And we’re back! Thanks for remaining patient during our holiday hiatus. So, without further ado…
Republicans in Congress kicked off the new session by planning on losing their independent ethics watchdog only to reverse themselves when many pointed out (including the Republican President-elect) how the move was incredibly shady. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average once again flirted with hitting 20,000 all week. Of course, one could rain on that parade by observing that the Dow is, quite literally, the worst stock market index out there, and that the milestone is a completely arbitrary one, so I am going to do just that.
Russell 2000 This Week: +9.92 (0.73%) to 1,367.28
S&P 500 Same Period: +37.45 (1.67%) to 2,276.98
Top Reads of the Week
- Are You Ready for Trump’s First 100 Days? by Joel Anderson
- Reality vs. Rhetoric: What Will President Trump Really Do? by Joel Anderson
- Investor Trivia: How Well do You Know the Market? by Henry Truc
- Politics & Central Bankers Are 2017’s Key Market Themes by Ivan Illàn
- Expect A.I. Acquisitions in 2017 by Jeff Kagan
- TD Ameritrade’s JJ Kinahan on How Investors Can Start the New Year Right by Henry Truc
- As Sam Sees It: A Different Type of Barbell for Investors’ New Year’s Resolutions by Sam Stovall
- CES 2017: The Most Innovative Trends to Watch This Year by Dan Banas
- Are Women Really Better at Patient Care? by Laura Bourdenau
- Rising Rates Ahead in 2017… by Frank Holmes
Deals Recap:
- Specialty therapeutics company Ascletis raised $100 million in a series B round led by C-Bridge Capital.
- Genome engineering company Synthego raised $41 million in a series B round led by 8VC.
- Shanghai-based bicycle-sharing service Mobike raised $215 million in a series D round led by Tencent Holdings. Guess they’re going to buy… mo bikes.
- Urban transportation app 99Taxis raised $100 million in a series C round led by Didi Chuxing. This time next year the company will probably be named 100Taxis, huh?
- Biotechnology company Neon Therapeutics raised $70 million in a series B round led by Partner Fund Management.
- Developer of cloud-based workload management software Fugue raised $41 million in a series D round led by New Enterprise Associates. The plan from here on out is to continue doing $41 million funding rounds, over and over again in a repetitive, circular dirge.
- Biopharmaceutical company scPharmaceuticals raised $45.6 million in a series B round led by OrbiMed and Sun Pharma.
- Biotech firm AOBiome raised $30 million in a series C round led by iCarbonX. I’m sure the company’s founders think that’s A-ok.
- E-commerce site Shoebuy was acquired by Wal-Mart (WMT) subsidiary Jet.com for $70 million.
Emerging Growth News:
- Blogging website Medium announced that it would be changing its business model to hew closer to its original vision, something that would involve laying off 50 employees, about a third of their workforce. If only they could have found some sort of compromise with their employees.
- Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed members expressing concern about the “considerable uncertainty” surrounding the economy created by the election of Donald Trump. You don’t say…
- Turns out there were two things that were overweight until recently: Oprah Winfrey and the stock of the company she’s a spokeswoman for, Weight Watchers (WTW). Shares in the company got an initial boost when Oprah revealed in a commercial that she had recently lost 40 pounds, but the bigger gain came this week when shares popped nearly 20% on Wednesday after the company took first place in multiple different designations by U.S. News and World Reports.
- Shares in commercial-stage biotech firm Halozyme Therapeutics (HALO) are up more than 30% after the company released top-line data from a Phase 2 clinical trial that showed its lead compound was effective in treating pancreatic cancer when used in combination with Celgene’s (CELG) Abraxane and Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Gemzar. And to think my mom spent all that time yelling at me NOT to play Halo.
- It might be a Ruby Tuesday (RT) for customers, but it was a black Friday for investors after reporting earnings on a quarter that wasn’t impressive. So, goodbye Ruby Tuesday’s earnings outlook…
