that they want to do, easier and better. Well, what better place than Google to help us achieve this goal. We will be joining Google's Next Billion Users team to help get more technology and information into more people's hands around the world. We couldn't be more excited!" Reference Link

08:13 EDT American Airlines sees consolidated CASM up approximately 5% in 2017 - 2017 total system capacity is expected to be up approximately 1.5 percent vs. 2016. Full year domestic capacity is expected to be approximately flat year-over-year, while international capacity is expected to be up approximately 4 percent vs. 2016. In 2017, the Company expects to take delivery of 57 mainline aircraft comprised of 20 A321 aircraft, 20 B738 aircraft, 4 B738 Max aircraft, 3 B788 aircraft, and 10 B789 aircraft. The Company also expects to retire 42 mainline aircraft, including 3 A320 aircraft, 17 B757 aircraft, 7 B763 aircraft and 15 MD80 aircraft. In 2017, the Company expects to reduce the regional fleet count by 6 aircraft, including the addition of 31 CRJ700 aircraft, 24 E175 aircraft and 10 ERJ140 aircraft, as well as the reduction of 52 CRJ200 aircraft and 19 Dash 8-100 aircraft.

08:12 EDT RedHill Biopharma expects DSMB meeting on RHB-104 in late July - RedHill Biopharma announced that the second independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board meeting of the RHB-104 Phase III study for Crohn's disease - the MAP US study - is expected to convene in late July and will assess the safety and efficacy of RHB-104 in the first 222 subjects who have completed week 26 assessments. RedHill expects to announce the recommendation of the DSMB meeting by early August. The primary endpoint of the MAP US study is disease remission, defined as a reduction in Crohn's Disease Activity Index to less than 150 at week 26. Completion of recruitment for the MAP US study is expected by the beginning of 2018. The company has completed the enrollment of approximately 300 out of the 410 subjects planned to be enrolled in the RHB-104 Phase III study for Crohn's Disease. RHB-104 is a proprietary antibiotic combination therapy targeting a suspected underlying bacterial infectious cause of Crohn's disease. Additional clinical data will need to be generated to support a U.S. New Drug Application for RHB-104.

08:08 EDT American Airlines reports June traffic up 0.8% - American Airlines reported June and year-to-date 2017 traffic results. American Airlines Group's total revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, were a record 21.0 billion, up 0.8% versus June 2016. Total capacity was 24.9 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, up 1.1% versus June 2016. Total passenger load factor was 84.7%, down 0.2 percentage points versus June 2016. The company expects its second quarter 2017 total revenue per available seat mile, or TRASM, to be up approximately 5%-6% year-over-year. This compares to prior guidance which had TRASM up 3.5%-5.5%. The improvement in TRASM from prior guidance is driven primarily by higher passenger yields, with particular strength in the Domestic, Central/South American, and Caribbean regions. The company now expects its Q2 pre-tax margin excluding special items to be between 13%-14% versus its previous guidance of 12%-14%.

08:05 EDT LiNiu Technology receives Nasdaq notice of noncompliance - LiNiu Technology Group, which launched its electronic trading platform focused on the Chinese agricultural industry in April 2017 through Guangzhou LiNiu Network Technology Co., announced that on July 7, 2017, it received a written notice from the Listing Qualifications department of The Nasdaq Stock Marke indicating that LINU is not in compliance with the audit committee requirements. As a result of the resignation of So Hin Lung from the Board on June 16, 2017, LINU's Audit Committee currently consists of only two members. LINU has been provided a 180 day period in which to regain compliance. The Board intends to appoint a third independent director with accounting or related financial management expertise to the Board and Audit Committee as soon as practicable.

08:05 EDT Zayo Group selected by global healthcare company for enterprise solution - A Fortune 500 healthcare company has selected Zayo Group Holdings to expand its wide area network. The IP-VPN solution will provide connectivity to more than 20 of its business offices. Zayo is providing 1G capacity to accommodate future bandwidth needs, enabling their network to be future ready. The company is a customer of Zayo's newly-formed Enterprise Networks segment. Zayo Enterprise provides customers with multi-product solutions, including network connectivity, cloud infrastructure, security and managed solutions. In this case, Zayo has expanded its business relationship with the customer and also provides services to connect their global locations.

08:04 EDT InVivo Therapeutics announces Stanford Medicine as new site for INSPIRE study - InVivo Therapeutics Holdings announced that Stanford Medicine in Stanford, CA has been added as a clinical site for The INSPIRE Study: InVivo Study of Probable Benefit of the Neuro-Spinal Scaffold for Safety and Neurologic Recovery in Subjects with Complete Thoracic AIS A Spinal Cord Injury. Atman Desai, MD, has been named Principal Investigator at the site. Dr. Desai is a Director of Neurosurgical Spinal Oncology and Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University Medical Center. There are now 34 clinical sites participating in the clinical study.

08:02 EDT Bulova Technologies announces acquisition of additional trailers - Bulova Technologies announced the purchase of 10 additional trailers to supplement its subsidiaries' fleet of tractors and trailers. The purchase has been financed by People's Bank, a new lender to the company. Over the last three months the company has acquired 35 additional trailers to support this customer base.

08:01 EDT Computer Services increases cash dividend 10.7% to 31c per share - Computer Services announced that its Board of Directors approved a 10.7% increase in the quarterly cash dividend to 31c per share. The dividend is payable on September 25, 2017, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on September 1, 2017. The quarterly dividend increased from 28c per share and represents an indicated annual dividend rate of $1.24 per share on the new rate of 31c per share.

07:47 EDT Jacobs awarded third term as framework provider by Lancashire County Council - Jacobs Engineering Group has been awarded a third term as a framework provider of professional consultancy services across highway, transportation and related scheme development with Lancashire County Council in the U.K. Lancashire's role as Highway Authority is to plan, maintain and upgrade transport infrastructure, to make the county's roads less congested and safer, while supporting local economic growth and easy access to employment. The scope of Jacobs' new contract includes civil engineering, geotechnical, landscape and ecology services. Jacobs will also provide diverse services relating to traffic modelling and transport planning services, project management and grant bid preparation. Since 2008, Jacobs has worked closely with the Council delivering a comprehensive range of multi-disciplinary engineering services related to Lancashire's transport network through over 800 diverse task orders.

07:41 EDT PayPal announces availability across Apple services - In a post to the company's corporate blog last night, PayPal (PYPL) COO Bill Ready announced PayPal customers will be able to pay for App Store, Apple Music, iTunes and iBooks purchases across iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices using their PayPal account. The functionality across Apple (AAPL) services started yesterday in Canada and Mexico, and will be rolling out in other countries including the U.S. "soon after," Ready stated in the post. Reference Link

07:34 EDT PTC, Tech Mahindra open industrial IoT center in India - PTC and Tech Mahindra announced the opening of an Industrial Internet of Things Center of Excellence at Tech Mahindra's headquarters in Bangalore, India. The facility is designed to showcase the technology that companies can utilize for digital transformations - from product design through IoT connectivity and augmented reality. Tech Mahindra is outfitting the facility with offerings from the PTC technology portfolio, including the ThingWorx Industrial IoT platform. Tech Mahindra, a longstanding PTC partner and leading system integrator, will advise customers on how ThingWorx and other PTC technology can enable them to generate business value. The Center of Excellence was conceived and jointly developed by Tech Mahindra and PTC. As a system integrator partner with PTC, Tech Mahindra is trained to both develop solutions and implement solutions based on PTC technology. While located in India, the facility is expected to draw a global customer base. As the facility evolves, Tech Mahindra and PTC also plan to use ThingWorx to develop vertical-specific solutions to address mutual customers' needs and challenges.

07:32 EDT Moleculin Biotech regains compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements - Moleculin Biotech announced that it received notice from The NASDAQ Stock Market on July 6, 2017 indicating that the company has regained compliance with the minimum bid price requirement under NASDAQ Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) for continued listing on The NASDAQ Capital Market. Accordingly, Moleculin is in compliance with the minimum bid price requirement and NASDAQ considers the matter closed.

07:30 EDT Engility joins Cloud Security Alliance - Engility Holdingshas joined the Cloud Security Alliance, an organization dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help secure cloud computing environments.

07:15 EDT Aehr Test Systems receives follow on order exceeding $3.8M - Aehr Test Systems announced that it has received a follow-on order exceeding $3.8M for multiple ABTS test and burn-in systems from a leading multi-national manufacturer of advanced logic integrated circuits, or ICs, for automotive, embedded processing, digital signal processing and analog applications. The order also includes down payments to lock in delivery dates. The ABTS systems are planned to ship by the end of calendar year 2017.

07:14 EDT Team subsidiary Quest Integrity partnering with Metegrity for software platform - Team Industrial Services company Quest Integrity announced the strategic alliance with Metegrity, providing software capabilities to succeed Quest Integrity's Reliability Maintenance System software platform. A key element in this strategic alliance is the transition of current RMS users to the Visions Enterprise platform.

07:09 EDT NRG Energy 'well underway' in exploring alternatives for NRG Yield interest - NRG (NRG) said it is well underway in a process to explore strategic alternatives for its interest in NRG Yield (NYLD) and the renewables platform. The strategic alternatives span a variety of ownership structures and partnership types, including the potential partial or full monetization of the renewables platform and NRG's interest in NRG Yield with a goal to optimize how NRG participates in renewables and to deconsolidate the associated debt. With respect to asset sales and the strategic alternatives process, NRG expects to announce signed agreements during the fourth quarter of 2017. NRG has engaged Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for certain asset sale processes that are well underway.

07:06 EDT Nexstar Media, FOX Broadcasting extend network affiliation agreements - Nexstar Media Group (NXST) announced that it entered into a long-term affiliation agreement with FOX Broadcasting Company (FOXA) covering its 17 full power and 2 low power owned or operated stations through December 31, 2019. In addition, the Company has reached an over-the-top master agreement with FOX, as well as specific agreements to launch on all the new internet-delivered programming services already distributing FOX programming. Separately FOX Broadcasting Company extended the affiliation agreements for six stations owned by Mission Broadcasting, Inc., three stations owned by Marshall Broadcasting, Inc., one station owned by Shield Media, LLC, one station owned by White Knight Broadcasting, Inc. and one station owned by Super Towers, Inc., which are operated by Nexstar Media and these 12 stations have also entered into an over-the-top master agreement with FOX, as well as individual opt-in agreements with the aforementioned new internet-delivered programming services.

07:04 EDT NRG Energy transformation plan aims to cut debt by $13B

07:03 EDT NRG Energy targeting $2.5B-$4B of asset sale net cash proceeds - NRG Energy announced its "Transformation Plan." The Transformation Plan Targets: $1.065 Billion Recurring Cost and Margin Improvements, including: $855 Million Recurring Annual Free Cash Flow before Growth Accretive Improvements; $210 Million Permanent SG&A Reduction from Asset Sales and Divestments; $2.5-$4.0 Billion Targeted Asset Sale Net Cash Proceeds, plus Removal of $13 Billion Total Debt From Balance Sheet. The Business Review Committee unanimously recommended the Transformation Plan and it received the unanimous support and approval by the NRG Board of Directors and management. The Transformation Plan is designed to significantly strengthen earnings and cost competitiveness, lower risk and volatility, and create significant shareholder value. The three-part, three-year plan is comprised of targets in the areas of operational and cost excellence, portfolio optimization, and capital structure and allocation enhancement. Importantly, the majority of targets and results are achievable by the end of 2018, providing investors and the company with clear line of sight to results. This plan is the product of a comprehensive, "blank slate" evaluation of all NRG businesses, assets, and functions, collectively conducted by the BRC, NRG management, and independent consultants and advisors to the BRC. The Transformation Plan's components consist of: $1.065 billion total annual cost and margin enhancement, including $855 million recurring, annual FCFbG accretive cost and margin enhancement that consist of: $590 million Adj. EBITDA-accretive cost savings, $215 million Adj. EBITDA-accretive margin enhancement program, and $50 million maintenance capex reduction. The total cost reduction also targets $210 million in permanent SG&A reduction associated with asset sales and divestments. The plan also expects to realize (i) $370 million non-recurring working capital improvements through 2020 and (ii) approximately $290 million in one-time costs to achieve. Targeting $2.5-$4.0 billion of asset sale net cash proceeds5, including divestitures of 6 gigawatts of conventional generation and businesses6 and 50-100% of NRG's interest in NRG Yield and its leading renewables platform. NRG is well underway in a process to explore strategic alternatives for its interest in NRG Yield and the renewables platform. The strategic alternatives span a variety of ownership structures and partnership types, including the potential partial or full monetization of the renewables platform and NRG's interest in NRG Yield with a goal to optimize how NRG participates in renewables and to deconsolidate the associated debt. Beyond creating value, NRG seeks to simplify its corporate and business structure while preserving the ability to provide comprehensive energy solutions to customers. In addition, as previously disclosed, NRG has entered into a restructuring support agreement to restructure and divest its ownership interest in GenOn Energy. On June 14, 2017, GenOn filed for a pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy with 93% noteholders' support and expects emergence before year-end 2017. With respect to asset sales and the strategic alternatives process, NRG expects to announce signed agreements during the fourth quarter of 2017. NRG has engaged Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for certain asset sale processes that are well underway. A clearly prioritized capital allocation strategy that targets a reduction in consolidated net debt from approximately $18 billion to approximately $6 billion of consolidated net debt / Adj. EBITDA from 6.4x7 to 3.0x by year-end 2018. In addition to achieving the 3.0x target leverage ratio, the plan expects to provide up to $6.3 billion of excess cash for allocation through 2020, including up to $4 billion of excess cash by year-end 2018. NRG expects to deploy this excess cash in either projects or investments with at least 12-15% unlevered pre-tax returns or shareholder return programs.

07:02 EDT CommScope to acquire Cable Exchange, terms not disclosed - CommScope has agreed to acquire Cable Exchange, a privately held quick-turn supplier of fiber optic and copper assemblies for data, voice and video communications. "This highly complementary acquisition will deepen CommScope's capabilities in supporting the growing market for high-capacity, multi-tenant data centers and hyperscale data centers operated by the world's largest technology and retail companies. As more user-driven information and commerce flows through networks, operators are quickly deploying larger and more complex data centers to support growth in traffic and transactions," the company said. The leadership team and employees of Cable Exchange will join CommScope upon completion of the transaction. Cable Exchange will operate as a stand-alone business within CommScope's Connectivity Solutions segment. The acquisition is expected to be completed within the next 60 days, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals. CommScope intends to fund the acquisition with cash on hand. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.

07:00 EDT NRG Energy launches transformation plan

06:41 EDT Workday announces plans to open up cloud platform to partners - In a post to the company's corporate blog yesterday, Workday CEO Aneel Bhusri announced that the company is "ready to take a big step forward on our extensibility journey by announcing our intent to open our platform to customers and a broader ecosystem of partners, independent software vendors, and developers." The news was shared by our Chief Technology Architect Jon Ruggiero at Altitude, the company's annual conference for the Workday services ecosystem, noted Bhusri, who added: "This announcement followed an exciting platform hackathon that took place earlier at Altitude and validated that we are on the right path...By opening up the Workday Cloud Platform and entering the Platform-as-a-Service, or PaaS, market, Workday intends to enable customers and our broader ecosystem to use our platform services to build custom extensions and applications that can significantly enhance what organizations are able to accomplish with Workday." Reference Link

06:35 EDT ABM to acquire GCA Services Group for approximately $1.25B in cash, stock - ABM (ABM) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GCA Services Group from affiliates of Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (GS) for approximately $1.25B in cash and stock. GCA is a leading provider of facility services in the education and commercial industries, specializing in facilities maintenance, janitorial services, grounds management, vehicle services and outsourced workforce solutions. With over 37,000 employees in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, GCA is headquartered in Cleveland, OH. The acquisition of GCA is expected to accelerate ABM's ability to enhance long-term shareholder value. While ABM intends to provide greater detail surrounding the long-term financial impact of the transaction after the acquisition closes, ABM expects: Revenue contribution of approximately $1.1B and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $100M, respectively, after the first full year of ownership. Revenue increase of approximately $600M within the Education industry group, with the remaining $500M to be allocated to other key industry groups during the integration process. Annualized, run rate cost synergies of approximately $20M-$30M, which are expected to be realized by the second full year of ownership. Total debt, including standby letters of credit, of approximately $1.5B, and total debt to proforma lender-adjusted EBITDA of approximately 4.0x, as calculated under the Company's amended credit agreement, which is not expected to impact ABM's current dividend payment policy. Under the terms of the agreement, ABM will acquire GCA for $851M in cash and $399M in shares of ABM common stock subject to customary adjustments for working capital and net debt. The transaction is expected to close by September 2017, subject to customary closing conditions including required regulatory approvals. ABM expects to incur approximately $70 million in one-time, transaction-, synergy-, and integration-related costs. Following the closing of the transaction, affiliates of Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division will own, in the aggregate, approximately 14% of ABM's outstanding shares and will enter into a shareholders agreement with the Company providing for, among other things, customary standstill and voting obligations, transfer restrictions and registration rights.

06:33 EDT Nam Tai Property chairman M.K. Koo sells 6.5M shares to Kaisa Group - Nam Tai Property announced that its chairman, M.K. Koo, has, in his capacity as a stockholder, entered into a share purchase agreement to sell 6,504,355 shares of the company held by him and his wife at a price of $17.00 per share, reflecting a premium in excess of 100% of the company's 30-day trading average, to Kaisa Group Holdings. The sale is scheduled to complete no later than August 11, after the release of the company's second quarter financial results, and subject to Kaisa Group's satisfaction with its due diligence review and other customary closing conditions.

06:17 EDT Toyota launches venture capital subsidiary targeting AI startups - Based in Silicon Valley, Toyota AI Ventures is a new venture capital subsidiary of the Toyota Research Institute. "We invest in entrepreneurs from around the world who share TRI's commitment to improving the quality of human life through artificial intelligence, with a focus on autonomous mobility, robotics, data and cloud," the subsidiary says. The initial early-stage fund will deploy $100M and Jim Adler, who has been serving as VP of Toyota Research, will serve as managing director of the fund. Toyota AI Ventures has made three investments to date, including Nauto, SLAMcore and Intuition Robotics. Reference Link

06:06 EDT Ceragon Networks received over $13M in orders from Tier 1 operator in India - Ceragon Networks announced that, during Q2, it has received orders totaling more than $9M for its IP-20 Platform and related services from a tier 1 multiservice operator in India. This long-standing customer has placed orders totaling over $13M during the first half of 2017 to increase 4G LTE network capacity and enhance subscriber experience across the nation.

06:03 EDT Humana and Oscar Health partner for small business health insurance in Nashville - Humana and Oscar Health, a consumer-focused, technology-driven insurance startup based in New York, are launching a strategic partnership to offer commercial health insurance to small businesses in a nine-county Nashville, Tenn. area. The new plans will be available this fall, pending regulatory approval. Under the Nashville partnership, Humana and Oscar will initially focus on commercial health insurance for small businesses with 50 or fewer employees in the nine-county Nashville area. It will be closely coordinated and run by an executive leadership committee formed between the two companies. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

05:45 EDT Vermilion Energy enters strategic partnership with CPPIB in Corrib - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, or CPPIB, and Vermilion Energy (VET) are pleased to announce a strategic partnership in the Corrib Natural Gas Field in Ireland, whereby CPPIB will acquire Shell Exploration Company B.V.'s 45% interest in the project, with Vermilion operating the assets after completion of the acquisition. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, CPP Investment Board Europe S.a.r.l., CPPIB has entered into a definitive purchase and sale agreement with Shell, to acquire 100% of Shell E&P Ireland Limited, or SEPIL, which holds Shell's 45% interest in Corrib for total cash consideration of EUR 830M, subject to customary closing adjustments and future contingent value payments based on performance and realized pricing. The Acquisition, which remains subject to customary conditions and receipt of all necessary government consents, has an effective date of January 1, 2017 with closing anticipated in the first half of 2018. At closing, Vermilion will assume operatorship, and CPPIB plans to transfer SEPIL along with a 1.5% working interest to Vermilion for EUR 19.4M. Following the transfer to Vermilion, ownership in Corrib would be as follows: CPPIB would hold a 43.5% non-operated interest; Vermilion would hold a 20% operated interest; Statoil ASA (STO) would continue to hold a 36.5% non-operated interest.