In May 2013, George Soros has exited his positions in JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) , Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) , and several other banks. He's pared his exposure to Citigroup (NYSE: C ) , cut his stake in AIG (NYSE: AIG ) by two-thirds, and sold every share he owns in General Electric (NYSE: GE ) .
ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP) traded 18.13% higher to close last trading session at $2.02 with no company news related to unusual activity, according to ZIOPHARM IR Spokesperson. The company is set to present on May 29 at Deutsche Bank Health Care Conference. The stock floated in a range of $1.71to $2.02 on volume of 2.55M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 885,669.00 shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at -51.44%.
MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) traded 9.95% higher to close last trading session at $6.85, extending gains to new high after Seeking Alpha contributor George Rho speculated the biopharmaceutical company is a ripe takeover target. The stock floated in a range of $6.23 to $6.99 on volume of 20.00M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 6.10M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at 196.54%.
VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ:VVUS) traded 7.25% higher to close last trading session at $14.50 after saying that in response to Vivus’ recent expansions of the Board it has increased its slate of director nominees to nine, adding Alex Denner, Ph.D. The stock floated in a range of $13.12 to $15.04 on volume of 6.74M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 2.56 shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at +8.05%.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) traded 5.48% higher to close last trading session at $19.44, extending rally after its presentation at the UBS Global Healthcare Conference. The company is also set to present at Deutsche Bank dbAccess Health Care Conference on May 30 at 10:00AM EDT. The stock floated in a range of $17.76 to $20.00 on volume of 4.71M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 3.10M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at +1.36%.
Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:INFI) traded 5.36% higher to close last trading session at $24.36. The company is scheduled to present at Deutsche Bank’s 38th Annual Health Care Conference on May 29, 2013, at 4:15 p.m. ET in Boston, MA. The stock floated in a range of $22.42 to $24.83 on volume of 1.55M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 1.67M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at -30.04%.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) traded 4.46% higher to close last trading session at $37.94, seemingly on news that Soros Fund Management increased its stake in Sarepta, according to Soros’s latest quarterly 13F filing. The stock floated in a range of $35.14 to $38.33 on volume of 1.29M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 1.93 shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at 47.05%.
Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQNM) traded 4.35% higher to close last trading session at $4.08 after a Seeking Alpha blog post suggested the stock has plenty of room to grow. The stock floated in a range of $3.86 to $4.10 on volume of 4.15M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 2.59M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at -13.38%.
Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL) traded 4.15% higher to close last trading session at $4.77 after it filed SEC form 8-K revealing submission of matters to a Vote of Security Holders. The stock floated in a range of $4.51 to $4.78 on volume of 1.17M shares as compared to average-daily volume 1.63M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at 4.38%.
Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HALO) traded 3.91% higher to close last trading session at $7.45 after promotion of David A. Ramsay to chief financial officer. The stock floated in a range of $6.78 to $7.54 on volume of 1.53M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 1.36M shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at 11.03%.
InterMune Inc (NASDAQ:ITMN) traded 3.75% higher to close last trading session at $9.96 with no clear reason. The stock floated in a range of $9.27 to $10.03 on volume of 1.13M shares as compared to average-daily volume of 1.45 shares. The recent closing price brought its year-to-date performance at 2.79%.
S&P 500 Posts Biggest Drop Since November 2011 on Fed as global equities tumbled after the Federal Reserve said it may phase out stimulus and China’s cash crunch worsened. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank may end bond purchases by the middle of next year if the U.S. economy improves in line with Fed projections. His speech followed a two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington. Bernanke will cut the Fed’s $85 billion in monthly bond purchases by $20 billion at the Sept. 17-18 policy meeting, according to 44 percent of economists in a Bloomberg survey. In a June 4-5 survey, only 27 percent of economists forecast tapering would start in September. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/u-s-stock-index-futures-decline-barrick-retreats.html
Equities ended with sharp losses across the board as yesterday's selling persisted into today's trade, and dragged global shares into the fray. The S&P 500 fell 2.5% after losing its 50-day moving average at the open.
Markets across the globe sold off after yesterday's comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were interpreted as a warning of an impending modification to the Fed's asset purchase program. Although the Fed Chairman qualified his statement by saying the economy must continue showing improvement before modifications can be made, investors looked past this condition and chose to focus on the potential timeframe instead.
Concerns regarding possible tapering, as well as worries about the Fed losing control over the situation, have caused a significant spike in interest rates. Since yesterday, the yield on the 10-yr note has jumped 25 basis points to 2.414%, with ten of those coming during today's session.
Elevated Treasury yields have contributed to selling in high-yielding, defensively oriented sectors. To that end, the consumer staples sector led to the downside with a loss of 3.0%. Health care (-2.6%) and utilities (-2.9%) also saw significant selling while the fourth countercyclical group, telecom services, outperformed with a loss of 2.3% after leading yesterday's decline with a 2.7% slide.
Meanwhile, commodity-related names saw the heaviest selling among cyclical sectors with energy and materials dropping 2.7% and 2.6%, respectively. On a related note, crude oil slumped 3.6% to $94.98 per barrel while copper tumbled 3.0% to $3.05 per pound. Precious metals had a flashback to mid-April as gold sank 6.8% to $1280.10 per ounce while silver dropped 9.4% to $19.59
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