During Friday’s trading session, we saw several new developments. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was down over 2.6% on fears that a Judge could cut into Apple’s $1 billion award from Samsung. Additionally, shares traded near the dreaded “death cross” which occurs when a stock’s 50 day moving averages falls below its 200 day moving average.
Former Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) trader, Matthew Marshall Taylor, received civil charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly defrauding Goldman. Goldman Sachs was ordered to pay a $1.5 million fine for the actions.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) CEO, Reed Hastings, was surprised this week after the SEC announced that Hastings could face charges for a Facebook post back in July that detailed company information. While it was not immediately clear whether or not the information posted on Facebook was sensitive company information, the SEC maintains that Hastings’s large number of friends makes the case that the CEO is not “following” the SEC rules for releasing company information. Hastings later commented “posting to over 200,000 people is very public, especially because many of my subscribers are reporters and bloggers” (Marketwatch).
One of the big gainers on Friday was Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP), which rose over 5% on rumors from Seeking Alpha describing the possibility of Coty Inc. making an offer for the company. Whether or not this deal goes through is still up in the air, in addition to the quality of the deal for Avon and Coty. Back in May, Coty offered Avon $24.75 per share or $10.7 billion to take over the company. Avon not only rejected an earlier offer of $23.25 a share but they also turned down the $24.75 a share deal as well. Subsequently, Coty pulled the deal off the table until now as speculation has lead to the possible reentry for Coty.
In other big news, shares of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) jumped over 23% on a report that Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) may once again reenter negotiations to buy the company. If you remember, Google made an offer to buy the company back around the time of its IPO. Since rejecting the offer, Groupon has been in a bit of a tailspin. The company continues to struggle and it appears no end is in site.
Another interesting development of the day came from Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: SWHC). The firearm maker said that second quarter earnings beat estimates but management is seeing signs of a slowdown in demand. The company currently has a backlog of $333 million, which is still a large amount by historical standards but definitely off of the company’s last quarter figure of $392 million and $439 million from two quarters ago. After years of strong firearm demand, it appears the trend is changing. I suspect we will continue to see the contraction of firearm sales into next year as the once robust demand is petering out and the world economy still looks to recover.
Disclosure: None
