STOCK MARKET NEWS: Stocks end higher, Fed emergency bank lending hits record, Deutsche Bank down

Berkshire Grey has agreed to merge with SoftBank Group . Under the agreement, SoftBank will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of Berkshire Grey not currently owned by SoftBank for $1.40 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $375 million.

SoftBank, a strategic investment holding company with stakes in AI, smart robotics, IoT, telecommunications, internet services, and clean energy technology providers, has been an investor in Berkshire Grey since 2019.

The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by Berkshire Grey’s board of directors, represents a premium of approximately 24% to the closing stock price as of March 24.

The transaction is not subject to a financing condition and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Berkshire Grey combines AI and robotics to automate fulfillment, supply chain, and logistics operations.

The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Darryl Matthew Cohen, a former investment adviser at a large financial institution, with misappropriating more than $1 million from three current and former NBA players over a period of two and a half years.

According to the SEC’s complaint, from October 2017 through April 2020, Cohen used client funds, without their understanding or authorization, for personal expenditures including to support his son’s amateur basketball program, for a home gym, and to pay back another client whose funds Cohen had misappropriated.

Cohen also allegedly sold life insurance settlements to the clients for kickbacks to fund his home improvements. "As the complaint alleges, instead of protecting his clients’ investments, Cohen took advantage of their trust for his personal gain," said Andrew Dean, Co-Chief of the Asset Management Unit. "Protecting investors from fraud by their financial advisers is a priority for the SEC.

"The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges Cohen with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement and prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York today announced criminal charges against Cohen.

REAL-ESTATE

Spring home buying season shows 'steady demand' as mortgage rates slip for second week

Demand for home buying has been "steady" as mortgage rates continue to slip. Mortgage rates fell for the second week to 6.42%, according to Freddie Mac, after the Federal Reserve said it would modestly hike rates.

Redfin is not changing its spring homebuying outlook even after the Federal Reserve said it may pause its series on interest rate increases sooner than anticipated.

"Overall, the Fed’s announcement doesn’t change our overall housing-market outlook for this spring; mortgage rates are likely to temporarily decline but not plummet, and demand is likely to swing up and down based on fluctuations in rates and availability of homes on the market," Redfin said.

Mortgage-purchase applications are up 17% from a month ago after increasing for the third straight week, and the number of homebuyers contacting Redfin agents for tours and other services rose this week.

A Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner taxis past the Final Assembly Building at Boeing South Carolina in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Randall Hill/File Photo

American Airlines will suspend its Philadelphia to Madrid route for several weeks in May and early June because of a shortage of 787 Dreamliner Airplanes.

American is waiting on three more Boeing 787 Dreamliners this year, one of the which was originally supposed to be delivered back in April of 2021.

 American says it is cutting the flights now so that it customers can choose different routes or destinations.

MARKETS

American Airlines to temporarily suspend route due to Boeing dreamliner delays

American Airlines is cutting flights now so because of expected delays in the delivery of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, crucial for the transatlantic route.

Incyte says the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve its New Drug Application (NDA) for ruxolitinib extended-release tablets in the application’s present form.

The FDA acknowledged that the study submitted in the New Drug Application (NDA) met its objective of bioequivalence based on area under the curve (AUC) parameters but identified additional requirements for approval.

“While we are disappointed that the FDA issued a complete response letter for ruxolitinib extended-release tablets, we remain committed to advancing care for people with myeloproliferative neoplasms and GVHD,” said CEO Hervé Hoppenot. “We will work closely with the FDA on the appropriate next steps to address their comments.”

Jakafi is a JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor approved by the FDA for treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) in adults who have had an inadequate response to or are intolerant of hydroxyurea; intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis (MF), including primary MF, post-polycythemia vera MF and post-essential thrombocythemia MF in adults; steroid-refractory acute GVHD in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older; and chronic GVHD after failure of one or two lines of systemic therapy in adult and pediatric patients 12 years and older

An employee walks past the logo of LG Energy Solution at its office building in Seoul, South Korea, November 23, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

LGES said on Friday it would resume a stalled U.S battery project with a $5.6 billion investment in Arizona to qualify for U.S. federal incentives rolled out under the Inflation Reduction Act.

LGES, which has joint battery plants with GM, Stellantis NV and Honda in North America, also has production sites in South Korea, China, Poland and Indonesia.

In October, the world's third-ranked EV battery maker, which supplies Tesla Inc, General Motors Co and other automakers, announced it was building a joint venture $4.4 billion battery plant with Honda Motor Co Ltd in Ohio.

TECHNOLOGY

South Korea’s LG Energy to build $5.6B battery plant in Arizona

The complex announced Friday will consist of two battery plants and mark the largest investment ever for a stand-alone battery-manufacturing facility in North America, LG Energy said.

Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, Mar. 19, 2019. (Reuters/Leah Millis)

Federal Reserve emergency lending to banks, which hit record levels last week, remained high in the latest week, amid continued large scale extensions of credit to the financial system, which now includes official foreign borrowing.

The Fed reported that discount window borrowing, its main source of emergency credit to depository institutions, ticked down to $110.2 billion as of Wednesday, from the $152.9 billion reported last week.

Last week's level had surged from $4.6 billion on March 8, shredding the $112 billion record set during the fall of 2008, during the global financial crisis’s most perilous phase.

ECONOMY

Banks boost borrowing from Fed crisis lending programs amid global turmoil

The Federal Reserve's emergency bank lending ballooned again this week amid continued fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

This scanning electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows rod-shaped Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. (Janice Haney Carr/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via AP)

U.S. officials are reporting two more deaths and additional cases of vision loss linked to eyedrops tainted with a drug-resistant bacteria.

The eyedrops from EzriCare and Delsam Phama were recalled in February and health authorities are continuing to track infections as they investigate the outbreak.

In the latest government tally, 68 people were diagnosed with infections from the bacteria, which has now caused a total of three deaths and eight cases of people losing their vision, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday. That's up from one death and five cases of permanent vision loss reported last month.

LIFESTYLE

Eye drop recall: Florida woman sues company after eye removed

A Florida woman is suing Global Pharma Healthcare after she says her eye had to be removed after using the EzriCare Artificial Tears. Now, she says she is legally blind.

The Deutsche Bank logo is displayed at a bank's building in Frankfurt, Germany, April 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Shares in Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest lender, fell sharply on Friday, dragging down major European banks as fears about weaknesses in the global financial system send fresh shudders through the markets.

MARKETS

Deutsche Bank shares sink: What to know

Shares for Deutsche Bank are down Friday amid concerns the German bank will pay higher costs for financial derivatives, called credit default swaps that insure bondholders against banks defaulting on debt.

Deutsche Bank shares were off 14% in early afternoon trading on the German stock exchange . The drop follows a steep rise in the cost of financial derivatives, known as credit default swaps, that insure bondholders against the bank defaulting on its debts.

Rising costs on insuring debt were also a prelude to a government-backed takeover of Swiss lender Credit Suisse by its rival UBS.

Like Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank is one of 30 banks considered globally significant financial institutions under international rules, so it is required to hold higher levels of capital reserves because its failure could cause widespread losses.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals on its platform due to technical issues affecting its spot trading, Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Friday.

"Initial analysis indicates matching engine encountered a bug on a trailing stop order," he said in a tweet, adding that the pause in deposits and withdrawals was a standard operating procedure.

"Engine 1 is back online. Still need more time to do reconciliations, and for other engines to catch up," Zhao said in a subsequent tweet.

Last week Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said it will be halting its sterling deposits and withdrawals, a month after it ceased dollar transfers.

Cab of a model of the all-new F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is seen on an assembly line at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Mich., April 26, 2022. (Reuters/Rebecca Cook)

Ford Motor Co plans to build up to 500,000 electric trucks a year at its BlueOval City complex under construction in western Tennessee, the automaker said on Friday.

BlueOval City will assemble several versions of Ford’s next-generation F-series electric pickup, which the company calls Project T3.

The Stanton plant northeast of Memphis is part of Ford’s plan to have global EV production capacity of 2 million vehicles a year in place by the end of 2026.

Ford said BlueOval City will have a general assembly footprint that is 30% smaller than that of a traditional assembly plant, with a higher production capacity. Most current auto plants are designed to build 250,000-300,000 vehicles a year.

Carl Icahn gives an interview on FOX Business Network's Neil Cavuto show in New York Feb. 11, 2014. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)

Carl Icahn has alleged that Illumina Inc's directors demanded extra personal liability insurance before they agreed to sign off on the life sciences company's $7.1 billion purchase of Grail in 2021, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The billionaire investor's claims, made in a letter to Illumina's shareholder that the FT saw, come as he continues his push for board seats on the world's largest genome sequencing company and for it to unwind the Grail acquisition.

Illumina completed the takeover of Grail, which develops cancer detection tests, in August 2021, without winning U.S. or European regulatory approval, although it has since won U.S. clearance and is currently fighting for European approval.

Icahn, in his letter, alleges that on the day before closing the deal, Illumina directors demanded the company commit to providing them with an "unprecedented level of additional personal liability insurance" protection, the FT reported.

"This smells strongly to us like a quid pro quo," the newspaper quoted Icahn as saying in the letter sent on Thursday.

Icahn, Illumina and Grail did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments.

Express is trading lower after missing Wall Street revenue and profit expectations.

Fourth quarter revenue fell 13.5% to $514.3 million from a year ago; analysts expected $536.7 million.

Comparable retail sales , which includes both Express stores and eCommerce, were down 15% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021. Retail stores comparable sales decreased 11% while eCommerce declined 19%.

Comparable outlet sales decreased 7%.

Net income was $333.2 million, or $4.82 per diluted share, which included the after tax impact of the $409.5 million gain on the transaction with WHP Global, compared to net income of $7.6 million, $0.11 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The adjusted loss was 63 cents. The lone analyst forecast for the quarter was for a loss of 72 cents per share.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Scholastic Corp. on Thursday reported a loss of $19.2 million in its fiscal third quarter.

On a per-share basis, the New York-based company said it had a loss of 57 cents.

The publishing, education and media company posted revenue of $324.9 million in the period.

POLITICS

U.S. TikTok ban likely inevitable, regulatory expert says

TikTok is in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators and lawmakers over privacy concerns due to the popular video app's ties to China. One expert says a ban is imminent.

One day after TikTok's CEO was grilled by lawmakers in Washington, privacy experts still see mounting hurdles for the social media app.

Microsoft logo is seen on a smartphone placed on displayed Activision Blizzard's games characters in this illustration taken Jan. 18, 2022. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic)

Britain's competition regulator said Microsoft's 69-billion purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard would not harm competition in gaming consoles, removing a major obstacle to the deal.

In findings based on new evidence, the Competition and Markets Authority said on Friday that it would not make financial sense for Microsoft to make "Call of Duty" exclusive to its Xbox console, and it would instead still have the incentive to continue to make the game available on PlayStation.

The regulator, however, said it was still looking at the impact of the deal on the cloud gaming market.

The takeover, the biggest ever in gaming, remains subject to the scrutiny of regulators in the United States and Europe.

Toshiba Corp. is seen at a company's building in Kawasaki near Tokyo, on Feb. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

Scandal-embattled Japanese electronics and technology manufacturer Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) tender offer from Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund made up of major banks and companies.

TECHNOLOGY

Japanese tech giant Toshiba accepts $15B tender offer

Japanese tech company Toshiba has accepted a tender offer worth $15 billion from Japanese Industrial Partners.

If the proposal succeeds, it will be a major step in Toshiba’s yearslong turnaround effort, allowing it to go private and delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. But overseas activist investors own a significant part of Toshiba’s shares, and it’s unclear if they will be happy with the latest bid.

Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. announced its board accepted the bid at 4,620 yen ($36) a share late Thursday, after trading closed in Tokyo. Toshiba closed at 4,213 yen ($32) a share Thursday, and gained 4.2% to 4,390 yen ($34) on Friday.