Stockwinners Market Radar for December 03, 2018 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

22:55 EDT Kayne Anderson Midstream/Energy Fund reports net assets $615M as of Nov. 30 - Kayne Anderson Midstream/Energy Fund provided a summary unaudited statement of assets and liabilities and announced its net asset value and asset coverage ratios under the Investment Company Act of 1940 as of November 30, 2018. As of November 30, 2018, the Fund's net assets were $615 million and its net asset value per share was $12.57. As of November 30, 2018, the Fund's asset coverage ratio under the 1940 Act with respect to senior securities representing indebtedness was 407% and the Fund's asset coverage ratio under the 1940 Act with respect to total leverage was 305%.

20:47 EDT Atara Biotherapeutics announces next-gen Car T discoveries at ASH - Atara Biotherapeutics announced results presented by collaborators at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting. One study presents details of a next-generation CAR T technology that increases T cell persistence and decreases T cell exhaustion. Another important study presents positive Phase 2 clinical results in patients with EBV+ PTLD involving the CNS. PTLD patient treatment patterns and health outcomes are described in additional ASH presentations. "Our highlighted ASH presentations this year demonstrate the promise of Atara's next-generation CAR T and off-the-shelf, allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy pipeline," said Dietmar Berger, M.D., Ph.D., Global Head of Research and Development of Atara Biotherapeutics. "Cutting-edge CAR T discoveries by our Moffitt Cancer Center collaborators may have wide applications including as a component of our CAR T programs in acute myeloid leukemia and B-cell malignancies. Our collaborating investigators at Memorial Sloan Kettering also showed promising Phase 2 clinical results for patients with EBV+ PTLD involving the CNS, a difficult-to-treat and often lethal complication of bone marrow and organ transplantation. We are encouraged by these robust results and the broad potential of our CAR T technologies and T cell immunotherapy platform."

19:56 EDT Allogene Therapeutics and Servier present data from UCART19 phase 1 study - Allogene Therapeutic and Servie announced results from an updated analysis of pooled clinical data from two ongoing Phase 1 studies of UCART19, the first allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy in clinical study, in pediatric and adult patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The analysis showed that 82% of patients who received a lymphodepletion regimen consisting of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and an anti-CD52 mAb achieved a complete remission or complete remission with incomplete blood recovery. In the four patients who received fludarabine and cyclophosphamide only, there was minimal UCART19 expansion and no response. Overall, 67% or 14/21 of patients achieved a CR/CRi. These data suggest an anti-CD52 antibody is an important addition to the lymphodepletion regimen for allogeneic CAR T cell expansion. The most common adverse events were related to cytokine release syndrome and were generally manageable.

19:37 EDT Tortoise Pipeline eports unaudited total assets approximately $235.0M - Tortoise Pipeline & Energy Fund announced that as of Nov. 30, 2018, the company's unaudited total assets were approximately $235.0 million and its unaudited net asset value was $163.2 million, or $16.29 per share.

19:26 EDT Tortoise Energy Independence reports total assets about $191.3M at November 30 - The company's unaudited net asset value was $132.5 million, or $9.02 per share.

18:59 EDT Fly Intel: After Hours Movers - UP AFTER EARNINGS: RH (RH) up 20.1%... Smartsheet (SMAR) up 4.4%... Mesa Air (MESA) up 1.5%. ALSO HIGHER: Conduent (CNDT) up 1.9% after disclosing increased stake by Carl Icahn. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: Coupa Software (COUP ) down 2.5%. ALSO LOWER: Cirrus Logic (CRUS) down 6.7% after guiding Q3 revenue lower... Paratek Pharma (PRTK) down 1.7% after filing patent extensions of Nuzyra... Senseonics (SENS) down 1.5% after announcing CFO resignation.

18:49 EDT Tortoise Power & Energy reports unaudited total assets $191.7M as of Nov. 30 - Tortoise Power and Energy announced that as of Nov. 30, 2018, the company's unaudited total assets were approximately $191.7M and its unaudited net asset value was $137.3M, or $19.76 per share.

18:32 EDT MacroGenics announced clinical data from ongoing Phase 1 study of flotetuzumab - MacroGenics announced clinical data from an ongoing Phase 1 study of flotetuzumab, MacroGenics' CD123 x CD3 bispecific DART molecule, in two oral and two poster presentations at the 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. The Phase 1 dose expansion study of flotetuzumab in relapsed/refractory patients with acute myeloid leukemia enrolled 31 patients at the recommended Phase 2 dose of 500 ng/kg/day by continuous infusion with a lead-in dosing strategy. The goal of the expansion cohort study was to evaluate the safety and preliminary anti-leukemic activity of flotetuzumab, optimize delivery and supportive care, including the management of cytokine release syndrome, and to define the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic activity of flotetuzumab.

18:21 EDT KKR sees Q4 gross realized carried interest roughly $770M on segment basis - KKR announced a monetization activity update for the period since September 30, 2018. Driven by strategic and secondary sale transactions, KKR estimates it will earn gross realized carried interest and total realized investment income of approximately $770M on a segment basis. Of that $770M, approximately $420M closed in the period from October 1, 2018 to December 3, 2018. The remaining $350M represents gross realized carried interest and total realized investment income from pending transactions that are expected to close in the first half of 2019. There can be no guarantee that such pending transactions will close as contemplated or at all or that KKR will actually earn the amount of gross realized carried interest or total realized investment income as anticipated from such pending transactions.

18:02 EDT MB Financial suspends Dividend Reinvestment and Stock Purchase Plan - MB Financial (MBFI) announced that, in anticipation of the clsoing of the company's pending merger with Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) in the first quarter of 2010, its board of directors suspended the company's Dividend Reinvestment and Stock Purchase Plan as to the purchase of shares of company common stock through the Plan effective December 3, 2018. This suspension covers both the reinvestment of dividends, including the dividend payable on December 28, 2018, and optional cash purchases. The Plan will terminate immediately prior to the effective time of the merger. The merger remains subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

17:59 EDT Natus Medical director Ken Ludlum sells over $900,000 in company shares - Natus Medical director Ken Ludlum disclosed in a regulatory filing that he had sold 30,000 shares of company stock at an average price of $31.02 between October 26 and November 29 at an average price of $31.02 per share. The total transaction value of the sale was $930,501.

17:49 EDT Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th - Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007, and owned by Oath. Oath is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications that serves as the umbrella company of its digital content subdivisions, including AOL and Yahoo!. Verizon acquired AOL on June 23, 2015. Reference Link

17:47 EDT Xencor says initial Phase 1 XmAb14045 data shows 28% of patients had CR or CRi - Xencor announced initial data from its ongoing Phase 1 dose-escalation study of XmAb14045, a CD123 x CD3 bispecific antibody, in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The data were presented in an oral session at the 2018 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting by Farhad Ravandi, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Section of Developmental Therapeutics in the Department of Leukemia at the University of Texas - MD Anderson Cancer Center. 66 patients with relapsed/refractory AML received XmAb14045. Patients were a median of 61 years old and were heavily pretreated, having had a median of three prior therapies and 30% with a history of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. 86% of patients were refractory to their last therapy, and 53% were categorized as adverse risk at diagnosis by the European LeukemiaNet system. A maximum tolerated dose has not been reached. Cytokine release syndrome was the most common toxicity occurring in 55% of patients. 6% of patients experienced Grade 3 or 4 CRS. CRS was more severe on the initial dose and was generally manageable with premedication. Additional adverse events consistent with CRS but not reported as such, including chills, fever, tachycardia, hypotension and hypertension within 24 hours of infusion, were reported in an additional 29% of patients. 28% of evaluable patients with AML achieved either complete remission or CR with incomplete hematologic recovery at the two highest initial dose levels studied. Two patients with responses were bridged to stem cell transplantation, and a third transplant-ineligible patient has remained in remission for 16+ weeks after discontinuation of therapy. "We have observed multiple complete remissions in heavily pretreated, relapsed/refractory AML patients from XmAb14045 dosed weekly, and we continue to optimize dosing regimen," said Bassil Dahiyat, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer at Xencor. "Xencor's XmAb technology enables bispecific antibodies to retain natural antibody properties, simplifying their use and production. Our platform enables the rapid development of new bispecific antibody drug candidates addressing a breadth of targets, and throughout 2019 we anticipate several new clinical trial initiations and additional data readouts."

17:42 EDT Hub Group completes previously announced acquisition of CaseStack - Hub Group announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of CaseStack for $255M in cash. "The acquisition further advances our vision to diversify and enhance our service offering to our customers. We continue to be very impressed with the business that the CaseStack management team has built. We are delighted to welcome CaseStack's employees, customers, carriers and service providers into the Hub Group family," said Dave Yeager, Hub Group's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

17:32 EDT Unity Biotechnology adds additional cohort to Phase 1 clinical study of UBX0101 - Unity Biotechnology announced that it will include an additional cohort of patients in the Phase 1 single ascending dose clinical study of UBX0101 in patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knee. Additional patients will be enrolled in the study in order to evaluate a higher dose of UBX0101 administered in a single intra-articular injection. Unity has completed enrollment in Cohorts 1 through 5. The amendment follows an interim review of aggregate blinded safety and tolerability, and drug exposure data from these cohorts. The data observed to date support the exploration of a higher dose of UBX0101 in an additional cohort. Results from Cohorts 1 through 5 were originally expected to be available in Q1 of 2019. With the addition of Cohort 6, initial results from the study are now expected to be available in Q2 of 2019.

17:29 EDT Lockheed Martin and others awarded contracts on $5B in MACs from Navy - The Navy is awarding 1,870 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award contracts, or MACs, to businesses in multiple locations across 46 of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Guam for future competition of support service requirements to be solicited by Department of the Navy activities under the SeaPort next generation multiple-award contract vehicle. All work under the contracts will fall under two categories, which are further divided into 23 functional areas. The government estimates approximately $5B of services will be procured per year via orders issued under the SeaPort-NxG multiple award contracts. These awards contain provisions to set aside requirements for small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, business development program participants, woman-owned small businesses and historically-underutilized business-zoned small businesses. Under these multiple-award contracts, each contractor will be provided a fair opportunity to nationally compete for individual task orders. The MACs have a five-year base period of performance with an additional five-year ordering period option. No contract funds will be obligated on the basic MAC awards. Contract funds will be obligated at time of task order award. Multiple funding types may be used. The funding for task orders to be issued under these contracts will come from a variety of sources and will be consistent with the purpose for which the funds were appropriated. These contracts were competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with 1,894 offers received. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity. Publicly traded companies receiving awards include BAE Systems (BAESY), General Dynamics (GD), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Raytheon (RTN).

17:19 EDT American States Water announces settlement pact in general rate case - American States Water Company announced that on November 28, 2018, its regulated utility subsidiary Golden State Water Company, on behalf of its Bear Valley Electric Service division, and the Public Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission filed a joint motion to adopt a settlement agreement between GSWC and the Public Advocates Office in connection with the electric utility general rate case. GSWC had filed a general rate case application in May 2017 for BVES to determine new rates for the years 2018 - 2021. A decision in this case is expected in 2019 and when approved by the CPUC, the new rates will be retroactive to January 1, 2018. The proposed settlement agreement, if approved by the CPUC, resolves all the issues in the electric general rate case application and among other things agrees to extend the rate cycle by one year and, therefore, will set new rates over five years beginning in 2018 through 2022, adopts an electric gross margin for 2018 of $22.5M, which is an increase of approximately $2M compared to the 2017 adopted electric gross margin, authorizes BVES to construct all the capital projects requested in its application and increased for the addition of a fifth year in the rate cycle, which are dedicated to improving system safety and reliability and total approximately $44M over the 5-year rate cycle, incorporates a previous stipulation in the case, which authorizes a new return on equity for BVES of 9.60% and adopts the capital structure and debt cost approved by the CPUC in March 2018 in connection with GSWC's water segment cost of capital proceeding, and approves recovery of certain expenses incurred in prior years that were being tracked in a memorandum account. In addition, in accordance with the settlement between GSWC and the Public Advocates Office, the adopted electric gross margin will increase by $1.2M for each of the years 2019 and 2020, by $1.1M in 2021, and by $1M in 2022. The rate increases for 2019 - 2022 are not subject to an earnings test. Because of the delay in finalizing the electric general rate case, year-to-date 2018 billed electric revenues have been based on 2017 adopted rates, pending a final decision by the CPUC in this rate case application. As a result of all the factors discussed above, earnings per share at AWR's electric utility segment for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 would have been higher by approximately 3c per share from our reported results had the new rates in the settlement agreement been approved by the CPUC prior to the third quarter of 2018. Because the new rates are retroactive to January 1, 2018, this cumulative impact is expected to be recorded at the time a decision is issued by the CPUC.

17:12 EDT Athene in significant pension risk transfer transaction with Bristol-Myers - Athene Holding (ATH) announced a first-of-its-kind pension plan termination transaction with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) covering more than 24,000 active employee participants, retirees, beneficiaries, and former Bristol-Myers Squibb employees who have not yet commenced their benefits. Under the agreement, Athene's wholly-owned Iowa-domiciled life insurance subsidiary, Athene Annuity and Life company, agreed in advance to provide an annuity contract covering all obligations of Bristol-Myers Squibb's U.S. Retirement Income Plan for which the plan participants do not elect to receive a lump sum payment. Subsequent to payout of the lump sum obligations in July 2019, it is expected that AAIA's annuity contract will cover as much as $3.8B of remaining pension liabilities when the transfer is completed in August 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. "We are pleased to have been selected as a trusted partner by Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, to serve all of their U.S. Plan participants through this innovative transaction," said Sean Brennan, Senior Vice President and Head of Pension Risk Transfer at Athene. "This transaction represents the largest full-plan termination to date that includes both retirees and non-retirees, and we believe this approach may provide a blueprint for plan sponsors considering full plan terminations in the future." Upon completion of the transaction, Athene will provide irrevocable commitments to all Plan participants and will assume full financial responsibility, including required administration, for annuity and lump sum payments. Plan participants have received information packages and do not need to take any action at this time. "As a leader in pension risk transfers, Athene is able to provide plan sponsors with customized solutions to achieve their desired pension risk and financial objectives while ensuring the financial security of their plan participants," said Bill Wheeler, President of Athene. "Our differentiated investment, actuarial, risk-management, and operational capabilities, combined with our strong balance sheet, position us well to serve the $3 trillion defined benefit marketplace." Athene is a leader in the pension risk transfer industry, managing pension payments for more than 80,000 annuitants. During 2018, Athene has closed six pension risk transfer transactions totaling more than $1.8 billion.

17:05 EDT Huntington Ingalls acquires G2 Inc., terms not disclosed - Huntington Ingalls announced that it has acquired G2 Inc., a cybersecurity solutions and services company headquartered in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. G2 will join HII's Technical Solutions division. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

16:59 EDT Berry Petroleum sells non-core assets in East Texas Basin for $6.7M - Berry Petroleum announced that on November 30, 2018, Berry Petroleum completed a transaction to sell its non-core producing properties and related assets located in the East Texas Basin for $6.7 million. Production, comprised primarily of natural gas, was approximately 0.7 MBoe per day in the third quarter of 2018 from 4,532 net acres. Divesting the East Texas properties follows Berry's stated strategy of focusing on and growing its core oil assets. This transaction moves Berry's production profile from approximately 80% oil to 83% oil. The effective date of the sale is July 1, 2018.

16:54 EDT Cirrus Logic lowers forecast due to recent weakness in smartphone market

16:53 EDT Henry Schein's McKinley sells 8,321 common shares - In a regulatory filing, Henry Schein CCO David McKinley disclosed the sale of 8,321 common shares of the company at a price of $88.77 per share.

16:50 EDT Inspired Entertainment to change reporting date of earnings to December 10 - Inspired Entertainment announced that in recognition of the closure of the United States stock markets on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, the company is changing the date of its earnings release to Monday, December 10, 2018, before the market opens. Inspired Management will host a conference call and simultaneous webcast at 9:00 a.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. UK the same day to discuss the financial results and general business trends.

16:46 EDT Western Asset Mortgage CIO Anup Agarwal to resign - Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation announced Anup Agarwal's resignation from his position as Chief Investment Officer of the company, which is managed by Western Asset Management Company, LLC, effective January 4, 2019. Agarwal will be leaving to pursue another opportunity, the company said. The board of directors of the company has appointed Sean Johnson and Dennis McNamara to serve as interim Co-CIOs upon Agarwal's departure. Western Asset will conduct a comprehensive search of both internal and external candidates for a successor CIO for the company.

16:43 EDT Chubb announces preliminary net loss of $195M in Q4 from California wildfires - Chubb announced preliminary net loss estimates in Q4 attributable to the California wildfires of approximately $225M pre-tax, or $195M after tax. These estimates do not include losses from Hurricane Michael or other weather events occurring globally in the quarter. The company believes its estimated losses from Hurricane Michael are currently at the upper end of the range of $150M-$250M pre-tax that was previously disclosed. These estimates are net of reinsurance, include reinstatement premiums and comprise losses generated from the company's commercial and personal property and casualty insurance businesses as well as its reinsurance operations.

16:37 EDT Senseonics CFO R. Don Elsey to retire - Senseonics Holding announced the retirement of Chief Financial Officer, R. Don Elsey. Mr. Elsey has agreed to remain in his current role and to step down when a replacement is appointed. He will then continue with the company in an advisory role to ensure an orderly transition and completion of the company's annual SEC filings for the 2018 fiscal year.

16:36 EDT Talos Energy announces commencement of Zama appraisal program - Talos Energy announced that the Zama-2 appraisal well was spud on Thursday, November 29, 2018. The spudding of the Zama-2 well marks the commencement of the Zama discovery appraisal program, which will consist of three reservoir penetrations, including two wells and one sidetrack. The first well, the Zama-2, will be drilled to the north of the Zama discovery well and will look to confirm the oil water contact and collect information to better understand the reservoir's aquifer support. The Zama-2 well will also be deepened approximately 500 meters below the Zama reservoir to test the Marte exploration prospect. This will then be followed by an up-dip vertical sidetrack from the main bore hole, which will be cored and a drill stem test will be performed, which is expected in the second quarter of 2019. The second appraisal well, Zama-3, will be drilled to the south of the original discovery well and will help delineate reservoir continuity and quality in the southern part of the field and will be cored to be better understand the reservoir geology. The appraisal program is expected to be completed by mid-year 2019.

16:25 EDT Geron announces new survival data from IMbark study of Imetelsat in MF patients - Geron announced that results from IMbark, a Phase 2 clinical trial of imetelstat treatment in Intermediate-2 or High-risk myelofibrosis, or MF, patients who are relapsed or refractory to a Janus Kinase inhibitor, were presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. Geron CEO John A. Scarlett said: "The IMbark results suggest a meaningful survival outcome in this poor-prognosis, relapsed/refractory MF patient population where there are currently no approved treatmentWe plan to explore potential late-stage development opportunities for imetelstat in MF through discussions with experts in MF and regulatory authorities and expect to provide a decision regarding future development of imetelstat in this patient population by the end of the third quarter of 2019." IMbark is a Phase 2 clinical trial that evaluated two starting dose levels of imetelstat in more than 100 patients with Intermediate-2 or High-risk MF who have relapsed after or are refractory to prior treatment with a JAK inhibitor. The oral presentation highlighted efficacy and safety data from the primary analysis, as well as overall survival data with a clinical cutoff of October 22, 2018 and a median follow up of approximately 27 months. The new data presented at ASH indicate that median overall survival for the 9.4 mg/kg dosing arm was 29.9 months, which suggests a meaningful survival outcome with imetelstat treatment in this poor-prognosis patient population, all of whom met rigorous criteria for having failed or not responded to JAK inhibitor treatment prior to enrollment in the trial. Other observational studies of similar patient populations published in medical literature have reported median OS ranged from approximately 12-14 months. The safety profile reported for imetelstat-treated patients in IMbark was consistent with prior clinical trials of imetelstat in hematologic malignancies, and no new safety signals were identified. Cytopenias, particularly neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, were the most frequently reported adverse events which were predictable, manageable and reversible.

16:21 EDT H&R Block changes reporting date of Q2 results to December 6 - H&R Block announced that the company has changed the reporting date of its fiscal 2019 second quarter results from Wednesday, December 5, 2018 to Thursday, December 6, 2018 in observance of a day of mourning to honor late President George H.W. Bush and the related closure of the U.S. stock markets. The company will now announce its fiscal 2019 second quarter results on Thursday, December 6, 2018, before the market open of the New York Stock Exchange.

16:18 EDT Corporate Capital Trust declares conditional special cash distribution of 40c - On November 29, 2018, CCT's board of directors declared a conditional special cash distribution that, subject to the closing of the merger, will be payable on or about December 27, 2018. The amount of the special cash distribution, which will be announced following the closing of the merger, will equal 40c per share plus any remaining estimated undistributed net investment income and net realized gains of CCT prior to the closing of the merger after giving effect to the 40c per share amount. Notwithstanding the record date, CCT shareholders must remain holders until the closing of the merger to retain rights to the payment of the special cash distribution. The record date of the special cash distribution will be the close of business on December 18, 2018 but because CCT's special cash distribution is conditioned on the closing of the merger, shares of CCT's common stock will trade with a "due bill". The holder of a share of CCT common stock that receives shares of FSIC in the merger will also receive the special cash distribution for that CCT share. A holder that sells shares of CCT common stock following the record date will not receive the special cash distribution for the CCT shares that are sold.

16:16 EDT Allete, Xcel Energy sign 5-year power sale agreements in Minnesota - ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE (ALE), has approved new 5-year power sale agreements between its Viking wind facilities in southern Minnesota and Xcel Energy (XEL). The Viking facilities, with a combined capacity of 12 megawatts near Lake Benton, Minnesota, and the larger Chanarambie wind project nearby, make up ALLETE Clean Energy's Northern Wind unit. The Chanarambie site also is contracted to Xcel Energy. Viking was developed by EDF Renewable Energy, and the eight General Electric turbines began commercial operation in 2003. The wind site was acquired by ALLETE Clean Energy in 2015. The site's original 15-year power sale agreements were set to expire in December 2018.

16:12 EDT Scholar Rock says EMA gives positive opinion on SRK-015 for SMA treatment - Scholar Rock Holding announced that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products has adopted a positive opinion recommending SRK-015 for designation as an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. SRK-015 was previously granted orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March 2018. "We are delighted with the EMA COMP's adoption of a positive opinion for SRK-015 orphan drug designation, which represents another important milestone for this clinical program," said Nagesh Mahanthappa, PhD, President and CEO of Scholar Rock. "We believe SRK-015 has the potential to be the first muscle-directed therapy to improve muscle function in patients with SMA and look forward to working with the EMA as we progress the program, including our intention to initiate a Phase 2 proof-of-concept study in the first quarter of 2019."

16:11 EDT Virtusa announces departure of Digital Business Strategy President Raj Rajgopal - Virtusa announced that Raj Rajgopal, President Digital Business Strategy, has resigned from the Company, effective March 1, 2019, in order to pursue other opportunities.

16:10 EDT RH spikes up 12% afterhours following Q3 earnings beat and raised FY18 outlook

16:09 EDT Kinder Morgan sees FY19 adjusted EBITDA $7.8B, up 4% - "This year has been a very good one for Kinder Morgan and we expect to nicely exceed our budget. In 2019, with our market fundamentals remaining very strong, the Elba Liquefaction Project coming online and Gulf Coast Express entering service, we project continued growth," said Steve Kean, KMI chief executive officer. "We expect to generate $5.0 billion of distributable cash flow which is approximately a 10 percent increase over our 2018 budgeted DCF. Our growth will continue to be supported by an approximately $6.5 billion backlog of high probability energy infrastructure expansion opportunities," continued Kean. Below is a summary of KMI's expectations for 2019: Generate $2.20 DCF per share and $7.8 billion of Adjusted EBITDA, up 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively, compared to our 2018 budget, despite the sale of our Trans Mountain asset; return additional value to shareholders in 2019 through the previously announced dividend increase. As first stated in KMI's second quarter 2017 earnings release, KMI expects to increase the declared dividend per common share for 2019 to $1.00 per share, beginning with $0.25 per share for the Q1 2019 dividend, a 25 percent increase from the 2018 dividend and a 100 percent increase from the 2017 dividend. KMI also continues to expect to increase the dividend to $1.25 per share for 2020; invest $3.1 billion in expansion projects and contributions to joint ventures in 2019. KMI expects to use internally generated cash flow to fully fund its 2019 dividend payment as well as the vast majority of its 2019 discretionary spending, with no need to access equity markets; end 2019 with a Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 4.5 times. KMI's expectations assume average annual prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Henry Hub natural gas of $60.00 per barrel and $3.15 per MMBtu, respectively, consistent with forward pricing during the budget process. The vast majority of cash generated by KMI is fee-based and therefore is not directly exposed to commodity prices. The primary area where KMI has commodity price sensitivity is in its CO2 segment, where KMI hedges the majority of its next 12 months of oil production to minimize this sensitivity. For 2019, the company estimates that every $1 per barrel change in the average WTI crude oil price impacts DCF by approximately $9 million and each $0.10 per MMBtu change in the price of natural gas impacts DCF by approximately $1 million.

16:07 EDT Paratek files two patent term extensions in U.S., sees Nuzrya patent protected - Paratek Pharmaceuticals announced the company filed two Patent Term Extension Requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office."Significantly lengthening NUZYRA's exclusive commercial rights into at least 2030 in the United States will have substantial positive long-term impact on its commercial opportunity and builds on our broad and comprehensive protection for NUZYRA," said Michael Bigham, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Paratek. "Our commercial teamis actively preparing for a NUZYRA launch in the U.S.in February, and we are looking forward to bringing a compelling new option for the treatment oncommunity-acquiredpneumonia and skininfections." NUZYRA was approved in October 2018 by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of adult patients with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.

16:06 EDT E-Trade names Chad Turner CFO - E-Trade Financial Corporation announced that Chad Turner will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer for the company, reporting to Mike Pizzi whose role has been elevated to include technology in addition to his current oversight of the finance and operations organizations. An E-Trade veteran with nearly two decades in leadership roles in finance and beyond, Turner currently oversees the forecasting and performance analysis functions that drive the company's strategic direction. Prior to this role, Turner served as Vice President, Accounting, with experience in all areas of finance including acquisition integration, treasury, risk management, modeling, and due diligence.

16:06 EDT Fate Therapeutics secures exclusive option to MDC IP portfolio - Fate Therapeutics announced that it has secured an exclusive option to an intellectual property, or IP, portfolio owned by the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, or MDC, covering novel humanized chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, constructs that uniquely and specifically bind B-cell maturation antigen, or BCMA. Under the agreement with MDC, Fate Therapeutics holds an exclusive option to exclusively license the portfolio for all cell products, including CAR NK- and T-cell products, derived from induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs. Fate Therapeutics is applying its iPSC product platform, which utilizes clonal master engineered iPSC lines to mass produce NK- and T-cell products that are uniformly engineered and extensively characterized, to create off-the-shelf cell-based cancer immunotherapies for multiple myeloma. The intellectual property of MDC covered under the exclusive option includes humanized antibody fragments that bind a unique BCMA epitope, humanized CAR constructs with extracellular antigen-binding domains to BCMA, and immune cells, including NK cells and T cells, expressing anti-BCMA CAR constructs.

15:49 EDT Sony PlayStation issues network issue alert - Reference Link

15:01 EDT Minerals Technologies announces price increases for all bentonite products - American Colloid Company, a subsidiary of Minerals Technologies, announced that it will increase prices of all bentonite and bentonite-related products serving the foundry, household and personal care, oil and gas, and construction markets, due to significant inflation in input, raw material and logistics costs. Price increases will range from 6%-12% effective January 1, 2019, subject to individual customer contracts and terms.

14:46 EDT Wex announces long-term fuel card processing deal with Z Energy - WEX Card Australia, a subsidiary of WEX Inc., announced that it has signed a significant agreement with Z Energy Ltd. Z Energy, a New Zealand Transport Energy Company, has selected WEX to develop, support and manage a fuel card processing platform for Z Energy in New Zealand along with an agreement to process Z Energy's fuel cards over the next 5 years. "While WEX has already been growing its footprint in Asia Pacific, this new deal represents its further expansion into New Zealand for the fuel arm of the business," the company stated.

14:35 EDT Alexion to present 'positive' Phase 3 data for ALXN1210 at ASH meeting - Alexion Pharmaceuticals announced the presentation of comprehensive positive Phase 3 data for ALXN1210, the company's investigational long-acting C5 complement inhibitor, at the American Society of Hematology, or ASH, Annual Meeting, taking place December 1-4. The presentations included both previously announced and new data from the two large Phase 3 studies in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, or PNH, who had either never been treated with a complement inhibitor before or who had been stable on Soliris treatment. The conference presentations coincided with publications in Blood of the positive results on all primary and key secondary endpoints from these two studies. "We are excited by the increasing body of data from our two active comparator-controlled Phase 3 studies, the largest PNH Phase 3 program ever conducted, on clinically meaningful endpoints in this devastating and potentially life-threatening disease. We are particularly pleased by the positive data in patients converting to ALXN1210 from Soliris," said John Orloff, M.D., Executive VP and Head of Research & Development at Alexion. "Our ambition is to make ALXN1210 the new standard of care for patients with PNH."

14:19 EDT AbbVie says Imbruvica Phase 3 combo data finds improvement in PFS - AbbVie (ABBV) announced results from the Phase 3 iLLUMINATE trial, evaluating the chemotherapy-free, anti-CD20 combination of IMBRUVICA plus obinutuzumab in patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. At a median follow-up of 31 months, study results showed IMBRUVICA plus obinutuzumab significantly prolonged progression-free survival with a 77% reduction in risk of progression or death versus chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab, the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines Category 1 treatment regimen. The data were presented in an oral session at the 2018 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and were simultaneously published in The Lancet Oncology. Based on these data, a supplemental New Drug Application was recently accepted for Priority Review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand the use of IMBRUVICA in combination with obinutuzumab in previously untreated CLL/SLL. IMBRUVICA is a once-daily, first-in-class Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is administered orally, and is jointly developed and commercialized by Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie company, and Janssen Biotech, Inc. (JNJ). "iLLUMINATE represents one of three IMBRUVICA Phase 3 studies in chronic lymphocytic leukemia being presented at this year's ASH. Results from the iLLUMINATE study support the use of IMBRUVICA as a chemotherapy-free, anti-CD20 combination treatment option versus the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines Category 1 treatment of chlorambucil plus obinutuzumab," said Danelle James, M.D., M.A.S., Head of Clinical Science, Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie company. "These latest findings, in addition to seven-year long-term data and a Late-Breaker at this year's ASH, add to the robust amount of data supporting the use of IMBRUVICA as backbone therapy in CLL and SLL."

14:07 EDT Dorchester Minerals announces transaction that nets company $3.6M in cash - Dorchester Minerals announced on November 29, the Partnership and affiliates of its General Partner consummated and closed an agreement to assign leasehold interests and related net profits interests located in Winkler County, Texas to a third party. The Partnership's share of proceeds from the transaction totaled approximately $3.6M in cash. The Partnership also retained an overriding royalty interest in the assigned acreage. The cash proceeds of this transaction will be included in the distribution for the three-month period ending December 31, 2018.

14:01 EDT Accenture acquires Enaxis Consulting - Accenture announced that it has acquired Enaxis Consulting, a Houston-based management consulting firm with deep experience in digital capabilities, data science and agile project delivery focused on the upstream oil and gas and oilfield services sectors and the airline industry.

13:47 EDT AstraZeneca data from ACE-LY-004 trial showed sustained response to Calquence - AstraZeneca and Acerta Pharma, its hematology research and development center of excellence, have presented new, long-term follow-up results for CALQUENCE in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma and updated results of an ongoing clinical trial assessing acalabrutinib monotherapy in treatment-naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, CA. Long-term follow-up data presented from the Phase II ACE-LY-004 trial in relapsed or refractory MCL showed sustained and clinically meaningful responses to CALQUENCE with a median follow-up of more than two years, confirming its efficacy and safety profile in this patient population. Initial data from this trial served as the basis for the accelerated approval of CALQUENCE for the treatment of adult patients with MCL who have received at least one prior therapy by the US Food and Drug Administration in October 2017. The ORR in the trial was 81%.

13:24 EDT Netflix CCO says not currently looking to invest in sports content - Says still sees growth from investment in content. Says the marginal cost of overinvesting is not high. Says not looking to invest in sports content now. Says "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" was a big hit and phenomenon with hardly any marketing spend.

13:08 EDT Sotheby's names John Cahill as CCO, Ken Citron as CTO; COO Adam Chinn to leave - Sotheby's announced the appointment of John Cahill to the role of Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, and Ken Citron to the role of Executive Vice President, Operations & Chief Transformation Officer. The two new positions assume the previous role of Sotheby's COO held by Adam Chinn, who will be leaving the company at the end of the year. Cahill and Citron will join Sotheby's in January, working closely with the company's leadership around the globe and reporting directly to Tad Smith, Sotheby's CEO. John Cahill joins Sotheby's from his eponymous firm, Cahill Cossu Noh & Robinson. In his new role as Chief Commercial Officer, John will oversee the company's global deal making affairs with clients, including our lending business, Sotheby's Financial Services.

13:02 EDT Apellis announces updated new data from APL-2 Phase 2 study - Apellis Pharmaceuticals announced updated data from its Phase 2 study of APL-2 in patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, including cold agglutinin disease and warm antibody autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Data from the PLAUDIT trial will be presented in a poster session today at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, held in San Diego, California. In the ongoing PLAUDIT study, 12 CAD patients have been enrolled on APL-2 subcutaneous treatment, of which 5 patients have been treated for at least 56 days. Nine patients with wAIHA were enrolled, seven of which were Direct Antiglobulin Test C3+. Five of these C3+ wAIHA patients have been on APL-2 for at least 56 days. "CAD and wAIHA are now the third and fourth indications, along with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and geographic atrophy (GA), with high unmet medical need where APL-2 has demonstrated proof of concept," said Dr. Cedric Francois, MD, PhD, Apellis co-founder and CEO. "These additional data confirm that the unique way APL-2 targets both C3 as well as C5 via the C5 convertase supports its potential across multiple complement-mediated diseases. We are pleased that APL-2 demonstrates a clinically meaningful benefit in these two challenging diseases that each lack an FDA-approved therapy."

12:45 EDT Viacom CEO says not focused on big, transformational deal

12:43 EDT Viacom CEO says scatter up 30% from upfront pricing

12:29 EDT Interactive Brokers reports November DARTs up 14% y/y - Interactive Brokers Group reported its Electronic Brokerage monthly performance metrics for November. Brokerage highlights for the month included: 907,000 Daily Average Revenue Trades, 14% higher than prior year and 8% lower than prior month. Ending client equity of $136.2B, 12% higher than prior year and 2% higher than prior month. Ending client margin loan balances of $28.3B, 4% higher than prior year and 2% lower than prior month. Ending client credit balances of $50.5B, including $1.8B in insured bank deposit sweeps1, 6% higher than prior year and 1% lower than prior month. 593,000 client accounts, 25% higher than prior year and 1% higher than prior month. 347 annualized average cleared DARTs per client account. Average commission per cleared client order of $3.81 including exchange, clearing and regulatory fees.

12:22 EDT Viacom to lean more into investment initiatives in 2019 - Viacom (VIA, VIAB) CEO Bob Bakish says company will lean more into investment initiatives in 2019. Says will lean more into advanced marketing solutions efforts. Says will continue to build studio production business. Says excited about 2019, says will return to full year total company revenue growth. Says Paramount business has a lot of momentum and a lot of opportunity ahead. Says sees Paramount being a $1B business in a couple of years. Says Netflix (NFLX) partnership is an exciting opportunity. Says continues to see strong domestic ad market. Says continues to see very strong demand to drive price, packaging. Says continues to be optimistic for prospects in 2019 as the company returns to growth in back half of the year. Says sees some improvement in Nickelodeon, says changed management team. Says Nickelodeon is now down teens. Says seen material growth on the digital consumption side of MTV. Says "feeling great" about where MTV is. Says saw opportunity to bring "MTV's The Real World" back on Facebook (FB). Says will release three versions, will raise visibility of MTV brand. Says only using 5% of MTV library IP on air currently. Says a lot of opportunity to create incremental value. Comments taken from the UBS 46th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference.

12:02 EDT Cushman & Wakefield announces partnership with Plug and Play - Cushman & Wakefield announced its partnership with Plug and Play, a global innovation and startup accelerator platform. Cushman & Wakefield joins as a founding anchor partner for the Plug and Play Real Estate & Construction vertical. Cushman & Wakefield will work with Plug and Play startups while focusing on the firm's mission of delivering integrated solutions to real estate owners and occupiers at every stage of the real estate and commercial property process.

12:00 EDT VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN falls -15.6% - VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN is down -15.6%, or -$26.17 to $141.45.

12:00 EDT Laredo Petroleum rises 14.1% - Laredo Petroleum is up 14.1%, or 61c to $4.99.

12:00 EDT Biohaven Pharmaceutical rises 17.4% - Biohaven Pharmaceutical is up 17.4%, or $5.91 to $39.90.

11:57 EDT Cronos Group trading resumes

11:52 EDT Cronos Group trading halted, volatility trading pause

11:49 EDT Porsche reports November U.S. sales up 2.1% to 5,673 vehicles - Porsche Cars North America announced November retail sales of 5,673 vehicles, an all-time monthly record. The total was up 2.1% from November 2017. U.S. retail sales for the first 11 months were 3.1% ahead of the same period last year, totaling 53,116. "Porsche is focused on providing what our customers want from a superb sports car, whether two-door or four-door," said Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of PCNA. "The November results confirm what we have seen all year, that the thrill of driving a Porsche of your choice resonates with existing customers and new fans."

11:07 EDT Trovagene presents updated data from Phase 1b/2 study of Onvansertib - Trovagene presented updated data from its ongoing Phase 1b/2 study evaluating Onvansertib in combination with standard-of-care chemotherapy in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Trovagene is a clinical-stage oncology therapeutics company, using a precision medicine predictive biomarker approach to develop drugs that target cell division for the treatment of leukemias, lymphomas and solid tumor cancers. Onvansertib, its lead drug candidate, is a first-in-class, 3rd generation, highly-selective oral Polo-like Kinase 1Inhibitor. The Company currently has two ongoing open-label clinical trials: a Phase 1b/2 trial in acute myeloid leukemia and a Phase 2 trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The data, featured in a poster presentation at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, demonstrate that Onvansertib, in combination with LDAC or decitabine, even at the dose-escalation phase of the trial, is benefiting patients who have relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia, and that the combination regimen is safe and well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported to-date. Onvansertib is a first-in-class, 3rd generation, highly-selective oral Polo-like Kinase 1 Inhibitor that is being evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1b/2 clinical trial at nine sites in the U.S. AML is a rapidly progressing bone marrow cancer with poor survival rates compared to other leukemias. The standard of care for people with AML is intensive chemotherapy; however, for many elderly patients with AML intensive treatment is not an option. Additionally, patients with relapsed or refractory AML remain among the most challenging to treat and prognosis is poor. Presentation Highlights: Background: Polo-like Kinase 1: Serine/threonine kinase, master regulator of cell-cycle progression. Inhibition of PLK1 causes mitotic arrest in prometaphase and subsequent cell death. Over-expressed in numerous cancer types, including AML, and associated with poor prognosis. A pan-PLK inhibitor, volasertib in combination with LDAC, improved survival in a randomized Phase 2 trial in AML. A 3rd generation PLK1 inhibitor, with increased specificity, potency and pharmacologic properties was needed to optimize features that hampered future development of volasertib. Onvansertib:Orally-bioavailable, highly-selective PLK1 inhibitor. ~24-hour half-life. Induces G2/M arrest and apoptosis in cancer cells, including leukemic cells. Demonstrates synergy in combination with chemotherapies and targeted therapeutics.Safe and well tolerated. No trial therapy-related deaths. No Severe Adverse Events were considered related to study drug treatment. AE possibly related to Onvansertib was Grade 1 nausea in 4 patients. Of the 19 patients evaluable for safety, 12 patients had an evaluable bone marrow biopsy to assess anti-leukemic activity based on criteria from the 2017 ELN recommendations. Of the 12 patients evaluated for preliminary anti-leukemic activity, 1 patient had a partial response, 9 patients had stable disease and 2 patients had progressive disease.Two dose-levels of Onvansertib were completed, with 13 patients evaluable for safety. 6 patients have been enrolled at the 27 mg/m2 dose-level, 3 have finished cycle 1 without experiencing dose-limiting toxicities; 3 patients are on cycle 1 of treatment. Preliminary efficacy in the evaluable population showed over 80% patient benefit: 1 patient with PR, 9 patients with SD. PLK1 inhibition by treatment was observed in 5 out of 15 patients and was associated with a higher response to treatment, measured by decreases in circulating and bone marrow blasts . Implementation of a pTCTP biomarker strategy going forward will increase the opportunity to identify patients most likely to respond to Onvansertib. No drug-related deaths or SAEs have been reported to-date.

11:02 EDT Karyopharm: Oral selinexor achieves 26.2% ORR in STORM study - Karyopharm Therapeutics announced presentations highlighting updated data from the Phase 2b STORM study evaluating selinexor, the Company's first-in-class, oral Selective Inhibitor of Nuclear Export compound, in patients with penta-refractory multiple myeloma, and from two arms of the Phase 1b/2 STOMP study evaluating selinexor and dexamethasone in combination with standard approved therapies, Pomalyst or Darzalex, in patients with previously treated multiple myeloma. The data were featured in oral and poster presentations at American Society of Hematology 2018 Annual Meeting taking place December 1-4, 2018 in San Diego. A New Drug Application seeking accelerated approval for oral selinexor with low dose dexamethasone as a treatment for patients with penta-refractory multiple myeloma is under Priority Review by the U.S. FDA with an action date of April 6, 2019, under the Prescription Drug User-Fee Act. These clinical results are from Part 2 of the international, multi-center, single-arm Phase 2b STORM study, which enrolled 122 heavily pretreated patients with penta-refractory myeloma. Patients with penta-refractory myeloma have previously received the two proteasome inhibitors, Velcade and Kyprolis, the two immunomodulatory drugs, Revlimid and Pomalyst, and the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody Darzalex, as well as alkylating agents, and their disease is refractory to glucocorticoids, at least one PI, at least one IMiD, Darzalex and their most recent therapy. Each patient started 80mg oral selinexor twice weekly in combination with low-dose dexamethasone. For the STORM study's primary objective, oral selinexor achieved a 26.2% ORR, which included two stringent complete responses, six very good partial responses and 24 partial responses.

10:53 EDT FDA posts draft guidance for developing NASH drugs - The FDA posted its draft guidance for developing drugs to treat noncirrhotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with liver fibrosis. Companies developing NASH treatments include Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT), Genfit (GNFTF), Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (MDGL), CymaBay Therapeutics (CBAY) and Viking Therapeutics (VKTX). The patient inclusion criteria sponsors should consider for clinical trials in drug development for treatment of noncirrhotic NASH with liver fibrosis include: "Patients should have a histological diagnosis of NASH with liver fibrosis made close to the time of trial enrollment (i.e., no more than 6 months before enrollment). Because baseline histology is critical for efficacy evaluation, liver biopsies obtained more than 6 months before enrollment may not represent an accurate status of the disease at the 210 beginning of the trial," the FDA said. It adds, "Because some NASH patients are treated with vitamin E or pioglitazone, enrollment of such patients in clinical trials may confound treatment effects. Therefore, such NASH patients should either discontinue vitamin E or pioglitazone or be on stable doses for 6-12 months before enrollment. Stratified randomization may be necessary to avoid imbalances between treatment arms for concurrent treatment with vitamin E or pioglitazone." Reference Link

10:25 EDT Nissan reports November U.S. sales down 18.7% to 110,513 vehicles - Nissan announced total U.S. sales for November 2018 of 110,513 units, a decrease of 18.7% compared to the previous year.

10:19 EDT Agios reports updated data from Phase 1 ivosidenib, enasidenib study - Agios Pharmaceuticals presented data from a Phase 1 study evaluating ivosidenib or enasidenib in combination with standard induction and consolidation chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia and an isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 or IDH2 mutation. The data were featured in an oral presentation at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego. "These data demonstrate that combining full doses of standard induction and consolidation chemotherapy with ivosidenib or enasidenib is well tolerated and has the potential to provide benefit for AML patients in the frontline setting," said Eytan Stein, M.D., study investigator and attending physician in the leukemia service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. "The addition of an IDH inhibitor to induction and consolidation followed administration as single-agent maintenance therapy for patients with newly diagnosed AML will be evaluated further in a Phase 3 randomized study." As of the August 1, 2018 data cut-off, 60 newly diagnosed AML patients with mIDH1 received 500 mg of ivosidenib and standard induction chemotherapy and 93 newly diagnosed AML patients with mIDH2 received 100 mg of enasidenib and standard induction chemotherapy. After induction, patients received up to four cycles of consolidation chemotherapy while continuing ivosidenib or enasidenib. Patients who achieved a complete response or a complete response with incomplete neutrophil or platelet recovery after consolidation could continue taking single agent ivosidenib or enasidenib daily until the end of the study which is up to two years from the last patient dosed. 70% of ivosidenib-treated patients and 63% of enasidenib-treated patients had de novo AML, while the remaining had secondary AML. In patients with sAML, 22% in the ivosidenib cohort and 50% in the enasidenib cohort had received prior hypomethylating agent therapy.

10:18 EDT Cerberus to acquire majority interest in Navistar Defense - Cerberus Capital Management announced a definitive agreement with Navistar International under which certain affiliates of Cerberus will acquire a 70% interest in Navistar's defense business, Navistar Defense. "Today's announcement is a strategic milestone for Navistar Defense as it provides the business with a well-established, long-term partner that is focused on making crucial growth investments in the business. Navistar Defense strategically complements Cerberus' existing portfolio and we look forward to collaborating with, and supporting, the business as it enters its next phase of synergistic growth," said Persio Lisboa, Chief Operating Officer, Navistar. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in 2018.

10:09 EDT Incyte announces updated results from Phase 2 REACH1 study of ruxolitinib - Incyte Corporation announces updated results from its pivotal Phase 2 REACH1 study evaluating ruxolitinib in combination with corticosteroids as a treatment for patients with acute graft-versus-host disease who have had an inadequate response to corticosteroids. As previously announced, the study met its primary endpoint, demonstrating an overall response rate of 55 percent at Day 28, along with a best overall response rate - patients achieving a response at any time point during the study - of 73 percent. Many of the patients had Grade III or Grade IV disease at baseline, illustrative of an at-risk patient population, and responses were observed irrespective of grade or steroid refractory criteria. Responses to ruxolitinib were rapid and durable; the median time to response was seven days and the median duration of response for patients who had a minimum of six months of follow-up was 345 days. Adverse events reported were consistent with the safety profile established in prior ruxolitinib studies, and in patients with SR acute GVHD. GVHD is a condition that can occur after an allogeneic transplant where the donated bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells view the recipient's body as foreign and attack the body, leading to significant morbidity and mortality in transplant recipients. There are two forms of GVHD, acute and chronic, which can affect multiple organ systems including the skin, gastrointestinal tract and liver. Acute GVHD typically occurs within the first 100 days following an allogeneic transplant and is classified based on clinical and histological features. With acute GVHD, up to 40 percent of patients have severe disease, resulting in a 12-month survival of 50 percent or less. The primary endpoint of the REACH1 study was overall response rate at Day 28, defined as the proportion of patients having complete response, very good partial response or partial response. The key secondary endpoint was six-month duration of response. At the six-month data cutoff, 71 patients had received at least one dose of ruxolitinib, and treatment was ongoing in 11 patients. Results from the primary analysis being presented at ASH show that in patients with steroid refractory acute GVHD who are treated with ruxolitinib in combination with corticosteroids, the primary endpoint of ORR was 55 percent, with responses observed irrespective of grade or SR criteria. This included 19 patients with CR, seven patients with VGPR and 13 patients with PR. The median DOR among Day 28 responders who had a minimum of six months follow-up was 345 days, the key secondary endpoint. Event-free probability estimates for Day 28 responders at three and six months were 82 percent and 65 percent, respectively. The median time to first response was rapid. Additionally, most patients had sustained reductions in corticosteroid use over time, with more than half of patients on ruxolitinib at Day 28 demonstrating a greater than or equal to50 percent reduction from baseline in corticosteroid dose. Additional secondary endpoints of the REACH1 study include non-relapse mortality, overall survival and the incidence and severity of adverse events. Non-relapse mortality rates at six, nine and twelve months were 44 percent, 48 percent and 53 percent, respectively. Among all patients, median OS was 232 days. The ruxolitinib AE profile was consistent with expectations for ruxolitinib and for patients with SR acute GVHD. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events of any grade were anemia, hypokalemia, decreased platelet count, peripheral edema and decreased neutrophil count. A total of 14 patients had a cytomegalovirus event, and all patients who had a CMV event had a positive CMV donor or recipient serostatus or both at baseline. Fatal treatment-related TEAEs were sepsis and pulmonary hemorrhage and were attributed to both ruxolitinib and corticosteroids. No deaths were attributed to CMV events. Data from the REACH1 study supported the submission of a supplemental New Drug Application by Incyte which was accepted for Priority Review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of February 24, 2019. The FDA grants Priority Review to medicines that have the potential to provide significant improvements in the treatment of a serious disease.

10:05 EDT Ford sees total November industry SAAR in mid- to high-17M vehicle range - Sees total November sales off about 3% or so, with almost 1.4M vehicles sold. Sees total November industry SAAR in the mid- to high-17M vehicle range. Comments taken from Ford's November U.S. sales conference call. Shares of Ford are up 3.8% to $9.76 in morning trading.

10:04 EDT Kadmon reports KD025 trial ORR 65% in Cohort 1%, 63% in Cohort 2 - Kadmon Holdings announced updated data from its ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial of KD025, its selective oral inhibitor of Rho-associated coiled-coil kinase 2, in patients with previously treated chronic graft-versus-host disease. The updated results reaffirm data previously presented for KD025 in cGVHD, demonstrating favorable tolerability and robust and durable clinical activity, including in patients with multi-organ involvement. The data were presented today in an oral presentation at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The updated data from the KD025-208 clinical trial showed Overall Response Rates of 65%, 63% and 52% in Cohort 1, Cohort 2 and Cohort 3, respectively, as of the data cutoff date of September 13, 2018. Responses were achieved with KD025 across key patient subgroups, with an ORR of 58% in patients with two or more prior lines of systemic therapy and 62% in patients with four or more organs involved. Responses were durable, with a median duration of response of 28 weeks. In addition, 72% of responders experienced a clinically meaningful improvement in symptoms, as measured by at least a 7-point decrease in Lee cGVHD Symptom Scale score. KD025 was also shown to be steroid sparing: 69% of all patients were able to reduce steroid dose and seven patients have completely discontinued steroids. KD025 was well tolerated across all cohorts, with no drug-related SAEs and no apparent increased risk of infection. New pharmacodynamics data showed a decrease in pro-inflammatory Th17 cells and an increase in regulatory T cells during KD025 treatment, consistent with KD025 mechanism of action. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation and Orphan Drug Designation to KD025 for the treatment of cGVHD. Kadmon recently dosed the first patient in ROCKstar, a pivotal, open-label clinical trial of KD025 in adults with cGVHD who have received two or more prior lines of systemic therapy. The trial is studying two doses of KD025; either dose may be considered by the FDA for the registrational dose. The study objective is to demonstrate clinically meaningful responses, in a patient population with significant unmet medical need, with an ORR of at least 30%.

10:00 EDT Britannia Bulk falls -13.4% - Britannia Bulk is down -13.4%, or -$1.84 to $11.92.

10:00 EDT VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN falls -18.0% - VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN is down -18.0%, or -$30.10 to $137.52.

10:00 EDT Biohaven Pharmaceutical rises 15.5% - Biohaven Pharmaceutical is up 15.5%, or $5.29 to $39.27.

09:50 EDT TORM PLC (Class A Stock) trading resumes

09:47 EDT Britannia Bulk falls -13.5% - Britannia Bulk is down -13.5%, or -$1.86 to $11.90.

09:47 EDT Aphria falls -16.5% - Aphria is down -16.5%, or -$1.30 to $6.60.

09:47 EDT Canadian Natural rises 14.6% - Canadian Natural is up 14.6%, or $3.66 to $28.81.

09:46 EDT Fiat Chrysler reports November U.S. sales up 17% to 181,310 vehicles - FCA US reported U.S. sales of 181,310 in November, a 17% increase compared with sales in November 2017 of 154,919 vehicles. Sales were driven by the Jeep and Ram brands, the company said in a statement. FCA US retail sales in November rose 6% to 136,704 vehicles, the highest November retail sales since 2001. "Our dealers saw steady customer traffic throughout the month and especially during the Thanksgiving weekend," Head of U.S. Sales Reid Bigland said. "We were also honored when Motor Trend named the Jeep Wrangler as the 2019 SUV of the Year and the Ram 1500 as the 2019 Truck of the Year. The awards underscore the hard work our dealers and employees have done to make both of these vehicles a success."

09:36 EDT Hughes awarded IDIQ contract from Oklahoma OMES for managed network services - Hughes Network Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar, announced it has been awarded an IDIQ contract by the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services to deliver HughesON Managed Network Services including High-Throughput Satellite connectivity for state agencies. The contract authorizes Hughes to work with Oklahoma's 130+ state agencies and affiliated organizations -- including counties, cities, school districts and hospitals -- to optimize networks to meet agency and constituents' needs throughout the state. Under the contract vehicle, state and local agencies in Oklahoma can select from a range of broadband solutions for each location, including those which lack adequate wireline connectivity. For example, the Hughes HTS satellite service offers 25 Mbps download speeds across the state and can be used to connect dispersed sites such as park offices, environmental stations or other facilities that may be limited by slow DSL and MPLS services - or have no wireline services at all.

09:34 EDT RigNet announces adverse ruling on Inmarsat arbitration - RigNet, Inc. announced that the International Centre for Dispute Resolution's arbitration tribuna issued a ruling in favor of Inmarsat Global Limited that concluded Phase I of the multi-phase GX Arbitration, which commenced in October 2016. The panel's Phase I ruling found that a take-or-pay obligation under a January 2014 contract had commenced and that RigNet owed Inmarsat $50.8 million, subject to any offsets from RigNet's counterclaims in Phase II of the arbitration. This is an interim ruling, and RigNet is not required to pay any amounts to Inmarsat until the panel rules on Phase II counterclaims. The Company currently expects a Phase II ruling in the second half of 2019. "While we disagree with the panel's Phase I findings and are disappointed in the result, the Company has significant counterclaims which will be heard in Phase II of the process, and we intend to pursue those counterclaims vigorously," said Steven Pickett, CEO and President. "In the meantime, Inmarsat remains a key supplier, and we do not anticipate any impact to our ongoing business operations as we continue to deliver best-in-class managed communications, machine learning, and cybersecurity solutions to our global customers." As a result of the Phase I ruling, RigNet expects to record a litigation reserve in the fourth quarter of 2019. The value of the reserve has not yet been determined and will depend on a number of factors, including the Company's assessment of the value of each counterclaim relative to its potential likelihood of success.

09:32 EDT Helios and Matheson's MoviePass names Khalid Itum as EVP - MoviePass, a majority-owned subsidiary of Helios and Matheson Analytics, announced the appointment of Khalid Itum to Executive Vice President. Previously MoviePass' Vice President of Business Development, Itum will continue to report to CEO Mitch Lowe. Itum will manage day-to-day operations at MoviePass, working closely with both Lowe and HMNY CEO Ted Farnsworth to spearhead company development, and drive its exhibition and distribution strategies forward. Itum will also be responsible for creating its strategic plan and ensuring its implementation.

09:31 EDT Canadian Solar unit signs 25-year PPA with leading Silicon Valley University - Canadian Solar announced its wholly owned subsidiary Recurrent Energy, has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement for the 63 MWac/88 MWp Stanford Solar Generating Station #2. The Stanford Solar Generating Station #2, located on over 400 acres in Kings County, California, will power the equivalent of 15,750 homes with clean electricity. This photovoltaic project, together with Stanford University's existing 67 MWp solar PPA and its 5 MWp rooftop installation, will produce enough clean renewable electricity each year to equal the university's annual electricity consumption. As part of Recurrent Energy's Slate project portfolio, the Stanford Solar Generating Station #2 is scheduled to enter operation in 2021. Canadian Solar announced last month that another 150 MWac portion of the Slate portfolio has PPAs executed with Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Monterey Bay Community Power.

09:28 EDT Carolina Financial announces $25M share repurchase program - Carolina Financial announced that the company's board has approved a plan to repurchase up to $25M in shares of the company's common stock, par value 1c per share, through open market and privately negotiated transactions over the next three years.

09:23 EDT Eyenovia completes patient enrollment in Phase 3 MIST-1 study - Eyenovia announced that it has completed patient enrollment in its Phase III MIST-1 study and enrolled the first patient in its second Phase III study, the MIST-2 trial, for the company's Phase III MicroStat program for pharmacologic mydriasis, or dilation of the pupil for an eye exam. The MIST studies will investigate the safety and efficacy of the company's first-in-class fixed-combination phenylephrine 2.5%, tropicamide 1% ophthalmic solution, administered as a micro-dose using the Optejet dispenser.

09:20 EDT Navios Maritime Containers announces purchase of two containerships - Navios Maritime Containers L.P. announced that it agreed to acquire two 2010-built, 4,360 TEU containerships for $23.6M from an unrelated third party. The two containerships are expected to be delivered in Q4 2018. Navios Containers also agreed to acquire two 2011-built 10,000 TEU containerships from an unrelated third party for a purchase price of approximately $52.5M each, upon the exercise of its purchase options by January and March 2019, respectively. The containerships are expected to be delivered in the first and second quarter of 2019, assuming the purchase options are exercised. Based on existing charters and the current rate environment, the four containerships are expected to generate approximately $16.1M of aggregate EBITDA in the next twelve month period following their delivery.

09:19 EDT Honda reports November U.S. sales down 9.5% to 120,534 vehicles - American Honda reports U.S. sales of 120,534 vehicles, down 9.5% from the 133,156 reported last year. "We are thrilled to have the Honda Insight and Acura RDX named as finalists for the 2019 North American Car- and Utility- of the Year awards, an honor that reinforces the success each vehicle is enjoying with a record number of new customers," said Henio Arcangeli Jr., senior vice president of the American Honda Automobile Division. "With the RDX setting new sales records each month and the Insight helping Honda set a new sales mark for electrified vehicles, we are pleased to have each vehicle in contention for these prestigious awards."

09:17 EDT Ford reports November U.S. sales down 6.9% to 196,303 vehicles - November U.S. sales at Ford Motor totaled 196,303 vehicles, a 6.9% decline. Ford fleet sales were down 7.1%, daily rental was down 32.7%.

09:14 EDT ResMed to acquire Propeller Health for $225M - ResMed announced it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Propeller Health, a digital therapeutics company providing connected health solutions for people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Propeller helps people and their doctors better manage their COPD and asthma. Propeller's digital medicine platform consists of small sensors that easily attach to consumers' inhalers and pair with a mobile app to automatically track medication use and provide personal feedback and insights. Propeller's clinically validated solutions have demonstrated a 58 percent improvement in medication adherence, 48 percent increase in symptom-free days and 53 percent reduction in emergency room visits. Propeller's ability to support people in stage II and III severity levels of their COPD are complementary to ResMed's own suite of cloud-connected ventilators for those with stage III and IV COPD, including Astral, Stellar and AirCurve 10 ST-A with iVAPS - plus ResMed's new portable oxygen concentrator Mobi. Propeller is privately funded, and based in Madison, Wisconsin, with an office in San Francisco. It will continue to operate as a standalone business within ResMed's Respiratory Care portfolio. There will be no immediate changes to management, locations or business processes. Van Sickle will continue in his current role, now reporting to McHale. Under the agreement terms, ResMed will acquire Propeller for $225M, which ResMed will fund primarily with its credit facility. Upon closing, the transaction is expected to have a dilutive impact on ResMed's quarterly non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of 1c to 2c during FY19. ResMed and Propeller expect to finalize the deal before the end of Q3 of ResMed's FY19, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

09:13 EDT ClearOne announces expiration of oversubscribed rights offering - ClearOne announced the expiration of the company's rights offering that was oversubscribed. The subscription period for its previously announced rights offering of common stock at a subscription price of $1.20 per share expired on November 28, 2018, and these rights are no longer exercisable. Total subscription will be reduced pro-rata to the maximum offering of 8,306,535 shares. Preliminary estimates indicate that the Company will be raising the full gross proceeds of $10.0 million in the Offering. The results of the oversubscribed Offering and ClearOne's estimates regarding the aggregate gross proceeds of the Offering to be received by ClearOne are subject to finalization and verification by its subscription agent. ClearOne anticipates that the closing of the Offering will occur on or about December 5, 2018, subject to satisfaction or waiver of all conditions to closing. Upon the closing, the subscription agent will distribute, either in the form of direct registration in book- entry or through the facilities of DTC, as applicable, shares of ClearOne common stock to holders of rights who have validly exercised their rights and paid the subscription price in full.

09:12 EDT Luther Burbank announces CEO John Biggs to retire, Simone Lagomarsino to succeed - Luther Burbank announced that, effective January 2, 2019, John Biggs, president and CEO, will retire from the company and Simone Lagomarsino will succeed him in both roles. At the effective time of the retirement, Biggs will also step down from the board of directors and his roles at all of the company's affiliates. The company also announced that Lagomarsino would join the boards of Luther Burbank and Luther Burbank Savings effective November 30. To assist in the transition following Biggs' retirement, he has agreed to serve the company in an advisory role through the end of 2019.

09:09 EDT Fly Intel: Pre-market Movers - HIGHER: Nexstar (NXST) and Tribune Media (TRCO), up 1% and 10%, respectively, after Nexstar announced a deal to acquire all outstanding shares of Tribune for $46.50 per share in a cash transaction that is valued at $6.4B... Tesaro (TSRO), up 59% after GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced a definitive agreement to acquire Tesaro for $75 per share. Shares of Tesaro competitor Clovis Oncology (CLVS) are up 28% in sympathy... New Age Beverages (NBEV), up 16% after announcing the signing of an agreement to acquire Morinda Holdings for $85M... Roku (ROKU), up 6% after DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral, stating that the stock is "attractive" following reports of a 90-day U.S.-China trade truce reached this weekend given that all of the company's products are manufactured in China. LOWER: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), down 7% after announcing it will acquire Tesaro for $75 per share... Bluebird Bio (BLUE), down 7% after the company and Celgene (CELG) announced initial data from the ongoing Phase 1 clinical study of bb21217, an investigational next-generation anti-BCMA CAR T cell therapy being studied in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Piper Jaffray analyst Danielle Brill also said that she thinks Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT) will benefit from Bluebird Bio's safety setback with its LentiGlobin gene therapy for SCD... Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL), down 8% after announcing FDA approval of Dextenza.

09:08 EDT Inspired Entertainment announces new contract with Danske Spil - Inspired Entertainment announced a new contract with the Danish National Lottery, Danske Spil, to supply its award winning Virtual Sports content to retail venues operated by Danske Spil across Denmark.

09:06 EDT Atlas Air appoints Debora Coffey VP and Chief Communications Officer - Atlas Air Worldwide announced that Debora Coffey has been appointed Vice President and Chief Communications Officer. In this newly created role, Coffey will be responsible for corporate communications, including media relations, employee engagement, digital/social media, and corporate social responsibility, as well as drive the overall alignment of Atlas Air Worldwide's messaging globally.

09:05 EDT Casella Waste reaches settlement with Town of Southbridge - Casella Waste announced that the company and the Town of Southbridge, MA reached a settlement to resolve claims that were the subject of litigation filed in Worcester Superior Court. Under the terms of the settlement, the company and the Town agreed to advance the date through which the company is obligated to provide free curbside collection and disposal of the Town's residential waste from May 28, 2027 to March 31, 2024. The settlement also permits the company to close the waste transfer station located in the town at the end of 2018. Following the settlement with the Town, the company expects to take a charge in the range of approximately $8M-$9M in Q4 for the free waste collection and disposal services the company is obligated to provide to the Town through March 31, 2024, and other remaining cash payment obligations to the Town that will continue until May 28, 2027.

09:03 EDT Nexstar sees pro forma annual revenue of approx. $4.6B, adjusted EBITDA $1.7B - Sees 2018/2019 free cash flow per share up ~46% to approximately $19.50 per share.

09:03 EDT Insperity promotes Brandon Hartsaw to COO - Questco announced that Brandon Hartsaw has been appointed COO. Hartsaw previously served as the company's Senior Vice President - Client Services. In his expanded role, Hartsaw is responsible for ensuring outstanding service delivery across key functions including Payroll Services, Benefits, Product Technology and Client Services.

09:01 EDT Nexstar says Tribune deal takes it 'just below 39% cap' - Comment taken from the conference call discussing Nexstar's (NXST) proposed acquisition of Tribune (TRCO) for $46.50 per share.

08:48 EDT South Jersey Industries announces sale of retail gas assets to UGI - On November 30, 2018, SJI (SJI) completed the sale of its retail gas assets within South Jersey Energy and Open Flow Energy to UGI Energy Services, a subsidiary of UGI Corporation (UGI). With the completion of this transaction, SJI has divested all its retail gas assets from South Jersey Energy and Open Flow Energy. Through these subsidiaries, the company previously operated as a licensed, deregulated natural gas provider with over 2,500 customers located primarily in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio."The sale of these assets represents another step in our ongoing effort to transform our business by monetizing non-core, non-regulated assets and operations and refocusing our business to emphasize high-quality, regulated earnings growth," said Stephen H. Clark, President and COO, South Jersey Energy Solutions. "We look forward to collaborating with UGI to successfully transition our customers to a new provider for their retail natural gas needs."

08:42 EDT Finjan Holdings files patent infringement lawsuit against Qualys - Finjan Holdings (FNJN) announced that after three years of good faith efforts to resolve a patent dispute with Qualys (QLYS), its subsidiary Finjan has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Qualys in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Finjan filed the complaint on November 29 and alleges that Qualys' products and services infringed and are continuing to infringe at least seven of Finjan's U.S. patents. Specifically, Finjan asserts that Qualys' malware detection systems, or MDS, web application firewall, web application scanner and vulnerability solutions, including Qualys cloud platform products, infringe the asserted patents. Finjan is seeking, among other things, a jury trial, past damages not less than a reasonable royalty, enhanced damages for willful, wanton and deliberate infringement and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs for infringement of each of the asserted patents. Additionally, Finjan is seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief against Qualys and those in privity with them.

08:37 EDT E.W. Scripps sees Triton acquisition 'immediately accretive' to earnings - The E.W. Scripps has closed its acquisition of Triton. Triton, purchased for $150M, is forecast to generate more than $3M in revenue and more than $1M in contribution to segment profit for the time Scripps owns it in 2018. It will be immediately accretive to Scripps' earnings. The transaction was a stock acquisition, which Scripps financed with cash on hand.

08:36 EDT E.W. Scripps to acquire Triton Digital for $150M - Vector Capital, a private equity firm, announced closing of the sale of Triton Digital to E.W. Scripps for $150M. Based in Los Angeles, Triton provides audio publishers with measurement, streaming, ad serving and audience engagement solutions in over 40 countries. T

08:34 EDT Progenics announces first patient dosed in Phase 3 CONDOR study - Progenics announced that the first patient has been dosed in the company's Phase 3 CONDOR study evaluating the diagnostic performance and clinical impact of PyLTM in men with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer. PyL is the company's PSMA-targeted small molecule PET/CT imaging agent designed to visualize prostate cancer. The Phase 3 CONDOR trial is a multi-center, open label study and will enroll approximately 200 patients with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer in 14 sites in the United States and Canada. The primary endpoint is based on positive predictive value and will assess the correct localization rate, or CLR, defined as a percentage of subjects with a one-to-one correspondence between localization of at least one lesion identified by PyL and the composite truth standard. Secondary measures include the percentage of subjects with a change in intended prostate cancer treatment plans due to PyL PET/CT imaging.

08:34 EDT Capstone secures repeat order for expanding oil and gas projects in Utica shale - Capstone Turbine announced that it has secured a repeat order for one C600 Signature Series microturbine that will be used to power a gathering station that transports natural gas through the pipelines in the Utica Shale.The order secured by E-Finity Distributed Generation, Capstone's distributor for the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States is a repeat order that will be commissioned in the spring of 2019. The expandable five bay C600S will be shipped in a one-megawatt enclosure with two open bays in anticipation of increased demand in the near future for abundant natural gas from the shale.

08:33 EDT CCF Bank agrees to sell Michigan branch to Lake Michigan Credit Union - CCF Bank, a subsidiary of Citizens Community Bancorp, announced that it has entered into a purchase and assumption agreement to sell its Rochester Hills, Michigan branch and related liabilities to Lake Michigan Credit Union. The purchase and assumption agreement includes approximately $35M in deposits and approximately $300,000 in fixed assets. LMCU has agreed to pay a 7% deposit premium, or approximately $2.45M. All loans associated with this branch will remain with CCF Bank. In the short term, the company said it plan sto use FHLB borrowings to fund the sale of the deposits. The purchase of the branch is subject to regulatory approval and satisfaction of customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2019. The branch will continue operating as CCF Bank until the transaction is completed.

08:30 EDT NSM Insurance Group acquires assets of KBK Insurance Group - NSM Insurance Group has acquired the assets of KBK Insurance Group. Based in Harahan, LA, KBK is a highly specialized program manager in the towing and transportation space with over 25 years of experience. NSM Insurance Group is a subsidiary of White Mountains Insurance Group.

08:26 EDT Tabula Rasa HealthCare to acquire DoseMe - Tabula Rasa HealthCare announced it has executed a definitive agreement to acquire Brisbane, Australia based DoseMe. DoseMe is the developer of DoseMeRx, a precision dosing tool to help physicians and pharmacists accurately dose patients' high-risk parenteral medications based on individual needs, resulting in improvements to mortality, risk, and patient outcomes. Already available in over 100 hospitals and infusion providers worldwide, DoseMeRx's precision dosing capabilities will now be combined with TRHC's proprietary medication risk mitigation, or MRM, technologies in order to enhance and accelerate medication safety solutions available in the hospital setting. TRHC expects the acquisition to close in Q1 of 2019, subject to customary closing conditions. TRHC expects to fund the acquisition through cash on hand and cash from operations, and from the use of its existing credit facility. Following the completion of the acquisition DoseMe will become part of TRHC's CareVention technology and service division.

08:21 EDT Silicom: Top service provider expected to deploy company's modular uCPE units - Silicom announced that one of the world's largest service providers is expected to deploy Silicom's modular uCPE units in its worldwide NFV implementation with SD-WAN integrated as one of its network functions. To win this deal, Silicom leveraged its unique capabilities within the uCPE world, including primarily its modular approach and secured management features, and customized its uCPE designs to help the customer achieve its required challenging performance, data volume and infrastructure-scale-up goals. Silicom has already delivered customized devices for testing and approval, and is now moving forward with a process expected to lead to General Availability during the first half of 2019. Based on the customer's projections, Silicom expects win-related revenues to ramp up gradually, beginning with only a few million dollars in 2019 and then rising to a run rate of tens of millions of dollars per year at the height of the program.

08:16 EDT XBiotech announces successful completion of GMP audit - XBiotech announced a successful GMP audit by Eurofins Amatsigroup. The audit was conducted in connection with XBiotech's distribution in Europe of its US-manufactured biological drug product. XBiotech manufactures bermekimab at its campus facility in Austin, Texas and regularly ships the drug to clinics in various countries in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Drugs manufactured outside of Europe may only be distributed in Europe through a qualified organization that can assure quality of drug product and manufacturing practices. The company recently retired its old operations, which included a GMP manufacturing facility, consolidating its programs in a state-of-the-art manufacturing and R&D center on its campus in Austin. This is the first audit of the new facility.

08:14 EDT Casi Pharmaceuticals announces China market approval for EVOMELA - CASI Pharmaceuticals announces that it has received National Medical Products Administration approval of Melphalan Hydrochloride For Injection for: use as a high-dose conditioning treatment prior to hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation in patients with multiple myeloma, and the palliative treatment of patients with multiple myeloma for whom oral therapy is not appropriate.

08:13 EDT Hess announces increased Stabroek block resource estimate to 5B barrels - Hess Corporation announced a tenth discovery offshore Guyana at the Pluma-1 well on the Stabroek Block. As a result of this new discovery and further evaluation of previous discoveries, the estimate of discovered recoverable resources for the Stabroek Block has been increased to more than 5B barrels of oil equivalent, up from the previous estimate of more than 4B barrels of oil equivalent announced in July 2018. Pluma-1 encountered approximately 121 feet of high-quality, hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone reservoir. Pluma-1 reached a depth of 16,447 feet in 3,340 feet of water. The Noble Tom Madden drillship began drilling on Nov. 1. The well is located approximately 17 miles south of the Turbot-1 well. The Noble Tom Madden will next drill the Tilapia-1 prospect located 3.4 miles west of the Longtail-1 well. The Liza Phase 1 development is expected to begin producing up to 120,000 barrels oil per day by early 2020, utilizing the Liza Destiny floating storage, production and offloading vessel. As previously announced, Liza Phase 2 is expected to start by mid 2022. Pending government and regulatory approvals, Liza Phase 2 project sanction is expected in early 2019 and will use a second FPSO designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels of oil per day. Sanctioning of a third development, Payara, is also expected in 2019 with start up as early as 2023.

08:12 EDT Amag Pharmaceuticals presents ferumoxytol data at ASH - Amag Pharmaceuticals announced that research supported by the company were presented as a poster presentation at the American Society of Hematology, or ASH, annual meeting in San Diego. The ASH poster presentation focused on the durability of the improvements in several patient reported outcomes, or PRO, measures in patients with iron deficiency anemia, or IDA, following a single course of ferumoxytol over a 6-month extension study period. In the initial phase 3 trial, patients treated with ferumoxytol showed improvement in quality of life compared to placebo as measured by fatigue-related symptoms. In terms of the durability of response, the extension study found that 61% of patients treated with ferumoxytol in the primary study never needed re-treatment during the 6-month period of the extension study, as measured by pre-specified criteria. Ferumoxytol is the sole IV iron therapy that has demonstrated an improvement in fatigue-related quality of life PRO scores in a double-blind placebo controlled trial.

08:09 EDT Global Blood Therapeutics announces FDA acceptance of voxelotor proposal - Global Blood Therapeutics announced that the FDA has informed GBT through discussions and written correspondence that the agency agrees with the company's proposal relating to use of an accelerated approval pathway for voxelotor for the treatment of sickle cell disease, or SCD. GBT plans to submit an NDA for voxelotor for the treatment of SCD under this pathway. GBT proposed that by raising hemoglobin, voxelotor is reasonably likely to reduce strokes in SCD patients. As part of these discussions, the FDA agreed that transcranial doppler, or TCD, flow velocity would be an acceptable primary endpoint in a post-approval confirmatory study to demonstrate stroke risk reduction. GBT plans to request a pre-NDA meeting for Q1 of 2019 and intends to provide further details regarding its plans and timing for an NDA submission as well as additional specifics on the TCD confirmatory study following this meeting.

08:07 EDT Gamida Cell says NiCord recipients demonstrated immune reconstitution in study - Gamida Cell reported translational data showing that recipients who received NiCord, an investigational cell therapy in Phase 3 clinical development for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant had rapid and robust reconstitution of key immune cells. Successful immune reconstitution is an important factor in the recovery of patients undergoing bone marrow transplant. Despite the curative potential of bone marrow transplants, it is estimated that more than 40% of eligible patients in the U.S. do not receive one for various reasons, including finding a matched donor. While umbilical cord blood provides a source of stem cells for patients who do not have a matched related donor, it provides a smaller number of stem cells, which can delay engraftment and put patients at a greater risk for prolonged hospitalizations and life-threatening infections. NiCord is designed to address these limitations by offering a therapeutic dose of expanded cells while preserving the functional characteristics of stem cells. The poster presentation, "Rapid and robust CD4+ and CD8+ T-, NK-, B- and monocyte cell reconstitution after nicotinamide-expanded cord blood transplantation", described early, in-depth immune reconstitution data from the completed Phase 1/2, multicenter clinical study of NiCord as a stand-alone graft after myeloablative therapy in patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. A random subgroup of 27 patients from this study had extensive immune monitoring evaluated throughout the first year after transplant. The primary endpoint was the probability of achieving CD4+ immune reconstitution within the first 100 days, and the secondary endpoints included the recovery of B cells, CD4+ T cells and natural killer cells during the first year after transplantation. These data were compared to cohorts of adolescent and young adults with hematologic malignancies receiving unmanipulated cord blood transplantation or unrelated bone marrow transplantation. Key findings from the analysis include the following: 91% of patients achieved successful immune reconstitution of CD4+ T cells at 100 days after transplantation with NiCord. Immune reconstitution of T cells was similar in the NiCord group compared to the younger cohorts receiving unmanipulated cord blood and unrelated bone marrow. Immune reconstitution of B cells and NK cells was significantly faster after transplantation with NiCord compared to the other groups. Immune reconstitution after NiCord transplantation was associated with recovery of a broad spectrum of T cell, B cell and NK cell subsets representing a range of effector functions similar to that observed with other graft sources.

08:05 EDT Aircom Pacific signs firm agreement with Airbus - Aerkomm announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Aircom Pacific, has entered into a firm agreement with Airbus for the development by Airbus of a complete solution to install Aircom's "AERKOMMK++" In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity system. The agreement supercedes a memorandum of understanding that was signed by Aircom and Airbus in March 2018. Once the AERKOMMK++ system has been certified with Airbus design organization approval and has obtained the relevant certifications from aviation regulators, the AERKOMMK++ system will become available for installation on Airbus Corporate Jets single aisle aircraft as well as Airbus' airline commercial aircraft equivalents for post delivery modification.

08:05 EDT Cidara appoints James Levine as CFO, Jessica Oien as General Counsel - Cidara Therapeutics announced the appointments of James Levine as chief financial officer and Jessica Oien, J.D., as general counsel and secretary. Prior to joining Cidara, Levine held senior executive and Board roles at two biotechnology companies, Sapphire Energy and Verenium Corporation. Oien formerly served as vice president, compliance at Otonomy.

08:04 EDT Gemphire Therapeutics announces review of strategic alternatives - Gemphire Therapeutics announced that its Board of Directors is conducting a review of a range of strategic alternatives focused on maximizing stockholder value. The Company has engaged Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. to act as its strategic financial advisor for this process. The Board of Directors has established a committee to oversee this review. Potential strategic alternatives that may be evaluated include, but are not limited to, an acquisition, merger, business combination, in-licensing, or other strategic transaction involving the Company. There can be no assurance that this process will result in Gemphire pursuing any transaction or that any transaction, if pursued, will be completed. The Company does not intend to discuss or disclose further developments regarding the strategic review process unless and until its Board of Directors has approved a specific action or otherwise determined that further disclosure is appropriate or required by law. "As we have previously disclosed, the recent request by the U.S. FDA for additional preclinical data on gemcabene means that our planned Phase 3 programs, initially focused in hypertriglyceridemia, are expected to start later than originally planned," said Steven Gullans, Ph.D., CEO of Gemphire. "We continue to be encouraged by the results from 25 clinical trials in nearly 1,200 adult patients in which gemcabene demonstrated statistically significant signs of efficacy with no severe adverse events or drug-drug interactions. We remain confident that we will be able to meet the FDA's requests to enable it to reconsider lifting the partial clinical hold on gemcabene. However, we believe it is prudent to fully leverage our resources by exploring strategic alternatives." The Phase 2a study investigating gemcabene in Familial Partial Lipodystrophy disease recently completed enrollment. This open-label investigator-led study, being conducted by Dr. Elif Oral at the University of Michigan, is assessing gemcabene's efficacy, including its effects on plasma triglyceride and inflammatory markers, as well as liver fat determined by MRI-PDFF. To date, no drug-related toxicities have been detected, and two patients have completed the 24 week gemcabene treatment regimen. Top-line results are expected in mid-2019. The Company continues to make progress with the ongoing preclinical studies recently requested by the FDA with the goal of providing the FDA with the data it requires to lift the partial clinical hold on gemcabene. Results are expected to be provided to the FDA in the second half of 2019.

08:02 EDT Eiger BioPharmaceuticals: FDA accepts IND application for lonafarnib - Eiger BioPharmaceuticals announced that the U.S. FDA has accepted the Investigational New Drug application for lonafarnib in the treatment of both Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome and progeroid laminopathies. Eiger is collaborating with The Progeria Research Foundation and plans to submit a new drug application to the FDA in 2019. There is no approved treatment for progeria or progeroid laminopathies. Lonafarnib is a first-in-class prenylation inhibitor in development for hepatitis delta virus infection and also progeria and progeroid laminopathies.

07:58 EDT MasterCard, Microsoft announce strategic collaboration on digital identity - Mastercard (MA) and Microsoft (MSFT) announced a strategic collaboration to improve how people manage and use their digital identity. Currently, verifying your identity online is still dependent on physical or digital proof managed by a central party, whether it's your passport number, your proof of address, driver's license, user credentials or other means. This dependence places a huge burden on individuals, who have to successfully remember hundreds of passwords for various identities and are increasingly being subjected to more complexity in proving their identity and managing their data. Working together, Mastercard and Microsoft aim to give people a secure, instant way to verify their digital identity with whomever they want, whenever they want. The answer to these challenges is a service that would allow individuals to enter, control and share their identity data their way--on the devices they use every day. That's Mastercard's intention, working closely with players like Microsoft.

07:55 EDT Cytori Therapeutics receives Class III approval for Celution Cell Therapy System - Cytori Therapeutics announced that the company has received approval for the Celution Cell Therapy System consumable bundle in Japan as a Class III medical device. The Class III designation will allow Cytori to expand its current commercial efforts in Japan and provides a clear framework for future expanded regulatory claims and reimbursement under the November 2014 PMD Act. Furthermore, Cytori announced that the company has successfully outsourced an important assembly portion of the production process for its Celution Cell Therapy consumables from San Diego, CA to Viant Medical in San Antonio, Texas. The first consumable lots following this new process were shipped to customers in November. Cytori currently has a fully functional logistics, sales and marketing team in Japan dedicated to commercialization of the Celution Cell Therapy System. Cytori is forecasting double digit growth in consumable utilization in Japan for 2018. Prior to the class III approval, Cytori has been selling the Celution technology mostly for aesthetic and orthopedic indications under a Class I designation. The trial costs are substantially supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, an independent administrative agency of the Government of Japan, with additional support from Cytori. The trial is sponsored by the lead institution, Nagoya University.

07:46 EDT Lincoln Electric acquires Inovatech Engineering - Lincoln Electric announced it acquired Inovatech Engineering and related assets. Inovatech is a privately held Ontario, Canada-based manufacturer of advanced robotic plasma cutting solutions for structural steel applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

07:41 EDT Crocs announces repurchase of shares owned by Blackstone for $183.7M - Crocs (CROX) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Blackstone Capital Partners VI L.P. (BX) and certain of its affiliates and transferees relating to the repurchase and conversion of the Company's Series A Convertible Preferred Stock owned by Blackstone. The Preferred Shares, which were acquired by Blackstone in January 2014 as part of a $200M investment in the Company, carried a cumulative dividend payable in cash at a rate of 6.0% per annum and received an allocation of net income in any fiscal quarter in which there were positive earnings. They were also convertible at Blackstone's option into approximately 13.8 million shares of the Company's common stock at a conversion price of $14.50 per share. Pursuant to the Agreement, the Company will repurchase half of the outstanding Preferred Shares, representing approximately 6.9 million common shares on an as-converted basis, for $183.7M, or $26.64 per share. Blackstone will immediately convert its remaining Preferred Shares into approximately 6.9 million shares of the Company's common stock and has agreed not to sell or transfer those shares to a third party for approximately nine months. As part of the Agreement, the Company will pay Blackstone a one-time additional payment of $15M. Lastly, Blackstone's right to nominate future Directors will be reduced from two to one. In connection with the transaction, the Company incurred total non-recurring charges of $101Mto net income available to common stockholders. Of that amount, $85.4M is an accounting charge consisting of $83.7M, representing the difference between the $183.7M consideration paid for the Preferred Share repurchase and the $100M face amount of the repurchased Preferred Shares, plus approximately $1.7M of related accounting adjustments. In addition, the Company will incur $15.5M of non-recurring cash charges made up of the $15M one-time additional payment and $0.5M of other costs associated with this transaction. To illustrate the beneficial impact of this transaction on future earnings per share, we have included Exhibit B detailing the pro forma impact of this transaction on our net income per common share for each of the first three quarters of 2018 and the nine month period ended September 30, 2018, assuming this transaction had occurred at the end of 2017. Exclusive of this non-recurring charge, we believe that the net impact of the transaction would have resulted in a benefit of approximately 18c, or 30%, to our diluted earnings per share for the nine month period ended September 30, 2018. The transaction will be financed using cash on hand with the balance coming from the Company's senior revolving credit facility. In connection with the transaction, the credit facility was increased to $250M, with similar terms. BofA Merrill Lynch provided advice to the Company in connection with the Preferred Share repurchase and conversion.

07:36 EDT Babcock & Wilcox awarded contract for conveyor system for power plant - Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises announced that its subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox Loibl GmbH, has been awarded a contract for more than $20 million to supply a co-firing conveying system and other equipment to RWE Generation NL's Amercentrale power plant in Geertruidenberg, Netherlands. When complete, the transport line will be able to convey biomass pellet fuel from a quay to the plant approximately 500 meters away. B&W Loibl will supply multiple explosion-protected chain conveyors and screw conveyors designed to provide safe and reliable fuel feed from the storage silos to the milling facilities and, finally, to the plant's boiler. The system also includes a state-of-the-art fire detection and suppression system. In addition, B&W Loibl will refurbish an existing storage silo and supply auxiliary equipment.

07:36 EDT Black Hills subsidiary submits 2018 integrated resource plan in Wyoming - Black Hills Corp. announced that its Wyoming electric utility subsidiary, Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Co., doing business as Black Hills Energy, submitted its 2018 Integrated Resource Plan to the Wyoming Public Service Commission. The plan recommends that Cheyenne Light's long-term electric capacity and energy needs be met utilizing a balanced mix of generation resources, including coal, natural gas and renewable resources, including wind and solar. The plan also recommends that Cheyenne Light's near term electric energy and capacity needs be met through the purchase of the Wygen I power plant, located near Gillette, Wyoming, as the least cost resource. The IRP process and evaluation for Cheyenne Light identified a near-term baseload generation capacity shortfall of 60 megawatts stemming from the 2022 expiration of a power purchase agreement for energy produced at the Wygen I power plant, which is owned by Black Hills Wyoming, an affiliate company.

07:35 EDT SL Green Realty reaches 52% leased at One Vanderbilt Avenue - SL Green Realty (SLG) announced that it has reached 52 percent leased at One Vanderbilt Avenue, the 1,401-foot office tower in East Midtown set to redefine the New York City skyline, with the following new leases: TD Securities (TD) has signed a 20-year lease for 119,000 square feet occupying two and a half podium floors in the base of the building. The financial firm will also lease an additional 52,450 square feet at SL Green's 125 Park Avenue. This lease co-locates TD Securities with TD Bank. MFA Financial (MFA) has signed a 15-year lease for 30,000 square feet occupying the entire 47th floor. McDermott Will & Emery has expanded their 20-year lease by taking an additional 10,000 square feet. The law firm will relocate its New York operations to One Vanderbilt, taking floors 44 through 46 and floor 67. SL Green will relocate its headquarters from 420 Lexington Avenue to One Vanderbilt, leasing 70,000 square feet on the 27th and 28th floors. SL Green also announced the refinancing of the project's construction facility, increasing the facility size from $1.5B to $1.75B and decreasing the interest rate by 75 basis points. The significant improvement in terms was due, in large part, to the rapid pace of leasing and construction progress. Since SL Green broke ground on the project in 2016, the super structure has risen to the 60th floor.

07:30 EDT Aptinyx says NYX-29254 achieved statistical significance on primary endpoint - Aptinyx announced results from an interim analysis of an exploratory study of its novel NMDA receptor modulator, NYX-2925, in subjects with fibromyalgia. Subjects in the study receive daily oral doses of NYX-2925 at two dose levels, 20 mg and 200 mg, as well as placebo, over the course of six weeks. The interim analysis was conducted on data from the first 11 subjects who have completed the study. Administration of NYX-2925 resulted in statistically significant effects on the primary endpoint, changes in markers of central pain processing as measured by advanced imaging techniques, including changes in combined glutamate and glutamine levels in brain regions that were pre-specified and selected for analysis based on their known involvement in processing pain. Improvement trends were also observed on multiple secondary endpoints, including patient-reported pain scores, as measured by the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, and the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire. NYX-2925 was well tolerated with no subjects reporting treatment-related serious adverse events. Based on these positive interim data, Aptinyx expects to initiate a larger Phase 2 study of NYX-2925 in subjects with fibromyalgia in 2019. The study is ongoing with the full data expected to read out in the first half of 2019. Once completed, the company plans to submit the detailed results from this study for publication and presentation at future scientific and medical meetings.

07:25 EDT Amyris announces exclusive partnership with Camil Alimentos - Amyris has announced a new partnership with Camil Alimentos to meet growing consumer demand for zero calorie natural sweeteners. The agreement, which provides exclusivity between Camil Alimentos and Amyris in Latin America, consists of the development of an innovative option of a natural sweetener, zero calorie and extracted from sugarcane. The partnership which will begin in Brazil, a country in which the company leads the sugar category and offers the most complete portfolio of the segment, will be the first market to receive the innovation. Camil Alimentos has a broad market reach through 300,000 points of sale including retail, cafes and restaurants. The company is also the owner of Brazil's number one sugar brand Uniao.

07:20 EDT Aurora Cannabis announces market launch of softgel capsules - Aurora Cannabis announced that, further to its October 17, 2018 announcement that it had received a sales license from Health Canada permitting the sale of cannabis softgel capsules, the company has commenced shipments for both the Canadian medical and adult-use markets. Aurora expects to commence exports to international markets in early 2019. At scale, the company anticipates that softgel production at its state-of-the-art Aurora Vie facility in Quebec will reach at least 1.4M capsules per week. Aurora intends to make this high-volume, high-margin, smoke-free, product available to all of its domestic and international target markets over time where legally possible. Aurora's softgel capsules are produced to pharmaceutical-grade standards at Aurora Vie, in collaboration with leading softgel manufacturer Capcium, in which Aurora holds a 19.99% ownership interest. The company will initially launch the capsules to the medical cannabis market in Canada as well as the adult-use market in British Columbia with additional provincial markets to follow. The company is initially launching four softgel product types, each available in bottles of 30 capsules, priced at $45 per bottle.

07:15 EDT Sierra Oncology reports data on lead drug candidate, momelotinib - Sierra Oncology reported clinical data for its lead drug candidate, momelotinib, a potent, selective and orally-bioavailable JAK1, JAK2 and ACVR1 inhibitor for the treatment of myelofibrosis. "Many myelofibrosis patients develop anemia and transfusion dependency as a result of disease progression, and sometimes also as a consequence of therapy they are given, like with selected JAK inhibitors. Momelotinib, however, has consistently demonstrated a broad range of clinically relevant anemia-related benefits, including transfusion independence," noted Dr. Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. "The newly reported transfusion independence data presented at the ASH meeting are noteworthy, and confirm momelotinib's ability to eliminate the need for transfusions in a high number of transfusion dependent patients, further reinforcing momelotinib's differentiated activity in myelofibrosis. In my opinion, a good proportion of myelofibrosis patients in the second line setting would be candidates for momelotinib treatment due to its ability to improve both quality of life and transfusion dependency in a significant number of patients." "Momelotinib's positive anemia benefits have been well documented in numerous clinical studies, including recently in the SIMPLIFY-1 and SIMPLIFY-2 Phase 3 trials. We are pleased to present these previously unreported data that further elaborate upon momelotinib's meaningful array of clinical benefits," added Dr. Nick Glover, President and CEO of Sierra Oncology. "Today we report aggregated transfusion independence responses from over 150 intermediate and high-risk transfusion dependent myelofibrosis patients demonstrating robust and consistent response rates across and within clinical studies. More than 44% of these patients became transfusion free for at least 12 weeks, and nearly half were transfusion independent for at least 8 weeks."

07:14 EDT American Electric Tech. announces Chinese JV receives $40M order - American Electric Tech announced that its Chinese joint venture, or JV, BOMAY Electric Industries, received orders for 40 control systems to be used for new Chinese domestic drilling rigs. Ten units will be shipped prior to next year's Chinese New Year in February and the remainder will be shipped by July 2019. The estimated value of the order is approximately $1M for each system. AETI has the second largest ownership in the JV at 40%, with 51% held by Bomco, a wholly owned subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation. AETI also announced a large FPSO vessel decommissioning project with its subsidiary M&I Electric Brazil. The project is expected to last up to 24 months and reinforces the company's market strategy to move into the offshore oil production segment.

07:11 EDT ArQule annnounces ARQ 531 demonstrates anti-tumor activity in Phase 1 study - ArQule presented preliminary results from the Company's Phase 1 dose escalation study for ARQ 531, an orally bioavailable, potent and reversible inhibitor of both wild type and C481S-mutant Bruton's tyrosine kinase in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies at the 2018 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego. The reported data are from the ongoing Phase 1, open label, single arm dose escalation 3+3 study and include the first six cohorts at dose levels of 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 45 mg once a day in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, small lymphocytic leukemia, Waldenstrom's macroglobinemia and B-cell Non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Key findings presented include the following: ARQ 531 has demonstrated a manageable safety profile with no dose-limiting toxicities observed to date. Pharmacokinetic data are nearly dose proportional with a mean plasma half-life that supports QD dosing. Pharmacodynamic biomarkers for cohorts 4 through 6 showed profound pBTK inhibition. Anti-tumor activity, with reduction of tumor burden, was observed in 9 out of 20 patients. At the first assessment of tumor response, 80% of the ibrutinib refractory, heavily pretreated CLL patients in the highest dose cohorts experienced tumor shrinkages. Four out of 5 lymphoma patients derived benefit with shrinkages between 27 and 58%, including 1 PR in a Follicular Lymphoma patient who began at 5 mg, was dose escalated to 15 and then 45 mg, and remains on therapy after 70 weeks. The study is on-going and dose escalation continues.

07:11 EDT Oncolytics presents pelareorep data at ASH - Oncolytics announced a poster presentation made at the American Society of Hematology, or ASH. The poster highlights pelareorep's ability to increase PD-L1 expression on tumor cells in patients with relapsed myeloma. This phase 1 study enrolled 15 patients with relapsed myeloma. Responses include: three very good partial responses, three partial remissions, three minimal responses and three stable disease. In patients receiving pelareorep with a clinical response, there was simultaneous CD8, PD-L1 and NK cell response, as well as activated caspase-3 expression. In patients treated with pelareorep, PD-L1 expression increased significantly more in patients with clinical response

07:09 EDT SSR Mining declares commercial production at Chinchillas mine - SSR Mining is pleased to announce it has declared commercial production at the Chinchillas mine as of December 1, 2018. Activities required to support sustainable ore delivery from the Chinchillas mine to the Pirquitas plant have been completed, including pre-stripping of the pit, completion of road bypasses, refurbishment and mobilization of the haul truck fleet, and construction of the crushed ore stockpile dome at the Pirquitas site. Ore delivery to the Pirquitas plant ramped up through November and we demonstrated targeted haulage rates. The Pirquitas plant processed Chinchillas ore at a rate of approximately 3,000 tonnes per day during test processing. We expect this rate to progressively increase to our targeted plant throughput rate of 4,000 tonnes per day as the plant transitions to Chinchillas ore in December 2018. The remaining scope of the Chinchillas project includes the completion of various infrastructure at the Chinchillas and Pirquitas sites, which is expected to be concluded through the first quarter of 2019. The entire project scope is on track to be completed on budget.

07:08 EDT Ocular Therapeutix announces FDA approval of DEXTENZA - Ocular Therapeutix announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved DEXTENZA 0.4mg for intracanalicular use for the treatment of ocular pain following ophthalmic surgery. DEXTENZA is the first FDA-approved intracanalicular insert delivering dexamethasone to treat post-surgical ocular pain for up to 30 days with a single administration. The approval of DEXTENZA was based on demonstrated efficacy in two randomized, vehicle-controlled Phase 3 studies in which a statistically significantly higher incidence of subjects were pain free at day 8 post-cataract surgery compared to the vehicle control group and safety in the two Phase 3 studies as well as a third randomized, vehicle-controlled Phase 2 study. The Company believes the delivery profile represents a differentiated and potentially transformational new product for patients and physicians. For patients, DEXTENZA offers the convenience of a full course of post-surgical steroid treatment with a physician's one-time placement of a single intracanalicular insert. DEXTENZA has the potential to replace a complex eye drop regimen that under the current standard of care requires up to 70 topical ocular steroid drops. In connection with the commercial launch of DEXTENZA, Ocular Therapeutix also submitted an application for transitional pass-through payment status after receiving FDA approval and intends to submit an application for a J-code ahead of the January 2019 deadline.

07:07 EDT GlaxoSmithKline backs FY18 adjusted EPS growth view 8%-10% at CER - GSK's guidance for full-year 2018 Adjusted EPS growth remains unchanged at 8 to 10% at CER. GSK continues to expect to deliver on its previously published Group Outlooks to 2020, but following the acquisition of TESARO now expects Adjusted EPS growth at CER for the period 2016-2020 to be at the bottom end of the mid to high single digit percentage CAGR range.

07:06 EDT Clovis jumps 15% to $19.72 after Tesaro gets bought for $75 per share

07:06 EDT Anixa Biosciences reports 'positive' data on liquid biopsy at AACR - Anixa Biosciences presented the latest data from its ongoing study focusing on early detection of breast cancer, utilizing Cchek, its artificial intelligence driven cancer detection technology, at the American Association of Cancer Research Special Conference on Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy. Anixa presented data demonstrating the ability of Cchek to identify the presence of early stage breast cancer in a subject by using its AI technology to analyze a simple blood draw. The Cchek technology demonstrated a sensitivity of 89.3% when detecting early stage breast cancer (Stage I or II) and a specificity (the ability to correctly identify healthy subjects) of 94.7% when used to test blinded samples. Furthermore, Cchek was also able to detect the early stages of breast cancer (Stage 0) in subjects with biopsy-confirmed ductal carcinoma in situ, a type of pre-cancerous/non-invasive breast lesion that often leads to invasive breast cancer, with 72% sensitivity.

07:06 EDT Trillium Therapeutics presents TTI-621 data at American Society of Hematology - Trillium Therapeutics announced that new clinical data from the ongoing intratumoral trial of its CD47-blocking agent, TTI-621, were presented at the American Society of Hematology. This poster presentation provided a further update on the safety and anti-tumor activity observed in the ongoing open label Phase 1 study of local TTI-621 administration in highly pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides or Sezary syndrome. Intratumoral TTI-621 was well tolerated in 27 treated patients, with no grade 3 or higher toxicity observed. A rapid reduction in composite assessment of index lesion severity, or CAILS, scores, which measure local lesion responses, was observed in 91% of patients with available scores across all disease stages, with 41% exhibiting a 50% or greater decrease in CAILS scores. Similar CAILS-based changes were seen in adjacent non-injected lesions, suggesting local regional effects that were not confined to the site of injection. Continuation monotherapy beyond the initial two week induction period led to further reductions in CAILS scores in 3/4 evaluable patients and evidence of systemic effects were observed in one patient. In addition, emerging translational data demonstrate that local TTI-621 administration leads to a rapid influx of macrophages and CD8+ T cells.

07:05 EDT Tesaro to be acquired by GSK for aggregate consideration of approx. $5.1B

07:04 EDT Spectrum announces 'positive' results from Phase 2 trial of leucovorin - Spectrum Pharmaceuticals announced results from a prospective Phase 2 single-arm, open-label, multicenter clinical trial studying the management of oral mucositis with the use of oral leucovorin as adjunct to FOLOTYN in patients with hematological malignancies, including PTCL and CTCL. Study results with a total of 35 patients demonstrated that use of leucovorin 25 mg tablets by oral administration for two days, initiated 24 hours after each FOLOTYN dose reduced the rate of Grade 2 or greater mucositis significantly, to 5.7 percent from historic rate associated with FOLOTYN use. There were no reports of greater than or equal to Grade 3 oral mucositis. Grade 1 oral mucositis was reported only in 4 patients. No patient omitted, delayed or reduced FOLOTYN dose due to oral mucositis with adjunct leucovorin therapy. The occurrence of mucositis, an impediment of FOLOTYN, has previously been reported at a rate of 52 percent at Grade 2 or higher in patients undergoing treatment with FOLOTYN in a registration study.

07:04 EDT Macau reports November casino revenue up 8.5% to 25.0B patacas - Macau's gaming bureau reported November gross revenue from games of fortune in the region rose 8.5% year-over-year to 24.995B patacas. Publicly traded companies in the Macau gaming space include Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Melco Resorts (MLCO).

07:03 EDT FMC Corporation raises dividend, announces new $1B share repurchase program - FMC is entering a phase of higher cash generation and lower capital intensity. Its Board of Directors has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 40c per share, payable on January 17, 2019, to shareholders of record at the close of business on December 28, 2018. This equates to $1.60 per share, annually, compared to 66c per share previously. The dividend policy going forward is to increase the dividend at least at the same rate as net income grows. The Board also has authorized an initial $1B share repurchase program, which FMC expects to execute in a systematic, recurring fashion through mid-2020. This is separate from the current $200M program, which is expected to be completed this week. Together, this dividend increase and share repurchase authorization are part of a capital allocation plan to return up to $4.5B to shareholders in the next five years.

06:57 EDT Newmont Mining moves date of 2019 guidance webcast to December 6 - Newmont Mining announced it has changed the release date of its 2019 guidance and updated longer term outlook to Thursday, December 6, 2018 in observance of the National Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush and closure of U.S. financial markets. The company will hold a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Mountain Time) the same day.

06:55 EDT Redhill Boipharma trading halted, news pending

06:46 EDT Forum Energy names C. Christopher Gaut as CEO, replacing Prady Iyyanki - Forum Energy Technologies announced that C. Christopher Gaut has been named CEO of the Company by the Board of Directors to replace Prady Iyyanki. Gaut will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board.

06:40 EDT Landec unit acquires Yucatan Foods for approximately $80M - Landec announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Apio, has acquired Yucatan Foods, L.P., headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, and a leading processor and marketer of authentic Mexican guacamole made from 100% clean ingredients. The acquisition of Yucatan Foods enables Landec Natural Foods to grow, strengthen and stabilize its position in the natural foods market, creating critical mass in LNF to better position Landec to evaluate long-term strategies for the Company's two business segments in order to maximize shareholder value. The acquisition of Yucatan Foods is expected to be accretive to the Company's earnings beginning in fiscal year 2020. With annual revenues of approximately $55M-$60M, Yucatan Foods is projecting significant growth due to its flavorful and authentic products, as well as tailwinds in the rapidly growing guacamole category. The guacamole category in the U.S. is approximately $375M in consumer retail dollars and is growing at an estimated 20%, according to IRI data for the 52-weeks ended October 7, 2018. Category growth is projected to continue as current household penetration of guacamole is estimated at only 21% within the U.S. Under the agreement, Apio acquired all of the outstanding equity interests of Yucatan Foods for approximately $80 million, comprised of approximately $60 million in cash and approximately $20 million of Landec common stock. The stock has a 3-year sales lockup for half of the shares and a 4-year sales lockup for the other half. In conjunction with the acquisition, Landec borrowed an additional $60 million under its existing term loan for a new total term loan of $100 million, with interest on $70 million of the term loan fixed at a weighted average rate of 1.87% plus a spread based on the Company's leverage ratio which can range from a low of 1.25% to a high of 3.25%. At close, the spread was 2.75%. In addition, Landec increased its revolving line of credit from $100 million to $105 million. Both the $30 million variable portion of the term loan and the revolving line of credit have an interest rate of Libor plus the spread based on the Company's leverage ratio. On a proforma basis for Landec's fiscal year ending May 26, 2019, Yucatan is projected to generate net revenues of $55 million to $60 million and adjusted EBITDA of $6 million to $8 million. On a reported basis for fiscal year 2019, the acquisition of Yucatan is expected to add approximately $27 million to $30 million of net revenue to Landec but to negatively impact earnings per share by $0.12 to $0.15 cents per share due to (1) acquisition related costs (investment banking fees, legal fees, accounting and tax fees, appraisal fees, etc.), (2) the negative impact during the last six months of fiscal 2019 from stepping up Yucatan's acquired inventory to fair market value (sales price less a small commission rate) which will significantly reduce the gross profit of the acquired inventory, and (3) interest on acquisition related debt. The Company will give an update on its full year fiscal 2019 guidance in its second quarter results release in early January 2019. For the fiscal year 2019, Landec will record approximately $2.6 million to $3.0 million of acquisition-related expenses, approximately a third of which was incurred during the Company's second quarter of fiscal 2019 with the remainder to be incurred during the Company's third quarter of fiscal 2019. In addition, the Company will record approximately $600,000 of loan origination fees which will be amortized over approximately three years.

06:38 EDT Sesen Bio names Dennis Kim, M.D., MPH, as Chief Medical Officer - Sesen Bio announced the appointment of Dennis Kim, M.D., MPH, as chief medical officer. In this role, Dr. Kim will oversee the continued Phase 3 development of Vicinium, Sesen Bio's lead targeted fusion protein, for patients with high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, as well as preparations for a marketing authorization submission and pre-commercial activities. Prior to joining Sesen Bio, Dr. Kim held senior and leadership roles at Ipsen, Spectrum, Novartis, Biogen Idec, and Amgen.

06:35 EDT DPW Holdings' Coolisys Technologies receives $1.3M in repeat contracts - DPW Holdings reported its subsidiary, Coolisys Technologies, has received two repeat customer contracts valued at $1.3M. Recent contracts include a $630,000 order with a leading dental technology company for a Power-Plus value-added solution: This includes product design, turnkey supply-chain and product fulfillment services that exceeded the customer's stringent time-to-market and product quality requirements; A $400,000 order with a tier-1 medical technology company specifying a custom high-grade AC/DC Digital Power Corporation power supply. The contract includes design, development, and manufacturing services for the custom medical grade power supply solution to support their next generation endoscopy product line. The selection was based on Coolisys Technologies' excellence in manufacturing, support, logistics and engineering.

06:32 EDT BBX Capital RE acquires 50% membership interest in The Altman Companies - BBX Capital Real Estate, a division of BBX Capital, and The Altman Companies, jointly announced that BBX Capital Real Estate has acquired a 50% membership interest in The Altman Companies for $21.6M from founder Joel Altman. The transaction, which was previously announced on October 19, 2018 includes membership interests in Altman Development Company, Altman-Glenewinkel Construction and Altman Management Company and interests in the manager of seven multi-family real estate developments. One of the eight developments in which BBX was to acquire an interest in was sold, which reduced the purchase price from the previously announced $22.7M to $21.6M. As previously disclosed, BBX Capital Real Estate has also agreed to acquire an additional 40% of Altman Companies for $9.4M in approximately four years. Joel Altman, can also, at his option, require BBX Capital Real Estate to acquire the remaining 10% interest in Altman Companies for $2.4M. Joel Altman will continue to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the Altman Companies. It is anticipated that BBX Capital Real Estate and Joel Altman will continue to invest in future projects based on their relative ownership percentages in Altman Companies going forward.

06:25 EDT UBS to take majority stake in China securities joint venture - UBS announced that it has received the approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for UBS AG to increase its shareholding in its securities joint venture in China, UBS Securities Co. from 24.99% to 51%. UBS is acquiring from China Guodian Capital Holdings and COFCO their 12.01% and 14% stakes in UBS Securities respectively. Upon completing the transaction, UBS will become the first foreign bank to increase its stake to gain majority control of a securities joint venture in China. UBS was the first foreign bank to apply to raise its shareholding in a China venture after CSRC's policy issued in April 2018, allowing foreign companies to take up to 51% stakes in securities firms in China. Following the completion of the transaction, the shareholders of UBS Securities and their respective shareholdings will be: UBS AG 51%, Beijing Guoxiang Property Management 33%, Guangdong Provincial Communication Group 14.01% and China Guodian Capital Holdings 1.99%. Reference Link

06:09 EDT Unilever to buy GlaxoSmithKline's Horlicks business for EUR3.3B - Unilever (UN, UL) announced it has signed an agreement to acquire the Health Food Drinks portfolio of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in India, Bangladesh and 20 other predominantly Asian markets. Unilever logo on the entrance of deodorant factory in Jiutepec Mexico The transaction consists of three elements: all-Equity Merger of Hindustan Unilever Ltd with the publicly listed GSK Consumer Healthcare India, acquisition of 82% stake in GSK Bangladesh Limited, and acquisition of certain other commercial operations and assets outside India. Unilever's share of the total consideration is EUR3.3B payable using a combination of cash, and shares in its listed subsidiary in India, Hindustan Unilever Limited. The Transaction is subject to customary regulatory and shareholder approvals, with expected completion in c.12 months.

06:07 EDT Geron presents updated results from Part 1 of IMerge at ASH - Geron announced that updated results from Part 1 of IMerge, the Phase 2 portion of a Phase 2/3 clinical trial of imetelstat in lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes, were presented at the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego, California on December 2, 2018. The oral presentation was made by David Steensma, M.D., Institute Physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, and an IMerge clinical investigator. Geron believes these results support initiating the Phase 3 portion of IMerge to address an unmet medical need for patients for whom erythropoiesis stimulating agents are not effective and for whom currently available therapies show only modest efficacy. "The results from the Phase 2 portion of IMerge presented at ASH highlight imetelstat's broad clinical activity, especially in difficult-to-treat patients, as indicated by the high baseline transfusion burden of the patients enrolled in IMerge. As such, we believe imetelstat could offer a much-needed alternative treatment in lower risk MDS," said John A. Scarlett, M.D., Geron's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We remain committed to developing imetelstat and continue to plan the initiation of the Phase 3 portion of IMerge by mid-year 2019."

06:04 EDT Vanda Pharmaceuticals says tradipitant met primary endpoint in VLY686-2301 - Vanda Pharmaceuticals announced that tradipitant met the primary endpoint in VLY686-2301, a Phase II clinical study in patients with idiopathic and diabetic gastroparesis. The study also showed that tradipitant was well tolerated with comparable rates of adverse events between the tradipitant and placebo groups. VLY-686-2301 was a Phase II clinical trial that studied the effects of tradipitant versus placebo in 141 patients in an Intent To Treat, or ITT, population with gastroparesis over a period of 4 weeks. Several symptom severity scales were used to assess gastroparesis symptoms, including the Gastroparesis Symptom Index, or GCSI, Patients Assessment of Upper Gastrointestinal Disorders-Symptoms, or PAGI-SYM, and Patient Global Impression of Change, or PGI-C, as well as a Clinician Global Impression of Severity. Importantly, improvements were also seen in most of the core gastroparesis symptoms including nausea, vomiting, bloating, and fullness after meals consistent with an overall improvement and no associated worsening of any of the core symptoms. Most effects were apparent by the second week of treatment although improvements continued through the fourth and last week of treatment in the tradipitant group. Adverse events were similar in the tradipitant and placebo arms which confirms prior studies' findings that tradipitant is well tolerated. Vanda believes that if these robust efficacy results with a well-tolerated chronic treatment safety profile are further confirmed in future studies, tradipitant has the potential to become a first line pharmacological option in the treatment of patients with gastroparesis. The detailed results of this study are expected to be presented in upcoming meetings and peer reviewed publications. In addition, Vanda expects to meet with regulatory authorities in the near future to further define and confirm the path towards registration of tradipitant in the treatment of patients with gastroparesis.

05:57 EDT Murphy Oil now sees Q4 production about 176,000 BOEPD - As a result of the transaction and other operational events, Murphy is providing updated fourth quarter and full year production guidance. The company expects fourth quarter production to be approximately 176,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or BOEPD, and full year production to be approximately 171,000 BOEPD, net to Murphy's interest. Following the November 30, 2018 closing of the joint venture, average fourth quarter production in the Gulf of Mexico will increase by approximately 13,000 BOEPD, net to Murphy's interest. Across several of the company's assets, fourth quarter production was impacted by recent unplanned events, including severe storms in non-operated offshore Canada-2,000 BOEPD; third-party processing, facility de-bottlenecking start-up delays in Malaysia-1,500 BOEPD; and non-operated facility downtime in the Gulf of Mexico-1,500 BOEPD. In conjunction with the previously announced plan to accelerate activity in the Eagle Ford Shale, full year capital expenditures are being increased by approximately $48M to $1.23B. In order to jump-start activity for 2019, the company plans to drill ten and complete eight additional wells in 2018.

05:53 EDT JinkoSolar supplies 55.7MW of solar panels to Garissa Solar Power Plant - JinkoSolar recently announced that it supplied 55.7MW of high-efficiency modules to the Garissa Solar Power Plant, which is expected to be one of the largest solar power plants in central and eastern Africa once completed. Located in Barki Village, Garissa County, Kenya, the solar plant is expected to be formally commissioned by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. The solar plant is expected to strengthen Kenya's rich solar energy resources, diversify its power generation mix, and reduce energy costs. Once completed, the solar plant will connect to the national grid and offer energy costs that are competitive with other sources.

05:45 EDT CRH Medical says Tennessee Valley acquisition accretive to EBITDA, cash flow - CRH Medical announces that it has completed an accretive transaction whereby the company has acquired a gastroenterology anesthesia practice in Tennessee. Tennessee Valley provides anesthesia services to one GI ambulatory surgical center. The transaction was financed through cash on hand. Tennessee Valley has an estimated annual revenue of $1.5M. The acquisition is expected to be EBITDA and cash flow accretive.

05:40 EDT Elbit Systems awarded $112M contract to provide airborne intelligence systems - Elbit Systems announced that it was awarded a $112M contract to supply a country in Asia-Pacific with advanced airborne intelligence systems. The contract will be performed over a six-year period.

05:31 EDT Advanced Accelerator, FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical sign option, license agreement - Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A. (AAAP), a Novartis (NVS) company, announced that it has entered into an exclusive option and license agreement with FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical, the company responsible for core elements of the healthcare business of FUJIFILM Corporation (FUJIY), to develop and commercialize radiolabeled FF-10158 for oncology indications. Under the terms of the agreement, AAA is granted worldwide rights to FF-10158, with the exception of Japan, in exchange for an upfront payment and future milestones and royalties. FF-10158 is a pre-clinical small molecule antagonist with high affinity for integrin alphavbeta3 and alphavbeta5 receptors. Integrins are cell surface receptors that are embedded in the cell membrane. Integrin alphavbeta3/5 subtypes are over expressed on many types of cancer cells and the blocking of integrin signalling has been shown to inhibit tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. AAA plans to develop a theragnostic pairing of compounds based on FF-10158, including a gallium 68-labeled drug for diagnosis and a lutetium 177-labeled drug for therapy.

05:24 EDT Canadian Pacific, Unifor reach tentative, four-year agreement - Canadian Pacific announced that it has reached a tentative, four-year agreement with Unifor. Details of the agreement will be presented to the Unifor membership for ratification. Approximately 1,200 mechanical employees are represented by Unifor. The current collective agreement was set to expire on December 31. "This tentative agreement is a testament to the hard work, collaboration and commitment by both sides," said Keith Creel, CP's CEO. "We have now had back-to-back four-year agreements with Unifor. Agreements like this are positive steps for our 13,000-strong CP family, customers and the broader economy." Through collaboration, communication and trust, CP continues to achieve long-term agreements on both sides of the border. Unifor represents CP's mechanical employees who are responsible for maintaining rail cars and locomotives. No further details will be released at this time.