On The Fly: Closing Wrap SCTY & solars boom!!
| Stocks on Wall Street began the day in negative territory, thanks in part to worse than expected economic data. The consumer price index came in higher than expected, while housing starts and building permits both came in well below analysts' consensus forecasts. The averages drifted off their opening lows and eventually made it into positive territory, where the market drifted for most of the rest of the day. The volume was light, as investors sat on the sidelines while the Federal Reserve board convened for the central bank's latest rate setting and policy meeting.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., the consumer price index rose 0.4% in May, which was above the consensus forecast for an increase of 0.2%. Housing starts in the month declined 6.5% to a rate of about 1M and building permits slid 6.4% to a rate of 991K, which were both lower than expected. The Federal Reserve began its latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting, which will conclude tomorrow.
COMPANY NEWS: Elon Musk's SolarCity (SCTY) advanced $9.65, or 17.58%, to $64.53 after the solar energy system installer agreed to acquire solar panel technology and manufacturing company Silevo for up to $350M dollars. SolarCity said it sees its manufacturing capacity allowing it to create "the most vertically integrated solar company" with an "industry-leading" cost structure that aims to make solar competitive with grid costs. The company also said it is in talks with the state of New York to build a plant with targeted capacity greater than 1 GW within the next two years, which it says will be "one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world."
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was register system and hospitality software maker Micros Systems (MCRS), which surged $8.62, or 14.94%, to $66.33 after Bloomberg reported that the company is in talks to be acquired by tech giant Oracle (ORCL) for "more than" $5B. Also higher was GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), which jumped $12.57, or 16.27%, to $89.82 after it announced physician reports of efficacy and safety data on 27 children and young adults with treatment-resistant epilepsy who have been treated with GW's investigational cannabidiol product candidate, Epidiolex, for a period of 12 weeks. Among the noteworthy losers was Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), which fell $5.32, or 7.23%, to $68.26 after research firm Prescience Point alleged that the company has used "creative acquisition accounting" to conceal its losses and placed a Strong Sell rating on the shares. Also lower were shares of Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR), which fell $3.16, or 8.96%, to $32.12 after announcing an offering of $300M of convertible senior notes. INDEXES: The Dow was up 27.48, or 0.16%, to 16,808.49, the Nasdaq was up 16.13, or 0.37%, to 4,337.23, and the S&P 500 was up 4.21, or 0.22%, to 1,941.99. |
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