Global Panorama via Flickr CC 3.0
Well, if you were hoping that the end of the election cycle meant the news would at least start getting a little less bizarre, it’s looking like you’re out of luck. This week saw the President-elect lose his cool over a major (and probably untrue) news story broken by BuzzFeed, of all outlets, a series of Twitter (TWTR) tirades attacking the intelligence community, and refused to take questions from CNN, calling the network “fake news” in a moment so dripping with irony it would make your head spin. Oh, and he met with Steve Harvey on Friday.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen (VLKAY) executives are getting arrested by the FBI, the Dow continued to not hit 20,000, and Congress continued to juggle with precisely how it would manage repealing Obamacare.
Russell 2000 This Week: +4.77 (0.35%) to 1,372.05
S&P 500 Same Period: -2.52 (0.11%) to 2,274.64
Top Reads of the Week:
- Investors Love these “Trump Bump” Sectors, But Should They? by Joel Anderson
- How Much Will ‘Making America Great Again’ Cost Consumers? by Joel Anderson
- And you can catch up on all of our deep dive into Trump’s first 100 days right here.
- Self-driving Cars in 2 Years Time… by Jeff Kagan
- What Does 120 Years of Market Action Tell Us About the Future? by Chip Corley
- America’s Opioid Epidemic Puts Drug Pricing Under Scrutiny… Again by Dan Banas
- Google: Alphabet’s Hobbies and DeepMind’s Brains by Guild Investment Management
- 5 Top Contrarian Stocks for Today’s Market by Mitchell Mauer
- As Sam Sees It: This Sector is Poised to Go From Worst to First by Sam Stovall
Deals Recap:
- Activehours, an app that allows hourly workers to get paid early, raised $22 million in a series A round led by Matrix Partners.
- Team management app Trello was acquired by Atlassian (TEAM) for $425 million.
- Developer of cancer therapies Immatics Biotechnologies raised $30 million in a series E round led by Amgen (AMGN).
- Provider of operational management data to farmers, FarmLogs, raised $22 million in a series C round led by Naspers (NPSNY).
- Cloud storage company Panzura raised $32 million in a series E round led by Matrix Partners.
- All-flash storage company Kaminario raised $75 million in a series F round led by CIRTech Fund and Waterwood Group.
- Glaucoma treatment company Ivantis raised $25 million in a series C round led by RA Capital Management.
- Online catering marketplace ezCater raised $35 million in a series C round led by Iconiq Capital.
- Online business loan marketplace Funding Circle raised $100 million in a series F round led by Accel Partners.
- Travel luggage manufacturer OGIO International was acquired by Callaway Golf (ELY) for $75.5 million.
Emerging Growth News:
- Biotech firm AMAG Pharmaceuticals (AMAG) shed more than a third of its market cap this week after it released preliminary look at its Q4 earnings and guidance and failed to impress, getting downgraded by both Zacks and Raymond James. So, a whole lot of people saw that news and thought to themselves “Boy, AMAGonna sell that stock.”
- Less than two months after partnering with MicroVentures to offer equity crowdfunding on its platform, Indiegogo has already surpassed $1 million in funding raised by campaigns. Just as long as no one’s raising that money to find ways to build renewable energy sources we can drive on…
- And speaking of crowdfunding, Canadian fintech platform WealthBar announced that it had cleared $100 million in online investments this week, including private investment portfolios that had previously only been available to the wealthiest investors and could now be accessed with investments as low as $5,000.
- Bank holding company Pacific Continental Corporation (PCBK) saw shares spike by more than 25% on Tuesday after news broke that the company would be merging with Columbia Banking System (COLB) and shareholders would be receiving 0.643 shares of the new company for every Pacific Continental share they held.
- Digital printing solutions company Kornit Digital (KRNT) gained nearly 40% this week after announcing a lucrative deal with Amazon (AMZN).
- Sporting goods retailer Vista Outdoor (VSTO) had to leave investors out in the cold after shares plunged almost 25% after the company announced that it would be taking an “asset impairment charge” for its hunting and shooting accessories unit in the ballpark of $400 to $450 million.
- Shares in Applied Optoelectronics, a fiber-optic networking products provider, were soaring on Thursday after the company provided a preliminary peek at its Q4 earnings that clearly impressed the markets.
- Sanchez Energy Corp. (SN), an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, spiked nearly 30% on Friday after they announced a 50-50 partnership with Blackstone Energy Partners of The Blackstone Group (BX) to acquire 318,000 acres in the western Eagle Ford shale from Anadarko Petroleum (APC).
