Stockwinners Market Radar for December 03, 2019 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

19:49 EST OneMain Holdings names Adam Rosman new General Counsel - OneMain Financial announced that Adam Rosman will become Executive Vice President and General Counsel Jan. 2, replacing John Anderson, who is retiring. Anderson will step down from his position at the beginning of 2020 and move to a senior advisory role through mid-2020. OneMain also announced that Jenny Osterhout will join the company on Jan. 6 as Chief Administrative Officer.

18:42 EST Solaris Oilfield announces $25M shares repurchase program - Solaris announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program for up to $25M of Solaris' Class A common stock. Assuming full execution of the repurchase plan at the current share price, we would expect the retirement of approximately 5% of the Company's outstanding shares. All purchases will be made in accordance with applicable laws from time to time in the open-market or through private transactions, depending on market conditions, and may be discontinued at any time.

18:39 EST Fly Intel: After Hours Movers - UP AFTER EARNINGS: HealthEquity (HQY) up 13.8%... Marvell (MRVL) up 2.6%. ALSO HIGHER: RAPT Therapeutics (RAPT) up 8.2% after disclosing FLX475 license pact in Asia... 22nd Century Group (XXII) up 5.0% after entering CBD market... GoPro (GPRO) up 4.2% after reporting record Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales... Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) up 0.9% after announcing its Baby Powder has tested asbestos-free... Alphabet (GOOG) up 0.6% after CEO Larry Page exit letter. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: Zscaler (ZS) down 5.4%... Workday (WDAY) down 2.9%... Salesforce (CRM) down 1.7%. ALSO LOWER: Revance Therapeutics (RVNC) down 10.7% after equity offering... Immunomedics (IMMU) down 7.4% after equity offering... Dynatrace (DT) down 3.8% after equity offering. Movers as of 18:30ET.

18:32 EST Change Healthcare CIO Alex Choy to retire - Change Healthcare announced Alex Choy, executive vice president and chief information officer, has elected to retire in early 2020, after six years with the company and a more than 30-year career in the technology field.

18:32 EST Salesforce co-CEO: Digital transformation is powering our results - In an interview on CNBC's Mad Money, Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block said: It was a terrific quarter... Our business looks strong for Q4... The Veterans Administration is one of our top customers... We're the fastest growing enterprise software company... There is plenty of innovation going on.

18:22 EST Protagonist Therapeutics CEO buys 30K shares of common stock - In a regulatory filing, Protagonist Therapeutics disclosed that its CEO Dinesh Patel bought 30K shares of common stock on December 3rd. The total transaction size was $168K.

17:56 EST Carrizo Oil & Gas chairman buys 25K shares of common stock - In a regulatory filing, Carrizo Oil & Gas disclosed that its chairman Steven Webster bought 25K shares of common stock. The total transaction size was $160.3K.

17:37 EST 22nd Century promotes Andrea Jentsch to CFO - On December 3 the Board of Directors of the company promoted Andrea S. Jentsch, the company's current Director of Accounting and Financial Reporting, to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Jentsch's promotion was in connection with John T. Brodfuehrer's planned retirement phase-down, with Mr. Brodfuehrer transitioning from Chief Financial Officer to Vice President of Strategy.

17:32 EST Leidos awarded follow-up contract by FAA - Leidos was awarded a follow-on prime contract by the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, to continue serving the general aviation community under the Future Flight Services Program contract. The single award, firm-fixed-price contract has a five-year base period of performance followed by ten one-year option periods, at an approximate value of $1B, if all options are exercised. Work will be performed in Ashburn, Virginia and Fort Worth, Texas. Under the FFSP contract, Leidos will help the FAA achieve its vision to transform and modernize the delivery of flight briefing services by reducing program costs, providing technology enhancements, and by engaging the broader general aviation community.

17:30 EST 22nd Century enters CBD health and wellness market with investment in Panacea - 22nd Century Group announced the initial closing of an investment in Panacea Life Sciences, "a rapidly-growing, vertically-integrated, consumer-facing company operating exclusively in the legal, hemp-derived, CBD product space. 22nd Century's investments in Panacea over the next twelve to eighteen months are expected to total $24 million, in a combination of cash and 22nd Century stock in exchange for Panacea-issued debt and preferred equity. 22nd Century has also received a warrant to purchase preferred stock of Panacea, which upon full exercise will provide 22nd Century with a controlling equity position in Panacea "After a disciplined and thorough review of the opportunities available to 22nd Century to maximize shareholder value creation, we are pleased to announce the Company's first investment in the legal, hemp/cannabis, consumer packaged goods space," said Cliff Fleet, President and Chief Executive Officer of 22nd Century Group. "This investment is a major milestone in 22nd Century's on-going execution of our hemp/cannabis strategic growth plan and offers the opportunity for strong projected shareholder returns," said the company.

17:22 EST Flowserve CFO Lee Eckert steps down, John Roueche named interim CFO - Flowserve announced that John Roueche, Flowserve's vice president, treasurer and investor relations, will assume the role of interim CFO, effective December 3, 2019. Mr. Roueche's appointment follows Lee S. Eckert's departure from Flowserve as senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective December 3, 2019. Flowserve has initiated a comprehensive search to identify a permanent CFO.

17:10 EST USD Partners announces long-term contract extension with ConocoPhillips - USD Partners LP (USDP) announced that it has executed long-term, multi-year renewals for the remaining capacity at its Hardisty Terminal with ConocoPhillips Canada (COP). Including these recent renewals, the Partnership has executed multi-year extensions for 100% of the capacity at its Hardisty Terminal. Also, in association with its Sponsor's recently announced Joint Venture with Gibson Energy Inc. to construct a diluent recovery unit adjacent to the Hardisty Terminal, a material amount of the Hardisty Terminal's current capacity will be extended beyond 2030, pending the successful construction and completion of the DRU. The DRU could be placed into service as early as the second quarter of 2021. The renewals contain take-or-pay terms with minimum monthly payments and rates that are consistent with those of the original terminalling services agreement with the customer. Additionally, ConocoPhillips Canada entered into renewals and extensions of the terminalling services agreements that cover 100% of the Partnership's destination capacity at the Stroud terminal, commencing in January and June 2020.

17:07 EST NanoString announces license of nCounter diagnostic assets to Veracyte - NanoString Technologies (NSTG) announced a strategic transaction to exclusively license select nCounter-based diagnostic assets and rights to Veracyte (VCYT) for $50M in cash and Veracyte stock, plus up to $10M in cash upon satisfaction of future potential milestones. Under the terms of the agreement, Veracyte has obtained exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize diagnostic tests on NanoString's nCounter FLEX system. Veracyte plans to expand the portfolio of nCounter-based diagnostic products using its own proprietary tests. Veracyte has also obtained the rights to the NanoString 510(k)-cleared Prosigna Breast Cancer Assay and nCounter Dx LymphMark assay, which is currently available for research and investigational use only. Veracyte will also distribute the nCounter FLEX system for diagnostic purposes. NanoString will retain the exclusive right to commercialize nCounter products for research and investigational use. NanoString will manufacture test kits for Prosigna, LymphMark and new tests developed by Veracyte or its partners for use on the nCounter FLEX platform. Diagnostic assay kits and nCounter systems will be sold to Veracyte at preset prices under supply agreements between NanoString and Veracyte. On a pro forma basis, this transaction increases NanoString's cash, cash equivalents and investments to approximately $175 million, inclusive of the $40 million of cash and $10 million of Veracyte stock received and transaction expenses. As of September 30, 2019, NanoString had $129 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. This strengthened balance sheet provides capital and further flexibility for NanoString to support the launch and continued development of GeoMx DSP and to invest in other long-term growth opportunities. Certain operating costs are being eliminated as a result of the transaction. Combining the impact of these cost savings with the impact of the supply agreement on Prosigna revenue and gross profit results in an approximate $14 million reduction in NanoString's 2018 operating loss on a pro forma basis, and an approximate $12 million reduction in NanoString's anticipated 2019 operating loss on an annualized pro forma basis. The transaction closed on December 3, 2019, simultaneous with signing of the transaction agreements, and a Current Report on Form 8-K will be filed with the SEC that includes additional information, including the unaudited pro forma financial impact of the transaction. NanoString expects to incur charges of approximately $3 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, which will include restructuring and transaction related costs. The company has updated 2019 guidance for product and service revenue to a range of $100-102 million, from the previous guidance of $100-103 million to reflect the change in Prosigna revenue to be realized under the supply agreement with Veracyte.

17:02 EST Herc Holdings says Aaron Birnbaum to succeed J. Bruce Dressel as COO - Herc Holdings announced that Aaron Birnbaum will succeed J. Bruce Dressel as COO effective January 1, 2020. Dressel will leave his position as senior vice president and COO on December 31, 2019. Birnbaum currently serves as the company's Senior Vice President and his appointment is in keeping with the company's succession plan. With more than 30 years of experience in the equipment rental industry, all with Herc Rentals and its predecessor business, Birnbaum has a wealth of experience gained from multiple responsibilities with Herc.

17:01 EST Schmitt Industries approves $2M repurchase plan - Schmitt Industries announced that its Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase plan to buy up to $2M of its common stock. Schmitt intends to purchase shares from time to time through open market and private transactions in accordance with Securities and Exchange Commission rules. The Plan is authorized through December 16, 2020.

16:44 EST MasterCard increases dividend 21%, authorizes $8B share repurchase program - Mastercard announced that its board has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 40c per share, a 21% increase over the previous dividend of 33c per share. The cash dividend will be paid on February 7, 2020 to holders of record of its Class A common stock and Class B common stock as of January 9, 2020. The board also approved a new share repurchase program, authorizing the company to repurchase up to $8B of its Class A common stock. The new share repurchase program will become effective at the completion of the company's previously announced $6.5B program. The company has approximately $300M remaining under the current program authorization.

16:41 EST Visa director sells 13.2K shares of common stock - In a regulatory filing, Visa disclosed that its EVP of Strategy Group William Sheedy sold 13.2K shares of common stock. The total transaction size was $2.4M.

16:34 EST Toro Company raises dividend 11.1% to 25c - The Toro announced that its board of directors has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 25c per share, an 11.1% increase from its previous quarterly dividend rate of 22.5c per share. This dividend is payable on January 9, 2020, to shareholders of record on December 26.

16:31 EST Iteris names Douglas Groves as new CFO, effective December 4 - Iteris (ITI) announced that Douglas Groves will join the company as senior vice president and CFO, effective December 4. Groves will report to Joe Bergera, Iteris president and CEO, and will oversee the company's finance, information systems, contracts and legal functions. Groves has more than 30 years of valuable experience. Most recently, he served as vice president, CFO and treasurer of Ducommun (DCO).

16:24 EST GoPro up 4.9% or 19c at $4.05 per share after reporting record holiday sales

16:22 EST GoPro reports 30% growth in Black Friday / Cyber Monday U.S. sales - GoPro announced a "strong" Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period. The company reported year-over-year sell-through growth of 30% based on available data from its larger U.S. retail partners and 20% based on available data from its European retail partners during the Black Friday week. In addition, GoPro.com achieved more than 120% year-over-year growth in total camera unit sales during the entire Black Friday / Cyber Monday period, where HERO8 Black sold at record levels, comprising more than 90% of total sales.

16:22 EST Salesforce sees Q4 remaining performance obligation growth ~ 21% y/y

16:11 EST Sigma Labs appoints Mark Ruport as executive chairman - Sigma Labs has appointed accomplished software industry executive Mark K. Ruport as executive chairman and as a member of the company's board of directors, effective December 3. Prior to joining Sigma Labs, Mr. Ruport served as Executive Chairman of Content Analyst Company, a leading developer of advanced analytics software for searching and analyzing unstructured text until its acquisition by its largest customer in 2017.

16:10 EST Salesforce reports remaining performance obligation ~ $25.9B at Q3-end - Remaining performance obligation ended the third quarter at approximately $25.9B, an increase of 22% year-over-year. Current remaining performance obligation ended the third quarter at approximately $12.8B, an increase of 28% year-over-year, 28% in constant currency.

16:09 EST Salesforce co-CEO Block says 'we had strong growth across our clouds' - "We're now on track to double our revenue in five years," said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO, Salesforce. "With Customer 360, only Salesforce is providing companies with a single source of truth, bringing them even closer to their customers across every touchpoint." "We had strong growth across our clouds and regions in the quarter as more companies turn to Salesforce as a trusted advisor in their digital transformations," said Keith Block, co-CEO, Salesforce. "With these trusted customer relationships, continuous innovation and our phenomenal Trailblazer ecosystem, we have never been better positioned for the future."

16:07 EST Old Dominion reports November LTL revenue per day down 3.2% - Old Dominion Freight Line reported less-than-truckload operating metrics for November 2019. Revenue per day decreased 3.2% as compared to November 2018 due to a 5.3% decrease in LTL tons per day that was partially offset by an increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight. The change in LTL tons per day was attributable to a 5.7% decrease in LTL shipments per day that was slightly offset by a 0.4% increase in weight per shipment. Greg C. Gantt, CEO, said: "Our revenue results for November reflect the continued softness in the domestic economy. Although our tonnage declined on a year-over-year basis, this volume trend is beginning to stabilize and our revenue per hundredweight has continued to increase."

16:02 EST Aruba announces Aruba SD-WAN integration with AWS Transit Gateway - Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company (HPE), announced the integration of the Aruba SD-WAN solution with the new AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager from Amazon Web Services (AMZN), to greatly simplify the deployment and management of networks connecting remote branch locations to Amazon Virtual Private Clouds. With this integration, customers deploying the Aruba SD-WAN solution alongside AWS will have the ability to monitor and manage connectivity between AWS resources and their on-premises locations using either Aruba Central or AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager in a simple and intuitive manner. Aruba Central completely automates the process of setting up and managing these networks using Application Programming Interfaces to interact with AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager. "We are pleased to be working with Aruba to integrate the Aruba SD-Branch solution with AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager as a simplified branch networking solution that delivers enterprise-grade performance at scale," said David Brown, vice president of Amazon EC2 at Amazon Web Services, Inc. "This new capability helps to simplify and streamline network management for customers, so they can focus on driving their businesses forward."

15:56 EST Sky to invest in building a new major studio at Elstree - Comcast's Sky announced its intention to invest in building a new 32-acre, state-of-the-art TV and film studio at Elstree, just north of London, home to the world-renowned Elstree Studios. The proposed development represents a significant new investment in the UK and European creative economy and will be made with the backing of Sky's new owner Comcast and in partnership with sister-company NBCUniversal. Legal & General will develop its site and provide financing for the project. Subject to planning consent the 32-acre development is expected to open in 2022 and will be able to facilitate the production of several films and TV shows simultaneously, with each of the 14 sound stages covering over 20,000 sqft. Once complete, the site will include production offices, a set construction workshop, a screening cinema and state-of-the-art post-production and digital facilities. The company said that over 2,000 new jobs and a GBP3B production investment in the U.K. creative sector is expected in the first five years alone.

15:17 EST Bel Fuse closes on acquisition of CUI power assets - Bel Fuse (BELFA) announced that the company has closed on its previously-announced asset purchase agreement with CUI Global Inc. (CUI) related to the purchase of the majority of the power business of CUI Inc. The acquired business had trailing twelve-month sales of approximately $37M and is expected to be accretive to Bel's consolidated net earnings by the second quarter of 2020. "Gross margins are higher than Bel's historical range, and the combination is expected to yield annual cost synergies of approximately $500,000. Bel will continue to operate the business from CUI Inc.'s leased ISO 9001:2015-certified facility in Tualatin, Oregon," the company said. The company paid $32M in cash for the CUI Inc. power business acquired under the terms of the agreement.

14:47 EST Cellectis CEO calls notion company 'gave away' pipeline 'totally wrong' - Cellectis (CLLS) develops immunotherapies based on gene-edited CAR T-cells. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, the company's CEO Andre Choulika talked about the company's partnerships and pipeline. In a recent research note, a BTIG analyst claimed there is a perception among investors that Cellectis "gave away" its pipeline through partnerships and collaboration agreements. To say "we 'gave away our pipeline through our partnerships' is totally wrong," Choulika said. "We don't think we gave anything away. We just partnered our best products with I think, very good partners." The CEO said the company was looking to push those products further and added Cellectis has been getting great results for self-owned targets like T123, CS1 and C22. "For a small biotech company having three trials ongoing with three different products plus three partner products, I think it's exceptional on our side," he said. "I don't think we gave anything away. The company is becoming strong with our own pipeline of products but also if the partner products work it's a lot of income for the company. Don't forget that the company has $3.8B of potential milestones plus royalties on our partner product pipeline. It could be a lot of potential that could bring the company to a very interesting financial position at the end." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company.

14:22 EST AWS unveils new analytics capabilities to help users embrace data at scale - Amazon Web Services announced significant new analytics capabilities that help customers embrace data at today and tomorrow's scale. AWS introduced several new Redshift capabilities that bring more than an order of magnitude better query performance and deliver greater flexibility for customers when they are working across their data storage, data warehouse, and operational databases at scale. AWS also announced a new "innovative" highly-scalable, cost-saving warm storage tier for Amazon Elasticsearch Service. New Amazon Redshift RA3 instances with Managed Storage (available today) allow customers to optimize their data warehouse by scaling and paying for compute and storage independently. AQUA (Advanced Query Accelerator) for Amazon Redshift (available mid-2020) is a new distributed and hardware-accelerated cache for Amazon Redshift that provides the next phase of performance improvement and innovation for analytics at the new scale of data. Amazon Redshift Data Lake Export (available today) allows customers to export data directly from Amazon Redshift to Amazon S3 in an open data format (Apache Parquet) that is optimized for analytics. Amazon Redshift Federated Query (available in preview) gives customers the ability to run queries in Amazon Redshift on live data across their Amazon Redshift data warehouse, their Amazon S3 data lake, and their Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora (PostgreSQL) operational databases. In addition, AWS said it has built a new storage tier for Amazon Elasticsearch Service called UltraWarm, which finally gives Elasticsearch customers a warm storage tier that both stores large amounts of data cost-effectively and provides the type of snappy, interactive experience that Elasticsearch customers expect.

14:20 EST Amazon, Verizon announce 5G edge cloud computing partnership - Amazon Web Services, an Amazon.com company (AMZN), and Verizon (VZ) announced a partnership that "will bring the power of the world's leading cloud closer to mobile and connected devices at the edge of Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network." Verizon is the first technology company in the world to offer 5G network edge computing, and will use AWS's new service, AWS Wavelength, to provide developers the ability to deploy applications that require ultra-low latency to mobile devices using 5G. The companies are currently piloting AWS Wavelength on Verizon's edge compute platform, 5G Edge, in Chicago for a select group of customers. Additional deployments are planned in other locations across the U.S. in 2020.

14:20 EST AWS announces Amazon Detective, IAM Access Analzyer - Amazon Web Services announced three new services and capabilities that make it easier for customers to build and operate securely: Amazon Detective is a new security service that makes it easy for customers to conduct faster and more efficient investigations into security issues across their workloads, current available in preview; AWS IAM Access Analyzer is a new AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) capability that makes it simple for security teams and administrators to audit resource policies for unintended access, available today; AWS Nitro Enclaves is a new Amazon EC2 capability that makes it easy for customers to process highly sensitive data by partitioning compute and memory resources within an instance to create an isolated compute environment, available in preview early next year.

14:18 EST Amazon.com announces Amazon Managed Cassandra Service - Amazon Web Services announced Amazon Managed Cassandra Service, a scalable, highly available, and fully managed database service that supports Cassandra workloads. Developers can use the same Cassandra application code, Apache 2.0 licensed drivers, and tools as they do today to run, manage, and scale workloads on Amazon Managed Cassandra Service and enjoy scalability, availability, and manageability without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure. Because Amazon Managed Cassandra Service is serverless, it also removes the need to provision, configure, and operate large Cassandra clusters, manually add or remove nodes, and rebalance partitions as traffic scales up or down. There are no up-front investments required to use Amazon Managed Cassandra Service, and customers only pay for the capacity they use.

14:16 EST Amazon Web Services announces general availability of AWS Outposts - Amazon Web Services announced general availability of AWS Outposts, fully managed and configurable compute and storage racks built with AWS-designed hardware that allow customers to run compute and storage on-premises, while seamlessly connecting to AWS's broad array of services in the cloud. AWS Outposts bring native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any datacenter, co-location space, or on-premises facility. With AWS Outposts, customers can use the same AWS APIs, control plane, tools, and hardware on-premises as in the AWS cloud to deliver a truly consistent hybrid experience.

14:13 EST Datadog announces support for AWS Fargate for Amazon EKS - Datadog (DDOG) announced support for AWS Fargate for Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, or Amazon EKS, with a new offering available at launch. "AWS Fargate has seen robust adoption among our customers and we are excited to see AWS adding Kubernetes support for this environment," said Michael Gerstenhaber, Director of Product Management, Datadog.

14:02 EST Fox Corp. and AWS announce multi-year strategic collaboration agreement - Amazon Web Services, an Amazon.com company (AMZN), announced that Fox Corporation (FOXA, FOX) and AWS have signed a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement to use AWS's portfolio of services, infrastructure, and professional services organization to enable a new cloud-based media production and delivery platform. "The integrated platform for broadcast and digital video services will distribute FOX's leading sports, news, and entertainment television content to multi-channel video programming distributors, to more than 200 affiliate stations, and to over-the-top providers, marking the first time that a single platform will be used to deliver both traditional broadcast and direct to consumer streaming services. It will also underpin FOX's production facilities in Tempe, Los Angeles, New York, and Charlotte. In addition, FOX will be using the first AWS Local Zone within its operations, a new type of AWS infrastructure deployment that places compute, storage, database, and other select services closer to customers for applications in particular locations where their customers expect single-digit millisecond latency," the companies stated. "Our extended partnership with AWS will strategically underpin our video and data workflows with a world class, adaptable, reliable, and scalable set of platforms that will extend and evolve to power our business well into the future," added Paul Cheesbrough, Chief Technology Officer and President of Digital, Fox Corporation.

13:44 EST Cellectis CEO says working on 'finding right dose' for MELANI-01 trial - Cellectis (CLLS) develops immunotherapies based on gene-edited CAR T-cells. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, the company's CEO Andre Choulika talked about the company's MELANI-01 trial: "We started the MELANI-01 trial likely more than a month ago and in every trial you have to go to what's called the dose escalation. MELANI-01 is a refractory relapse multiple myeloma trial for a patient that usually have failed several lines of treatment and that has no other alternative. Our goal currently is trying to find the right dose for expansion of the trial. The way you do this is dosing the first patient and you have to wait 28 days or four weeks before you can dose the two second patients. The cohort can be between three to five patients and we have three levels of doses. Once we finish it then we can determine which is the right dose working at the best tumor response versus the best case for the product and then you can move into expansion. We expect those expansions, those dose escalations to be conducted during 2020. Maybe we'll give an interim update mid-year next year and probably maybe earlier through the first half of the year we should have interesting results from the first cohort. We'll start producing the data if there is tumor response and then we'll present the data at the end of the dose escalation in order to prepare of course the dose expansion that should happen either late next year or early 2021." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. The remainder of this interview to follow.

13:33 EST Kamala Harris says presidential campaign does not enough funds to continue - In a blog post on Medium, Senator Kamala Harris said, "I've taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life. My campaign for president simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue. I'm not a billionaire. I can't fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it's become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete. In good faith, I can't tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don't believe I do." Reference Link

13:19 EST VAALCO Energy spikes over 6% after announcing well completion - Earlier on Tuesday, VAALCO Energy provided an update on its 2019/2020 drilling program Offshore Gabon. Highlights include: Successfully completed Etame 9H development well including approximately 1,000 feet of horizontal section in Gamba reservoir; Brought onto production at a stabilized flow rate of 5,500 gross barrels of oil per day, BOPD, 1,500 net BOPD to VAALCO, with no H2S; Due to high reservoir quality, production is higher than the pre-drill estimate of 2,500 to 3,500 BOPD gross, 675 to 960 net to VAALCO; Increased its forecasted 2019 net exit production rate to 4,500 to 4,700 BOPD, up 16% from its prior estimate of 3,800 to 4,100 BOPD; Expects recategorization of 6.2M barrels of undeveloped 2P oil reserves to developed 2P oil reserves; Commenced drilling of the Etame 11H horizontal development well with production expected online in late January; Continued planning underway for workover activity on Etame 10H and drilling of SE Etame 4P appraisal wellbore. Cary Bounds, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are very excited with the continued success that we have had in the 2019/2020 drilling program thus far as we demonstrate the development potential from the Etame field. The very strong stabilized net rate of 1,500 BOPD from the Etame 9H well is a significant first step toward increasing overall production by approximately 25% in 2020 compared to 2019. With the Etame 9H well online, we expect our 2019 net exit production rate to average 4,500 to 4,700 BOPD, 16% higher than our previous estimate of 3,800 to 4,100 BOPD net to VAALCO. Shares of VAALCO Energy are up 6.3% or 11c to $1.85 per share in afternoon trading on Tuesday.

13:19 EST Subaru reports November U.S. sales up 0.2% to 56,893 vehicles - Subaru of America reported 56,893 vehicle sales for November, a 0.2% increase compared to November 2018. The company also reported year-to-date sales of 637,753 vehicles, a 3.6% gain compared to the same period in 2018. "Mother Nature made the final few days of November a challenge, but we are pleased to finish with an increase for the month," said Jeff Walters, Senior Vice President of Sales. "As we head into December, Subaru is well-positioned that 2019 will be our 11th consecutive record year in a row."

13:11 EST Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sells 3.2M shares of company stock - Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick disclosed in a filing last night that he had sold 3,175,810 shares of company stock at an average price of $29.41 per share between November 27 and December 2. The total transaction value of the sale was $93,397,079.

13:02 EST Chemung Canal Trust Company CRO Karen Makowski to retire - Chemung Canal Trust Company announced that Karen Makowski, EVP and chief risk officer, will be retiring on January 2, 2020. Makowski's retirement had been announced internally, and through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, this past August. She has worked at Chemung Canal Trust Company since November 2011.

13:00 EST Cellectis' Choulika says 'potentially will expand outside of oncology'

13:00 EST Cellectis CEO calls notion company 'gave away' pipeline 'totally wrong'

12:45 EST iBio trading resumes

12:39 EST Madison Square Garden files for spin-off of entertainment business - Madison Square Garden Company announced that it has filed a confidential initial Form 10 Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed spin-off of its entertainment business. The company continues to expect the spin-off will take place in Q1 of 2020, subject to certain conditions. As previously announced, the proposed separation of the sports and entertainment business would be structured as a tax-free spin-off to all MSG shareholders. Upon completion of the transaction, record holders of MSG common stock would continue to maintain their current economic interest in both the sports and entertainment businesses. The sports company would include the New York Knicks professional NBA franchise and New York Rangers professional NHL franchise. The entertainment company would feature venues, including New York's Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and Beacon Theatre; the Forum in Inglewood, CA.

12:35 EST iBio joins Manufacturing USA's tissue biofabrication initiative - iBio announced that it is now part of a new public-private Manufacturing USA initiative, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute, ARMI. Headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, ARMI is the 12th Manufacturing USA Institute. ARMI brings together a consortium of over 100 partner organizations from industry, government, academia and the non-profit sector to develop next-generation manufacturing processes and technologies for cells, tissues and organs. Approximately $80M from the federal government is being combined with more than $200M in cost-share to support the development of tissue and organ manufacturing capabilities. As part of continuing efforts to help revitalize American manufacturing and incentivize companies to invest in new technology development in the United States, ARMI will lead the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication, ATB, initiative on behalf of the Department of Defense. ARMI will also focus on creating state-of-the-art manufacturing innovations in biomaterial and cell processing. "We need to develop 21st century tools for engineered tissue manufacturing that will allow these innovations to be widely available - similar to how a 15th century tool allowed knowledge to spread widely during the Renaissance," said inventor Dean Kamen, ARMI's chairman.

12:31 EST Energizer receives EC regulatory clearance for Varta transaction - Energizer Holdings announced that the European Commission cleared Varta AG's proposed acquisition of the Europe-based Varta consumer battery business. The parties received all outstanding approvals to close. The company expects the net proceeds from Varta AG and Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. to be approximately $300M.

12:17 EST Consolidated Edison defends 'strong' state auto emission standards - Con Edison and a coalition of other major power companies have filed a petition to challenge the Trump Administration's climate policies for the second time in three months. Con Ed says, "The filing contests the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration's rule eliminating California, New York, and other states' stricter greenhouse gas and zero-emission vehicle standards. Con Edison believes that the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Rule Part One: One National Program will undermine efforts to achieve significant and cost-effective reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions for New Yorkers. Transportation accounts for 37% of CO2 emissions in the United States with passenger cars responsible for the largest source of them at 41%. The SAFE Rule withdraws a waiver granted by the federal government enabling California and other states to set higher vehicle emission standards than federal standards. New York and 12 other states' automobile emission standards are linked to California's. This rule hamstrings Con Edison's efforts to advance the electrification of transportation to reduce greenhouse gases. Prohibiting the stronger California standards will increase CO2 and criteria pollutant emissions from the transportation sector, making it more difficult to achieve New York's regional greenhouse gas reduction goals and attain the National Ambient Air Quality Standards."

12:02 EST Altice USA named as short idea at Hedgeye - Hedgeye recommends being short Altice USA and sees 20%-30% downside over the next 6-9 months, the firm stated, according to Fly contacts.

12:00 EST Cleveland-Cliffs falls -11.9% - Cleveland-Cliffs is down -11.9%, or -$1.00 to $7.41.

12:00 EST Direxion Daily Jr Gld Mnrs Bull 3X Shrs rises 9.5% - Direxion Daily Jr Gld Mnrs Bull 3X Shrs is up 9.5%, or $5.94 to $68.72.

12:00 EST ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF rises 11.1% - ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF is up 11.1%, or $1.76 to $17.63.

11:41 EST Starbucks CFO says guidance of 1%-3% for China same-store sales growth 'prudent' - Earlier, while presenting at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference, Starbucks CFO Patrick Grismer said the company expects the quality of its FY20 "earnings growth to improve compared to fiscal '19." Grismer added: "At the midpoint of our non-GAAP EPS guidance for fiscal 2020, a more modest rate of revenue growth is expected to more than offset stronger margin performance, reversing a trend from the last 3 years. This yields 9 percentage points of EPS growth from operating results at the midpoint of our guidance, up 3 percentage points from the prior year. And when excluding the impacts of various non-operating items like tax and streamline and foreign exchange, our non-GAAP EPS growth rate in fiscal '20 is expected to be 12% at the midpoint, which is in line with our long-term growth model of at least 10% non-GAAP EPS growth." Asked by the Morgan Stanley analyst running the event about the company's "hesitation" to guide higher for China given that comp growth there has "been running 5 to 6" percent, Grismer stated: "There has been variability in the performance of our China business in the last couple of years. In the most recent 2 quarters, we were lapping some weaker performance, arguably. And we feel that a target of 1% to 3% in the current environment is prudent for 3 reasons. We've highlighted before that our overall rate of comp sales growth has been impacted by 3 things, and that explains why we're guiding to the low single digits as opposed to what had traditionally been mid- to high-single digits. Number one is that we have picked up the pace of new unit development, and with that comes cannibalization. And we're doing that because, again, we see the significant growth potential in the market and the opportunity to capitalize on the strength of our brand position. So the first piece is we're effectively doing it to ourselves, but we're doing it intentionally in the interest of growing total transactions and total sales...Number two is that, as I mentioned before, our success has proven the attractiveness of the category and has drawn a lot of competition...and the third is in the last 2 to 3 years, the rate of economic growth in the market has slowed." In late morning trading, Starbucks shares are down fractionally to $84.31.

11:32 EST Amazon provides 'sneak peak' of next gen Arm-based EC2 chips - Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist for Amazon Web Services, announced via a blog post, "Today I would like to give you a sneak peek at the next generation of Arm-based EC2 instances. These instances are built on AWS Nitro System and will be powered by the new Graviton2 processor. This is a custom AWS design that is built using a 7 nm (nanometer) manufacturing process. It is based on 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores, and can deliver up to 7x the performance of the A1 instances, including twice the floating point performance. Additional memory channels and double-sized per-core caches speed memory access by up to 5x. All of these performance enhancements come together to give these new instances a significant performance benefit over the 5th generation (M5, C5, R5) of EC2 instances." Reference Link

11:20 EST cbdMD trading resumes

10:50 EST cbdMD trading halted, news pending

10:11 EST Honda reports November U.S. sales up 11.1% to 133,952 vehicles - American Honda reported that it set a new November sales records for total vehicles, up 11.1% from the same month of last year to 133,952 vehicles. Honda Division sales were up 12.2% to 119,470 vehicles and Acura Division sales rose 3.1% year-over-year to 14,482 vehicles. "With one month to go in 2019, robust sales of light trucks are leading the Honda and Acura brands to a strong finish, with record November auto sales for American Honda. Based on the strength of our products and disciplined approach to sales, American Honda is bucking industry trends, with record sales in three of the last four months," said Henio Arcangeli, Jr., senior vice president of Automobile Sales at American Honda Motor.

10:04 EST Visa expands NovoPayment strategic partnership in Latin America and Caribbean - NovoPayment and Visa announced an expansion of their strategic partnership to enable financial institutions and merchants to deploy Visa's digital solutions in Latin America and the Caribbean. Visa has also made a strategic investment in NovoPayment. Arnoldo Reyes, Vice President of Digital Partnerships, Fintech & Ventures for Visa Latin America and the Caribbean said, "At Visa we continue to work with platform partners to accelerate the integration of new fintech players interested in launching Visa technologies like Visa Token Service, Visa Direct, Virtual Cards and many others. NovoPayment will be a key partner for our Fintech Fast Track program, helping speed-up the time it takes for these new players to start working with Visa, and most importantly accelerate the time-to-market of their solutions."

10:00 EST VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN rises 8.6% - VelocityShares 3x Long Natural Gas ETN is up 8.6%, or 80c to $10.15.

10:00 EST ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF rises 13.7% - ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF is up 13.7%, or $2.17 to $18.05.

09:56 EST Bank of Commerce Holdings trading resumes

09:47 EST Tegna sees 2020 political revenue greater than $300M - In a regulatory filing, Tegna disclosed that Victoria Harker, executive vice president and CFO, will be participating in a question and answer session at the 2019 Wells Fargo TMT Summit at 1:50 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 3. In connection with this event, the company will be providing new forward-looking financial guidance metrics, including guidance for 2020 political revenue of greater than $300M. The company's subscription revenue outlook is to be determined, with Tegna stating in the filing that it plans to update publicly in first quarter 2020 once it completes the negotiation of a "significant agreement" by year-end 2019. Tegna sees 2020 total capital expenditures prior to reimbursements for repack of $62M-$70M. Sees free cash flow as a percentage of est. 2019/20 revenue of 19%-20% and sees free cash flow as a percentage of est. 2020/21 revenue of 19%-20%.

09:47 EST VelocityShares 3x Inv Natural Gas ETN falls -9.4% - VelocityShares 3x Inv Natural Gas ETN is down -9.4%, or -$15.15 to $146.24.

09:47 EST Harmony Gold rises 8.3% - Harmony Gold is up 8.3%, or 24c to $3.21.

09:47 EST ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF rises 13.2% - ProShares Trust Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF is up 13.2%, or $2.10 to $17.97.

09:19 EST Diana Shipping announces time charter contracts for m/v Myrsini, m/v Artemis - Diana Shipping announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a time charter contract with Ausca Shipping Limited, Hong Kong, for one of its Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels, the m/v Myrsini. The gross charter rate is $11,500 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties, for a period of minimum thirteen months to about fifteen months. The charter is expected to commence on December 4, 2019. The "Myrsini" is a 82,117 dwt Kamsarmax dry bulk vessel built in 2010. The Company also announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a time charter contract with Koch Shipping Pte. Ltd., Singapore, for one of its Panamax dry bulk vessels, the m/v Artemis. The gross charter rate is $10,150 per day, minus a 5% commission paid to third parties, for a period of about nine months to maximum eleven months. The charter commenced on November 28, 2019. The "Artemis" is a 76,942 dwt Panamax dry bulk vessel built in 2006. The employments of "Myrsini" and "Artemis" are anticipated to generate approximately $7.07M of gross revenue for the minimum scheduled period of the time charters.

09:17 EST Hudson's Bay board concludes Catalyst bid not capable of being consummated - The Special Committee of Hudson's Bay Company's board announced last night that it has concluded that the unsolicited proposal from The Catalyst Capital Group to acquire HBC "is not reasonably capable of being consummated." As a result, the Catalyst proposal cannot be a superior proposal for the purposes of the arrangement agreement between HBC and Rupert Acquisition, the Committee said in a statement. The Special Committee continues to recommend that minority shareholders vote for the special resolution approving the arrangement at the meeting of Hudson's Bay shareholders to be held on December 17.

09:15 EST Hudson's Bay shareholder group has 'serious concerns' about Catalyst bid - A group of shareholders of Hudson's Bay Company, who collectively own approximately 57% of the outstanding common shares on an as-converted basis, yesterday sent a letter to the Special Committee regarding the Catalyst Capital Group's unsolicited proposal to acquire the company. The letter states in part, "As you know, under the Arrangement Agreement the Continuing Shareholders have agreed to roll approximately $1.5 billion of equity in the Company into a transaction that delivers $10.30 per share to the Company's minority shareholders. The Special Committee and the full Board of Directors approved the terms of the transaction after extensive analysis and negotiations. The transaction has been pending before the minority shareholders since October 21, 2019. We and our advisors have reviewed the Catalyst Announcement and have serious concerns...We believe that the Catalyst Announcement is an illusory offer, intended to mislead minority shareholders, manipulate the market, and would only serve to frustrate the opportunity for minority shareholders to receive premium cash consideration for their shares...The Catalyst Announcement fails to identify or account for obvious and significant uses of cash to fund its proposal, and is not realistic in its assumptions regarding sources of cash...We have consistently stated that we are not, in our capacities as shareholders, interested in any transaction that would result in a sale of our interests in HBC - a fact that is well known by Catalyst. The Catalyst Announcement is therefore a tactic, plain and simple, designed to confuse and mislead the markets and minority shareholders."

09:12 EST Centric Brands announces Pamela Alabaster as CMO - Centric Brands announced the appointment of Pamela Alabaster as chief marketing officer, or CMO, reporting to Jason Rabin, CEO. As a member of the executive leadership team, Alabaster will oversee the corporate marketing and communications functions. In this role, Alabaster will be responsible for shaping and enhancing the company's reputation with key stakeholders and supporting the marketing of its portfolio of licensed and wholly-owned fashion brands. Alabaster has more than 25 years of experience building world-class consumer brands. She has served in executive leadership positions in brand marketing, corporate communications, public affairs and corporate responsibility/CSR.

09:11 EST Abarca, Amgen enter outcome-based agreement for Enbrel - Abarca, a pharmacy benefit manager, announced it has entered into an outcomes-based contract with Amgen for the drug Enbrel. Under the agreement, Amgen will issue rebates to Abarca's clients for eligible members who discontinue the use of the drug after three months of treatment. This applies to members of commercial health plans who are using the drug for the treatment of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.

09:09 EST Nektar appoints John Northcott as Chief Commercial Officer - Nektar Therapeutics announced that John Northcott has joined the company in the newly-created position of Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. John will also serve as a member of the Company's Executive Committee reporting directly to President and CEO, Howard W. Robin.Northcott is a proven leader who brings extensive commercial experience to Nektar, including both pre-launch planning and on-market commercialization in oncology and other therapeutic areas. Most recently, John served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Pharmacyclics from 2015 to 2019. During this time, he led all commercial functions for Imbruvica, including marketing, sales, analytics, commercial operations, and market access. Under Mr. Northcott's leadership, Imbruvica grew to become a major blockbuster in the field of Hematology.

09:07 EST Herbalife Nutrition appoints Rhonda Vetere as chief information officer - Herbalife Nutrition (HLF) announced Rhonda Vetere has joined the company as executive VP and chief information officer, with global responsibility including information technology strategy and implementation. Bringing more than 25 years of experience as a global technology executive in the health, financial, insurance and consumer packaged goods industries, as well as several telecommunications companies worldwide, Vetere offers an understanding of digital transformation while creating high performance teams. Most recently, Vetere was chief information officer at Santander Bank (SAN), where she helped transform their mobile, retail and online banking applications and infrastructure.

09:05 EST JanOne appoints Tony Giordano as Chief Scientific Officer - JanOne announced the hiring of Tony Giordano to serve as its Chief Scientific Officer. Giordano is JanOne's new Chief Scientific Officer and founding scientist. As Chief Scientific Officer, Giordano will oversee development of the company's recently announced PAD treatment, TV1001SR including the phase 2b clinical protocol, manufacturing, and phase 2b clinical trials. In addition to his role with JanOne, he also serves as Senior Director of Special Projects in the Innovations Center at the Cleveland Clinic. As an experienced researcher and bioscientist, Giordano has held senior positions at cutting-edge biotechnology companies.

09:02 EST Fly Intel: Pre-market Movers - HIGHER: AK Steel (AKS), up 5% after entering a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of the company's common stock. Under the terms of the merger agreement, AK Steel shareholders will receive 0.40 shares of Cliffs common stock for each outstanding share of AK Steel common stock they own. The fixed exchange ratio implies a consideration of $3.36 per share of AK Steel common stock... Audentes Therapeutics (BOLD), up 105% after announcing a definitive agreement for Astellas Pharma (ALPMY) to acquire the company at a price of $60.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $3B... Axsome Therapeutics (AXSM), up 17% after announcing that AXS-12, or reboxetine, met the pre-specified primary endpoint and significantly reduced the number of cataplexy attacks as compared to placebo in patients with narcolepsy in the CONCERT Phase 2 trial... uniQure (QURE), up 15% after Goldman Sachs analyst Salveen Richter initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and $98 price target. The analyst is positive on the company's lead program AMT-061 in hemophilia B. Cowen analyst Joseph Thome also initiated coverage of uniQure with an Outperform rating. UP AFTER EARNINGS: Land's End (LE), up 7%. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: Coupa Software (COUP), down 6%. ALSO LOWER: Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), down 12% after announcing it will acquire AK Steel... Cara Therapeutics (CARA), down 22% after announcing results from its Phase 2 dose-ranging trial of oral Korsuva for the treatment of pruritus in patients with stage III-V chronic kidney disease... AerCap (AER), down 4% after its 4M share spot secondary offering priced at $60.00 per share... CBL & Associates (CBL), down 36% after announcing that it is suspending all future dividends on its common stock, 7.375% Series D Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock and 6.625% Series E Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock.

09:01 EST Delta Air Lines reports November traffic up 1.8%, capacity up 4% - Load factor was 84%, down 1.8 pts.

08:56 EST Merrimack receives $5M from Ipsen, declares 50c per share special dividend - Merrimack (MACK) announced that it received a $5M milestone payment from Ipsen (IPSEY), triggered by Ipsen's decision to progress the ongoing multi-part clinical trial evaluating Onivyde in patients with small-cell lung cancer into the second randomized portion of the trial focused on efficacy assessment. As a result of this milestone payment, Merrimack's board has authorized and declared a special cash dividend of $6.7M on the company's common stock. The special dividend is payable on December 23 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 16. The ex-dividend date for the special dividend will be December 13, the first business day preceding the record date. Stockholders of record on the record date who sell their shares prior to the ex-dividend date will not receive the special dividend. Based on the current number of shares outstanding, the special dividend will be approximately 50c per common share; this amount may vary based on the number of outstanding shares as of the record date. Merrimack currently estimates that, for U.S. federal tax purposes, 100% of the special dividend will likely be first treated as a return of capital to stockholders to the extent of their basis in Merrimack common stock, and then as capital gain.

08:55 EST Gene-therapy companies Sangamo, Solid rise after Audentes bought at 110% premium - Shares of Sangamo (SGMO) and Solid Biosciences (SLDB) are both rising in pre-market trading after Astellas Pharma (ALPMY) announced an agreement to acquire Audentes Therapeutics (BOLD) at a price of $60.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of 110% to Audentes' closing share price of $28.61 on December 2. Kenji Yasukawa, President and CEO, Astellas, said in announcing the deal: "Audentes has developed a robust pipeline of promising product candidates which are complementary to our existing pipeline, including its lead program AT132 for the treatment of X-Linked Myotubular Myopathy. By joining together with Audentes' talented team, we are establishing a leading position in the field of gene therapy with the goal of addressing the unmet needs of patients living with serious, rare diseases." Sangamo is working on SB-525, an investigational gene therapy for hemophilia A, and ST-920, an investigational gene therapy for Fabry disease, among other candidates. Solid is investigating its own AAV9-based microdystrophin gene therapy development candidate, SGT-001. In pre-market trading, Sangamo shares are up 7.6% to $11.50, while Solid Biosciences' shares have risen 5% to $4.54.

08:51 EST Watsco completes acquisition of N&S Supply - Watsco announced that it has completed the acquisition of N&S Supply, a distributor of air conditioning, heating and plumbing products based in Fishkill, New York. N&S Supply had revenues of approximately $44M over the last twelve months. Founded in 1946, N&S Supply operates seven locations in the Hudson Valley of New York and Connecticut. The Company serves over 10,000 customers with approximately 40,000 SKUs, including air conditioning and heating equipment, hydronic heating equipment, complimentary parts and supplies and a variety of plumbing products. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Consideration for the purchase included a combination of cash and Watsco common stock. This acquisition expands Watsco's sales presence in the Northeast U.S., which has grown from approximately $70M in 2010 to a present run-rate of over $700M. N&S Supply compliments other Watsco acquisitions completed in 2019, including the purchase of Dasco Supply, based in Whippany, New Jersey, Peirce-Phelps based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and an incremental 20% ownership in Homans Associates based in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

08:43 EST Inotiv announces closing of Pre-Clinical Research Services transaction - Bioanalytical Systems, doing business as Inotiv, announced the closing of the previously announced agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Pre-Clinical Research Services, a premier provider of surgical and medical device contract research services. In connection with the closing, the Company also closed on additional funding, which positions the Company to make future investments in organic growth in the drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics arena. The Company, which recently announced the rebranding of the Company's contract research services business under the name Inotiv, closed on the PCRS business on December 1, 2019. In addition to the previously announced terms of the transaction, the Company purchased real property comprising the main facility, and additional property located next to the facility which can be available for future expansion, for the PCRS business for $2,500,000. In order to finance the transaction, as well as provide additional capital to fund growth efforts, the Company amended and restated its credit arrangements with First Internet Bank to, among other things, increase a current line of credit under the facility from $3.5M to $5M, to add a capital expenditure line of credit in the principal amount of $3M, and to add two new term loans in the amounts of approximately $1.5M and $1.9M, respectively, the proceeds of which were used to fund a portion of the purchase price for the PCRS business and acquired real property.

08:39 EST Richard Farmer announces support for Farmer Bros. director nominees - Farmer Bros. announced that Richard Farmer, a member of the founding Farmer family, provided the Company with the following statement to share with other stockholders: "As a member of the Farmer family and a longtime Farmer Brothers stockholder beneficially owning approximately 1.2 million shares, I support the Company's Board of Directors and management team. I have found the Board and management team to be open to engaging in constructive dialogue with stockholders and am confident in their commitment to acting in the best interests of Farmer Brothers and all of the Company's stockholders. I am pleased with the actions the Board has recently taken to position the Company for a return to profitable growth. This includes taking steps to strengthen the Company's financial position, address challenges in the DSD business and appoint new leadership that is engaging employees and focusing the organization on execution. I believe the Board's recent appointment of Deverl Maserang as President and Chief Executive Officer, bringing his significant expertise in turnarounds, global supply-chain transformations and the food and beverage industry to the Company, should benefit the Company and stockholders. Additionally, I am pleased with the Board's decision to declassify the Board. It is clear that the Board is committed to ensuring the Company's corporate governance practices best serve the interests of stockholders. I look forward to supporting all three of the Company's Board nominees - Deverl Maserang, Chuck Marcy, Chris Mottern - at the upcoming 2019 Annual Meeting of Stockholders."

08:37 EST Catasys appoints Curt Medeiros as COO - Catasys (CATS) announced the appointment of Curt Medeiros as president and COO. Medeiros joins Catasys, bringing over 20 years of healthcare and life science experience across various strategic and operational roles. As president at Optum Analytics at UnitedHealth (UNH), Medeiros focused on creating novel collaboration opportunities that addressed health system challenges between payers, provider systems and Optum's pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device clients with a goal of applying learnings from real-world data to drive improvements in patient outcomes, total cost of care and satisfaction.

08:36 EST Homology Medicines appoints Gabriel Cohn as CMO - Homology Medicines announced today that it has appointed Gabriel Cohn, M.D., M.B.A., as CMO. Cohn will join Homology's senior management team to direct all clinical development and operations related to Homology's dual gene therapy and gene editing technology platform. Cohn's efforts will focus primarily on advancing the Phase 1/2 pheNIX gene therapy, randomized, concurrently controlled, dose-escalation trial for adults with phenylketonuria, which is expected to report initial clinical data this year, as well as progress a growing clinical development pipeline. Prior to Homology, Cohn was Vice President, Clinical Development Lead at AVROBIO.

08:33 EST VolitionRx announces proof of concept study on Lymphoma and Leukemia - VolitionRx announced results from its latest proof of concept study. A single pre-clinical Nu.Q assay utilizing a basic microtiter plate platform detected 80% of newly diagnosed Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Leukemia cases at 95% specificity among healthy subjects. The Area Under the Curve, or AUC, for this single assay was 91%. A number of other assays in development also demonstrated promising individual assay results with AUCs ranging from 79% to 91%.

08:32 EST Alimera Sciences announces regulatory approval for ILUVIEN in Benelux countries - Alimera Sciences announces that the governmental agencies that oversee the availability of medical products in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg, collectively known as the Benelux countries, have each granted marketing authorization for ILUVIEN for prevention of relapse in recurrent non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye. The complete Benelux approval was achieved when The Netherlands' Medicines Evaluation Board informed Alimera of their approval on November 6, 2019. The approval by Belgium's Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products was received in May of 2019, and Luxembourg's Heads of Medicines Agencies provided its confirmation of regulatory approval in late October. Alimera announced in September that it was expanding its relationship with French distribution partner, Horus Pharmaceuticals, who will help the Company achieve reimbursement in all three countries, after which it will oversee distribution throughout Benelux for the new indication.

08:26 EST GCP Applied Technologies announces retirement of chairman Gregory Poling - GCP Applied Technologies announced that Gregory Poling, Executive Chairman of GCP's Board of Directors, will retire and step down from the Board, effective December 31, 2019, in accordance with the Company's leadership transition plan. Elizabeth Mora, GCP's Lead Independent Director, has been elected Independent Chairman of the GCP Board of Directors.

08:23 EST Nokia announces Sari Baldauf to succeed Risto Siilasmaa as board chair - Nokia announced that its Board Chair, Risto Siilasmaa, has informed the Board that he will not stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Nokia Annual General Meeting in 2020. Siilasmaa joined the Nokia Board in 2008 and was appointed as Board Chair in 2012. He also served as interim CEO of Nokia from 2013 to 2014. The Corporate Governance & Nomination Committee has conducted a rigorous succession planning process for almost a year and, in alignment with the full Board, proposes Board Vice Chair Sari Baldauf as the new Chair and Board member Kari Stadigh as the Vice Chair as of the Annual General Meeting 2020, subject to their re-election to the Board. Baldauf joined the Nokia Board as a non-executive director in 2018.

08:20 EST Amneal Pharmaceuticals receives FDA approval for generic Carafate NDA - Amneal Pharmaceuticals announced that it has received final FDA approval on its abbreviated new drug application, or NDA, for a generic version of Carafate Oral Suspension, 1 g/10 ml. Amneal has immediately initiated commercialization activities.

08:16 EST Hope Bancorp enters Rule 10b5-1 trading plan for $50M share repurchase program - Hope Bancorp announced that it has entered into a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan to facilitate the repurchase of its common shares in accordance with its $50M share repurchase program previously announced on July 16. Repurchases under the company's 10b5-1 trading plan, which expires on January 31, 2020, unless the entire repurchase amount has been acquired before that date, will be administered through an independent broker, may be made in the open market or through privately negotiated transactions, and will be subject to the rules of Nasdaq and applicable securities laws and regulations.

08:13 EST Cleveland-Cliffs down 12% after agreeing to buy AK Steel for $3.36 per share - In pre-market trading, Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) is down 12% to $7.42, while AK Steel (AKS) is up 8.3% to $3.13 on the news

08:12 EST Advaxis submits ADXS-504 IND to FDA - Advaxis announced it has submitted an investigational new drug, or IND, application with the FDA for the initiation of a Phase 1 clinical study of ADXS-504, the company's ADXS-HOT drug candidate for prostate cancer. ADXS-504 is part of the company's ADXS-HOT off-the-shelf immunotherapy platform which targets hotspot neoantigens, allowing for the development of multiple cancer-type specific clinical candidates.

08:11 EST Centrexion announces issuance of U.S. composition of matter patent for CNTX-4975 - Centrexion Therapeutics announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a composition of matter patent entitled "Stable Aqueous Capsaicin Injectable Formulations and Medical Uses Thereof," which provides coverage for the formulation of capsaicin used in the company's CNTX-4975 product candidate. The patent describes and claims an aqueous, injectable, ready-to-use formulation of capsaicin. CNTX-4975, the company's lead product candidate, is an investigational synthetic, proprietary, ultra-pure intra-articular injection of a selective TRPV1 agonist currently in pivotal clinical trials for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain associated with knee osteoarthritis. CNTX-4975 is designed to be administered directly into the joint (intra-articular [IA]) where the pain stimulus originates, and to selectively and locally target and disrupt the signaling of specific TRPV1 pain-signaling nerve fibers within the joint. In January 2018, CNTX-4975 was granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of moderate-to-severe pain associated with knee OA. Centrexion has completed patient enrollment in all three studies comprising the Phase 3 VICTORY clinical program and expects to report the results of VICTORY-1 and VICTORY-3 in the first quarter of 2020. Centrexion anticipates reporting the results of the second pivotal trial, VICTORY-2, in the third quarter of 2020.

08:09 EST CytoDyn reports results from first patient in Phase 1b/2 study of leronlimab - CytoDyn announced additional early Phase 1b/2 clinical trial results evaluating leronlimab patients with CCR5+ metastatic triple-negative breast cancer. Data from the first patient enrolled show no detectable circulating tumor cells or EMTs in the peripheral blood and additional reductions in CCR5 expression on cancer-associated cells at eight weeks. A second patient with metastatic breast cancer has been enrolled in the trial under an emergency use investigational new drug. The first patient in the open label study was given a weekly injection of leronlimab at 700mg along with carboplatin. The patient was enrolled in the trial with CCR5-positive, mTNBC and naive to chemotherapy in metastatic setting. The patient was previously exposed to anthracyclines and taxane in neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings.

08:06 EST Marvell, NXP announces final regulatory approval for acquisition of assets - NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI) and Marvell (MRVL) announced that all necessary regulatory approvals have been received for NXP's acquisition of the wireless connectivity portfolio from Marvell. The companies expect to close the transaction in the first half of December 2019. In May 2019, NXP agreed to acquire Marvell's wireless connectivity portfolio in an all-cash, asset transaction. The acquisition will enable NXP to deliver complete, scalable processing and connectivity solutions to its customers across its end markets, including tailored security and a full suite of wireless connectivity spanning Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Thread and Near Field Communications. The acquisition includes nearly 600 people worldwide and is expected to be accretive to NXP's non-GAAP operating profit in the first full quarter after the transaction closes.

08:05 EST Columbia and Roselle sign definitive merger agreement - Columbia Bank, MHC, Columbia Financial, and Columbia Bank, collectively, "Columbia", and RSB Bancorp, MHC, RSB Bancorp, and Roselle Bank, collectively "Roselle", announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the merger agreement, depositors of Roselle will become depositors of Columbia Bank and will have the same rights and privileges in Columbia Bank, MHC, the mutual holding company parent of Columbia Bank, as if their accounts had been established in Columbia Bank on the date established at Roselle. As part of the transaction, Columbia Financial, will issue additional shares of its common stock to Columbia Bank, MHC in an amount equal to the fair value of Roselle as determined by an independent appraiser. These shares are expected to be issued immediately prior to completion of the merger. Roselle Bank is a savings bank that was established in 1889 and operates four banking offices in Union, Somerset and Hunterdon Counties. As of September 30 Roselle Bank had total assets of $442M, loans of $171M, deposits of $338M and equity capital of $61M. Columbia has offered full employment to all Roselle employees, excluding those with existing change-in-control agreements with Roselle, and has agreed to add one current member of Roselle's Board of Directors to Columbia Bank's Board of Directors following the completion of the merger.

08:03 EST Immunomedics resubmits BLA to FDA for sacituzumab govitecan - Immunomedics announced the resubmission of its Biologics License Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking accelerated approval of sacituzumab govitecan for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease.

08:02 EST ArcherDX announces partnership with Illumina to develop IVD tests - ArcherDX announced a non-exclusive partnership with Illumina to develop in-vitro diagnostic, or IVD, tests for Archer's planned portfolio of next-generation sequencing, or NGS, -based companion diagnostics. The scope of the agreement includes ArcherDX's future portfolio of IVD tests used to facilitate targeted therapy selection and monitoring of Minimal Residual Disease for the management of patients with solid tumor and blood cancers. The planned IVD tests will empower commercial laboratories, hospitals and health systems to run these assays in their local laboratories worldwide. Under the agreement, ArcherDX will develop IVD tests to run on Illumina's NextSeq 550Dx System. ArcherDX will be responsible for obtaining necessary regulatory approvals for each IVD kit and for their subsequent commercialization. ArcherDX and Illumina entered into a similar agreement for the MiSeq Dx System in 2016.

07:58 EST BioSig, Reified Capital enter technical collaboration for AI solutions - BioSig Technologies announced that the Company entered into a technical collaboration with Reified Capital, a provider of advanced artificial intelligence-focused technical advisory services to the private sector. Reified was co-founded by Dr. Alexander D. Wissner-Gross and Timothy M. Sullivan, the founders of Gemedy. The new collaboration with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Reified will focus on developing a foundational artificial intelligence platform on the basis of integrated healthcare datasets, beginning with ECG and EEG data acquired by BioSig's first product, PURE EP System - a novel real-time signal processing platform engineered to provide electrophysiologists with high fidelity cardiac signals. Electrophysiology focused technological solutions developed under the terms of this collaboration will be integrated into the PURE EP technology platform. Reified is led by Harvard- and MIT-trained computer scientist and physicist Dr. Wissner-Gross, an award-winning computer scientist, physicist, entrepreneur and author. Technical expertise that the Reified team is planning to bring to the project includes data analysis, algorithmic modeling and development.

07:51 EST Capitala Group announces exit of Fresh Dining Concepts - Capitala Group announced its successful exit from its investment in Fresh Dining Concepts, an operator of Auntie Anne's, Cinnabon and Carvel restaurants. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Fresh Dining Concepts is an Auntie Anne's Inc. franchisee that operates 49 in-line stores, baking kiosks, and satellite retail units. The Company is the third largest franchisee in the Auntie Anne's system and operates stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico.

07:48 EST Canadian National says 'recovery plan is on track' - CN announced that its recovery plan is on track and that it is revising its guidance following the impact of the 8-day strike. "Our discipline on our recovery plan is delivering results," said JJ Ruest, president and CEO of CN. "While we expect to take some time and we remain dependent on favourable weather, we are pleased by how things are progressing. Safety is at the heart of everything we are doing as we bring our Canadian Operations back online and we have not experienced any significant setbacks at this point." Due to the impact of the strike, estimated at around 15c of EPS, CN is revising its 2019 full year financial outlook, and remains focused on continuing to realign its resources in light of the weaker demand, including its workforce, to address cost takeout efforts that started prior to the strike.

07:43 EST Saia announces LTL shipments per workday increased 6.9% y-o-y in October - Saia is providing LTL shipment and tonnage data for the first two months of the fourth quarter. In October 2019, LTL shipments per workday increased 6.9%, LTL tonnage per workday increased 3.5%, and LTL weight per shipment declined 3.2% compared to October 2018. In November 2019, LTL shipments per workday increased 2.7%, LTL tonnage per workday increased 1.4%, and LTL weight per shipment declined 1.2% compared to November 2018.

07:42 EST Cass partners with University of Tennessee's Global Supply Chain Institute - The Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's Haslam College of Business is partnering with freight audit & payment provider Cass Information Systems to support two of Cass's well-known transportation indexes-the Cass Truckload Linehaul Index and the Cass Intermodal Price Index. The indexes, followed by more than 8,000 subscribers, follow changes in American freight shipping costs. Since 2011, they have become valuable resources for shippers, carriers, and others interested in freight market dynamics. In collaboration with Cass, UT's Global Supply Chain Institute has created an enhanced calculation logic and methodology for both indexes. Dr. Alex Rodrigues, faculty at the Department of Supply Chain Management, will serve as the principle technical expert responsible for the enhanced architecture of both indexes. The data for these indexes, as well as the popular Cass Freight Index, is generated by Cass through its freight invoice payment activity for 350 large shippers.

07:40 EST Ability announces entry into new contracts for strategic interception solutions - Ability announced that on November 29, 2019, it has entered into, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Ability Computers and Software Industries Ltd., into new contracts for selling its strategic interception solutions. According to the contracts, ACSI is expected to receive fees in the aggregate amount of up to $9M, subject to certain approvals from local authorities and systems acceptances. ACSI's ability to collect cash and recognize revenues from the contract is dependent upon successful technical implementation and deployment of its solutions, and the ability to successfully pass acceptance tests and obtain any applicable regulatory approvals.

07:36 EST Tonix Pharmaceuticals regains compliance with Nasdaq minimum bid price rule - Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding announced that it has regained compliance with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the NASDAQ Global Market. On November 1, 2019, Tonix effected a 1-for-10 reverse stock split of its outstanding common stock intended to increase the per share trading price of Tonix's common stock to satisfy the minimum bid price requirement of $1.00 per share for continued listing on the NASDAQ Global Market, as set forth in NASDAQ Listing Rule 5450(a)(1). On December 2, 2019, Tonix received a letter from The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC stating that because Tonix's shares had a closing bid price at or above $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive business days, Tonix's stock had regained compliance with the Bid Price Rule and the matter is now closed.

07:35 EST Mesa Air adds new aircraft, extends contract with United Airlines - Mesa Air Group (MESA) announced it will add 20 new Embraer (ERJ) E175 LL aircraft to its United Express fleet. The aircraft will be owned and financed by Mesa and be covered under a 12-year capacity purchase agreement. The E175 LL features 70 seats in a three-class configuration. Deliveries are scheduled to begin May 2020 and expected to be completed by the end of 2020. The parties are also extending the contract for 42 E175s for an additional five years. The aircraft, which are owned by United (UAL), are now contracted through the end of 2024 with rights to extend through 2027. The 18 Mesa-owned E175s are contracted through 2028. The transaction will result in Mesa's United Express operation becoming all Embraer 175 aircraft with long-term contracts and, following the new deliveries, an average age of 3.7 years. The company also expects the shift to a single fleet type to improve utilization of crew and maintenance resources across its United Express system. In connection with the deal, Mesa's 20 Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft will be leased to another United Express carrier for a term of seven years.

07:33 EST MediWound initiates U.S. Phase 2 adaptive design study of EscharEx - MediWound announced the initiation of patient treatment in its U.S. Phase 2 adaptive design clinical study of EscharEx, a topical biologic drug candidate designed to enzymatically debride chronic wounds, for the treatment of venous leg ulcers. The trial is designed to assess safety and efficacy of EscharEx compared to gel vehicle and non-surgical standard-of-care, and includes a pre-defined interim assessment anticipated by the end of 2020. The multicenter, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, adaptive design study, evaluating the safety and efficacy of EscharEx in debridement of VLU's. The study is expected to enroll 174 patients at approximately 25 clinical sites, primarily in the U.S. Study participants will be randomized to either EscharEx, placebo control or non-surgical standard-of-care of either Santyl or Hydrogel, at a ratio of 1:1:1, with a three month follow-up. The study includes an interim assessment for futility and potential sample size adjustment once approximately 50 percent of patients complete treatment. The primary endpoint is incidence of complete debridement compared to gel vehicle placebo control. Secondary endpoints include time to achieve complete debridement, reduction of pain, reduction of wound area, granulation tissue and quality of life. Incidence and time to achieve wound closure will be assessed as safety measurements.

07:32 EST Marathon Partners delivers letter to e.l.f. Beauty board - Marathon Partners Equity Management, a New York-based investment firm, and its affiliated investment funds, which beneficially own approximately 7.8% of the common stock of e.l.f. Beauty, announced that it has delivered a letter to the Company's Board of Directors recommending that the Board seek a sale of the Company through a strategic alternatives process. In its letter to the Board, Marathon Partners outlines its belief that there is ultimately one solution to the Company's languishing share price - e.l.f. needs to sell itself through a competitive auction process. Marathon Partners shared its view that an announced strategic alternative process will inject needed discipline into the Board's deliberations and provide benchmark values to critically evaluate against management's current standalone plan.

07:30 EST Axovant announces amendment to credit facility with Hercules Capital - Axovant Gene Therapies announced the completion of an amendment to its loan and security agreement with Hercules Capital. The amendment provides for a 9-month interest-only period commencing December 2019, as well as the elimination of the covenant to maintain a minimum cash balance. Prior to the amendment, the minimum cash covenant amount was $30M. Axovant prepaid 50%, or approximately $15.7M, of outstanding principal due without penalty. No new securities or derivatives in Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd. are being issued as part of this loan amendment with Hercules.

07:30 EST Cara Therapeutics trading resumes

07:27 EST Ardelyx says PHREEDOM study met its primary endpoint - Ardelyx reported positive topline results from PHREEDOM, a long-term Phase 3 study evaluating the efficacy and safety of tenapanor as monotherapy for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis. In the study, patients randomized to the tenapanor arm were treated in a 26-week open-label treatment period and were then re-randomized to a 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized withdrawal period. The PHREEDOM study met its primary endpoint demonstrating a statistically significant difference in least square mean serum phosphorus change as compared to placebo. During the 26-week treatment period, 77% of tenapanor-treated patients in the intent-to-treat population had a decrease in serum phosphorus, with a mean reduction from baseline of 2.0 mg/dL. Tenapanor is an investigational, first-in-class, phosphate absorption inhibitor being developed to treat hyperphosphatemia in patients with CKD on dialysis. If approved, tenapanor will be the only non-binder treatment for the control of serum phosphorus in patients with CKD on dialysis.

07:22 EST Akoustis receives first 5G network infrastructure filter order for customer - Akoustis Technologies announced it has received a pre-production order through a distribution partner for its band n79 filter solution intended for a tier-1 cellular infrastructure provider for use in 5G small cell base station network equipment. Akoustis initially sampled its new band n79 XBAW filter solution in September to this customer - its second multi-billion-dollar tier-1 cellular infrastructure provider. The solution was specifically designed for the challenging filtering needs of band n79 in the emerging 5G small cell network infrastructure deploying across China. The customer is targeting a production launch in the first half of CY2020. The new filter solution leverages Akoustis' patented and proprietary XBAW technology to deliver high frequency, high power and high performance. It offers small size, low insertion loss and high out-of-band rejection which should compete favorably against existing network infrastructure filtering technologies including ceramic and cavity filters.

07:17 EST Iveco, FPT Industrial, NIKOLA launch partnership for zero-emission transport - IVECO and FPT Industrial, brands of CNH Industrial, and NIKOLA presented the scope and plans of their joint venture and collaboration agreement established to accelerate industry transformation towards emission neutrality of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks in North America and Europe through the adoption of fuel-cell technology. This comes three months after CNH Industrial's announcement at its Capital Markets Day, held on September 3 2019, involving its IVECO commercial vehicles brand and its powertrain division FPT Industrial, of the intention to enter into a strategic partnership with NIKOLA Motors. The primary focus of the agreement is to leverage the partners' respective expertise to successfully deploy Zero-Emission heavy-duty trucks and to disrupt the industry with a new business model. The partnership includes the creation of a European joint venture to develop and distribute cab-over hydrogen fuel-cell and battery-electric trucks for the European market. NIKOLA will provide its class-leading fuel-cell expertise and advanced technologies, as well as its disruptive business model that foresees an industry-first all-inclusive lease rate. IVECO, together with FPT Industrial, will contribute their engineering and manufacturing expertise to industrialize the fuel-cell and battery electric trucks. IVECO, FPT Industrial and NIKOLA have started development of the joint-venture's first truck: the battery electric NIKOLA TRE, which is based on the new IVECO S-WAY heavy-duty truck platform and integrates NIKOLA's proprietary technology, controls and infotainment. Testing is expected to begin in mid-2020, with the European public launch planned for the IAA September 2020 commercial vehicle exhibition in Hannover, Germany. Sales and aftersales support of the NIKOLA TRE will be provided by IVECO's widespread European dealer network.

07:15 EST RTI Surgical appoints Terry Rich as president of Global Spine - RTI Surgical Holdings announced Terry Rich has joined RTI as president of Global Spine. The company also announced the promotion of Olivier Visa to president of Global OEM. Prior to joining RTI, Rich led the turnaround of Alphatec Spine from December 2016 through December 2018. Visa joined RTI in October 2017 as vice president of OEM and has spearheaded the positive performance of this business segment within RTI. Both Mr. Rich and Mr. Visa will report to Camille Farhat. As a material condition to entering into employment with RTI, on November 29, 2019, the Company and Mr. Rich entered into: a restricted stock award agreement; and a stock option agreement. Under the Restricted Stock Agreement, the Company granted Mr. Rich 125,598 shares of restricted Common Stock. On the first anniversary of the Grant Date, 41,866 shares will vest. The remaining shares will vest on the last day of each calendar quarter at a rate of 10,466.5 shares per calendar quarter commencing on the fifteenth month following the Grant Date and continuing for two years year after. Vesting of these shares may accelerate upon the occurrence of certain conditions. Under the Option Agreement, the Company granted Mr. Rich the option to purchase 188,397 shares of Common Stock, as of the Grant Date. The exercise price for the Stock Options is $2.09. On the first anniversary of the Grant Date, 62,799 will vest. The remaining shares will vest on the last day of each calendar quarter at a rate of 15,699.75 shares per calendar quarter commencing on the fifteenth month following the Grant Date and continuing for two years after. The vesting of the Stock Options is cumulative.

07:11 EST Lexicon completes safety review of cohort of TELE-ABC study - Lexicon Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of a safety review of the initial run-in cohort of the Telotristat Ethyl for Advanced Biliary Tract Cancer, or TELE-ABC, study, which is a Phase 2 clinical study of telotristat ethyl in patients with biliary tract cancer. Telotristat ethyl is a novel, oral tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor approved as XERMELO for the treatment of carcinoid syndrome diarrhea in combination with somatostatin analog therapy in adults inadequately controlled by SSA therapy alone. Safety analysis from the first six patients who completed at least a 21-day cycle of treatment with telotristat ethyl in combination with cisplatin and gemcitabine supports the continuation of enrollment with no adjustment in the telotristat ethyl 500 mg three times daily dosing. To date, the first two patients enrolled have completed over six months of treatment.

07:08 EST Barnwell Industries says oil, gas division 'has made substantial progress' - Barnwell Industries provided an update on recent developments with respect to its oil and gas operations. Alexander Kinzler, CEO of Barnwell, commented, "The first quarter of 2020 is proving to be the most exciting in recent memory for the Company as our oil and gas division has made substantial progress implementing our plans to increase production and revenues." The company said, "The Company previously identified two horizontal well drilling opportunities that were set to proceed subject to market conditions and contingent on financing. We are pleased to report that due to improved commodity pricing and an asset sale described below we were able to drill and complete both wells without outside financing. In October 2019, we participated with a 28.3% working interest in the drilling and completion of a successful horizontal Charlie Lake development well in the Spirit River area of Alberta. This well, operated by Tourmaline Oil Corp, has a horizontal section of more than 9,000 feet, and was completed with 46 fracture stages. This well was connected and equipped for production in mid-November 2019, producing an average of more than 1,000 Boe per day during its first 2 full weeks on production. These initial production rates will be subject to normal well declines, but this initial production has exceeded our estimates and expectations. Under the Alberta Modernized Royalty Framework, this well qualifies for an incentive royalty rate of 5% for an initial period roughly equal to payout, which is expected to occur within 6 months. Also, in November 2019, we operated the drilling and completion of our first 100%-owned horizontal development well at Twining, Alberta. This well has a 4,500-foot horizontal section, was completed in late November with 26 fracture stages and will soon be equipped and tied in to our nearby operated facilities. Further updates on Twining will be provided after the well has commenced production. Our net production for fiscal 2019 doubled year over year, averaging 685 Boe per day for the full fiscal year 2019, as compared to 337 Boe per day for the full fiscal year 2018. Current production is approximately 900 Boe per day. In October 2019, we closed on the sale of assets in the Progress area of Alberta for cash proceeds of approximately $600,000. Cash from this sale helped to fund our drilling activity. Included in this divestiture were two non-producing wells that were considered as liabilities; In October 2019, the Company also closed on an acquisition of producing conventional oil interests in the central Alberta area for cash consideration of $70,000, bringing the Company an additional 60 Boe per day with development upside plus some strategic facility interests that we expect will improve the economics of an existing asset. These achievements in our first quarter of fiscal 2020 were years in the making and have improved our oil and gas operations, added significant reserves and are expected to add significant new revenues as we go forward into fiscal 2020 and beyond."

07:06 EST Red Lion Hotels appoints John Russell as interim CEO - Red Lion Hotels Corporation announced John Russell, Jr. has been appointed interim CEO. Russell joins RLH to assist the executive management team in running the business, accelerating franchise sales, improving franchisee retention and aligning our cost structure with the size of our operations. The Board of RLH Corporation will continue the search for a permanent CEO during Russell's tenure. Russell was most recently President and COO with Sentry Hospitality.

07:05 EST Cara Therapeutics says Phase 2 trial of Oral KORSUVA meets primary endpoint - Cara Therapeutics announced positive topline results from its Phase 2 dose-ranging trial of Oral KORSUVA for the treatment of pruritus in patients with stage III-V chronic kidney disease. The Phase 2, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 12-week trial was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of three dose levels of Oral KORSUVA vs. placebo in approximately 240 stage III-V CKD patients with moderate-to-severe pruritus. The primary efficacy endpoint was the change from baseline in the weekly mean of the daily 24-hour Worst Itching Intensity Numeric Rating Scale score at Week 12 of the treatment period for any of the three tablet strengths vs. placebo. Secondary endpoints included change from baseline in itch-related quality of life scores at the end of Week 12, as assessed by the total Skindex-10 and 5-D itch scales, as well as the proportion of patients achieving an improvement from baseline of greater than or equal to3 points with respect to the weekly mean of the daily 24-hour Worst Itch NRS score at Week 12. Primary Endpoint: Patients treated with the 1 mg tablet strength of Oral KORSUVA achieved the primary endpoint of statistically significant reduction in weekly mean of the daily WI-NRS scores vs. placebo after the 12-week treatment period. The treatment effect was statistically significant after two weeks of treatment and sustained through the 12-week treatment period. Secondary Endpoints: The proportion of patients on 1 mg tablet strength achieving a 3 point or greater improvement from baseline in the weekly mean of the daily WI-NRS score at week 12 was 72% vs. 58% for placebo but did not achieve statistical significance. Patients on 1 mg tablet strength showed positive improvements vs. placebo in itch- related quality of life endpoints as measured using self-assessment Skindex-10 and 5-D Itch scales but did not achieve statistical significance. Safety and Tolerability: Oral KORSUVA was generally well-tolerated with a safety profile consistent with that seen in earlier KORSUVA clinical trials. Overall, the incidence of treatment emergent adverse events were similar across KORSUVA and placebo groups. The most common treatment emergent AEs reported in greater than5% of patients in the 1 mg KORSUVA group vs. placebo were dizziness, fall, diarrhea and constipation.

07:02 EST MasterCraft Boat Holdings appoints Frederick Brightbill as CEO - MasterCraft Boat Holdings announced that its Board of Directors has named current Board Chair and Interim CEO Frederick Brightbill, as the Company's new permanent CEO, effective immediately. Brightbill assumed the role of Interim CEO following Terry McNew's resignation in October 2019. Concurrently, Roch Lambert, CEO of Curt Group, an automotive product aftermarket manufacturer and distributor, was named as Lead Independent Director of MasterCraft's Board of Directors. He has served on the Company's Board since 2016. Brightbill, a boating industry veteran, has served as a member of the Company's Board of Directors since 2009, and was elected Chairman in 2015 concurrent with MasterCraft's Initial Public Offering.

07:02 EST Protagonist announces results from TRANSCEND Phase 2 open-label study - Protagonist Therapeutic announced preliminary results from patients with transfusion-dependent, or TD, beta-thalassemia in the ongoing TRANSCEND Phase 2 open-label study of PTG-300. Dose-related drug exposure and reductions from baseline serum iron and transferrin saturation, or TSAT, levels were observed, with significant reductions at the 40 mg and 80 mg weekly doses. "The dose-related pharmacodynamic responses in serum iron and TSAT levels observed in this preliminary analysis provide the first evidence of the effects of PTG-300 in patients with beta-thalassemia, who have highly elevated levels of iron in the body," commented Samuel Saks,Protagonist Chief Medical Officer. "These early results suggest the potential of finding an appropriate dose of PTG-300 for continued development in the treatment of beta-thalassemia. While we have observed clinical responders in the study based on the pre-specified criteria of reductions in transfusion burden, continued evaluation at higher doses will be required to evaluate the rate and durability of these effects in order to reach definitive conclusions. We look forward to the results from further study with additional dose regimens and longer follow-up, with clinical efficacy results expected in 2020."

06:58 EST Zomedica announces resignation of CEO Gerald Solensky and succession plan - Zomedica Pharmaceuticals announced that Gerald Solensky, Jr. has resigned as CEO, Chairman and a Director of Zomedica, effective immediately. Solensky will continue as a consultant to the Zomedica's operating subsidiary, Zomedica Phamaceuticals. Shameze Rampertab, CFO, will act as interim CEO until a replacement is found. Rampertab has been with Zomedica since 2016. Additionally, Johnny D. Powers, currently an Independent Zomedica Director, will be named as Strategic Advisor. Powers has extensive animal healthcare industry experience, most recently with IDEXX Laboratories where he was Executive VP with responsibility for product pipeline and commercialization across multiple business units. Jeffrey Rowe will assume the role of Chairman. The Board also intends to maintain the size of the Board at the number of Directors before the resignation of olensky, and currently anticipates appointing the permanent CEO to the Board. Zomedica has entered into a severance agreement with Solensky which provides for severance payments to Solensky in an amount consistent with the terms of his employment agreement. Payments are expected to be made in two tranches on or before mid-January 2020. Zomedica has also entered into a cooperation agreement with Solensky as a significant shareholder of Zomedica, approximately 37% of the outstanding common shares as of the date hereof. The Cooperation Agreement has a term that expires on the second annual shareholder meeting of Zomedica, subject to early termination if Solensky ceases to own 10% of the outstanding common shares of Zomedica.

06:52 EST The Buckle raises quarterly dividend 20% to 30c from 25c per share - The Board authorized a 30c per share quarterly dividend to be paid to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 10, 2020. This represents an increase of 5c per share, or 20%, in the company's regular quarterly dividend rate. Both the $1.25 per share special cash dividend and the 30c per share regular quarterly dividend are payable on January 24, 2020 and will be paid together.

06:46 EST Tallgrass Energy names Matthew Sheehy as President, effective immediately - Tallgrass Energy announced that the Board of Directors of its general partner has appointed Matthew Sheehy as President of Tallgrass Energy, effective immediately. He will report to Tallgrass CEO William Moler and focus on the company's commercial and business development efforts. Sheehy originally joined Tallgrass Energy at inception in 2012 and held a number of roles, including President of Rockies Express Pipeline LLC and Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Tallgrass Energy. Since leaving Tallgrass in early 2018, Sheehy has been the Chairman of Bridger Aerospace Group - a leading aerial firefighting company and a Blackstone portfolio company.

06:40 EST Bank of Montreal increases quarterly dividend 3c to $1.06 per share - Bank of Montreal announced that its board declared a quarterly dividend of $1.06 per share on paid-up common shares of Bank of Montreal for Q1 of FY20, a 3c increase from the previous quarter and up 6% from the prior year. The dividend on the common shares is payable on February 26, 2020, to shareholders of record on February 3, 2020. The dividends on the preferred shares are payable on February 25, 2020, to shareholders of record on February 3, 2020.

06:35 EST Trimble acquires Can-Net, iBase networks, terms not disclosed - Trimble announced the acquisitions of Cansel Survey Equipment's Can-Net and AllTerra New Zealand's iBase networks. "The acquisitions significantly increase the global footprint of Trimble-owned Virtual Reference Station, or VRS, networks by adding key geographies in North America and New Zealand. Subscription-based VRS correction services are now accessible to more customers around the world who rely on high-accuracy corrections to increase productivity and reduce operational costs. The correction services are ideal for professionals in agriculture, geospatial and construction as well as emerging high-accuracy applications, such as on-road positioning for passenger vehicles." Financial terms were not disclosed.

06:26 EST Wyndham Hotels & Resorts CFO David Wyshner to step down, Michele Allen succeeds - Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced that David Wyshner has decided to step down as CFO, effective immediately, and move into a senior advisory role reporting to president and CEO Geoff Ballotti until March 1, 2020. The company also announced the promotion of its treasurer and executive ViP, Michele Allen, to succeed Wyshner as CFO, effective immediately. Allen, who began her career at Deloitte & Touche, is a 20-year veteran of Wyndham Hotels, Wyndham Worldwide and Cendant Corporation, having been the global senior VP of finance and controller for the former Wyndham Hotel Group, and senior VP of finance for Wyndham Worldwide. Since the spin-off, she has played a role in developing the leadership talent of the company's finance organization.

06:10 EST Ensign Group announces nursing facilities acquisitions - The Ensign Group announced that it acquired the real estate and operations of Mission Palms Post Acute, a skilled nursing facility with 160 skilled nursing beds located in Mesa, Arizona. The acquisition was effective December 1. In a separate transaction on the same day, Ensign announced that its affiliates acquired the operations of Crestwood Health and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled nursing facility with 112 skilled nursing beds and an assisted living center with 72 assisted living beds located in Wills Point, Texas; Beacon Harbor Healthcare and Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility with 190 skilled nursing beds located in Rockwall, Texas; Rowlett Health and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled nursing facility with 150 skilled nursing beds located in Rowlett, Texas; and Pleasant Manor Healthcare and Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility with 126 skilled nursing beds located in Waxahachie, Texas. These acquisitions were also effective December 1.

06:05 EST Cleveland-Cliffs to buy AK Steel for $3.36 per share, or $3B enterprise value - Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) and AK Steel Holding (AKS) are pleased to announce that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Cliffs will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of AK Steel common stock. Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Cliffs, will lead the expanded organization. Under the terms of the merger agreement, AK Steel shareholders will receive 0.40 shares of Cliffs common stock for each outstanding share of AK Steel common stock they own. Upon completion of the transaction, Cliffs shareholders will own approximately 68% and AK Steel shareholders will own approximately 32% of the combined company, respectively, on a fully diluted basis. The fixed exchange ratio implies a consideration of $3.36 per share of AK Steel common stock and represents a premium of 16% based on the closing share prices of Cliffs and AK Steel common shares, respectively, as of December 2, and a premium of 27% based on the 30-day volume weighted average price of AK Steel common shares. The transaction implies an aggregate consideration to AK Steel shareholders of approximately $1.1B on a fully diluted basis, a total enterprise value of approximately $3B for AK Steel and an acquisition multiple of 5.6x LTM Adjusted EBITDA. The transaction will combine Cliffs, North America's largest producer of iron ore pellets, with AK Steel, a leading producer of innovative flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, to create a vertically integrated producer of value-added iron ore and steel products. The combined company will be ideally positioned to provide high-value iron ore and steel solutions to customers primarily across North America. Following completion of the transaction, with Goncalves leading the expanded organization, Newport will retire as CEO and a Director of AK Steel. Three existing members of AK Steel's Board of Directors will join the Cliffs Board, and two existing Cliffs Board members will step down, bringing the Cliffs Board to 12 members in total. AK Steel will become a direct, wholly-owned subsidiary of Cliffs and will retain its branding and corporate identity. Cliffs will continue to be listed on the NYSE with its headquarters in Cleveland, while maintaining a significant presence at AK Steel's current offices in West Chester, Ohio along with its Research and Innovation Center in Middletown, Ohio. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2020, subject to approval by the shareholders of both companies, receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Cliffs has obtained an approximately $2B financing commitment from Credit Suisse in connection with a new Asset Backed Loan and the refinancing of AK Steel's 2023 senior secured notes.

06:01 EST Cleveland-Cliffs to acquire AK Steel for $3.36 per share, or about $3B

05:17 EST TripAdvisor, Michelin Guide, TheFork launch international strategic partnership - The Michelin Guide has joined forces with TripAdvisor and TheFork "to offer diners a complementary way to find their ideal dining experience, as well as improved access to a wider choice of high-quality restaurants around the world. Michelin and TripAdvisor, with its subsidiary TheFork, have entered into a content and licensing partnership to combine the gastronomic selection expertise of the Michelin Guide with the power of TripAdvisor's large customer audience and TheFork's advanced booking service."

05:13 EST Amazon says Cyber Monday was 'single biggest shopping day in company history' - Amazon announced that Cyber Monday was once again "the single biggest shopping day in the company's history," based on the number of items ordered worldwide. Customers all around the world shopped at record levels across a wide selection, with hundreds of millions of products ordered worldwide between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, alone. "Customers purchased millions more Amazon Devices compared to the same period last year in Amazon's Stores globally and the best-selling items were Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote."