NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 10, 2017 / U.S. markets rallied late to close up for the day on the 8th anniversary of the S&P 500's bear-market closing low on March 9, 2009. The S&P 500 Index has rallied nearly 250 percent since its low on March 9th. On Thursday, the S&P 500 Index fell by as much as 10 points before settling to close at 2,364.87, up 0.08 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a slight gain of 0.01 percent to close at 20,858.19. The S&P 500 is currently trading at approximately 18 times forward earnings estimates, compared to 25-year average of approximately 15 times, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

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Commodity prices pressured the indexes lower Thfursday as U.S. oil prices settled below $50 a barrel for the first time in three months. The S&P Energy's sector has been the worst performer in the S&P 500 in 2017, falling roughly 8 percent year-to-date. Investors are eagerly awaiting Friday's job report to provide more optimism for a Federal Reserve rate hike in March. Expectations for a March rate hike currently stand at 90.8 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

"Now the question is does the Fed raise rates three times or more," said Jeff Zipper, managing director of investments at the Private Client Reserve of U.S. Bank. "It does look like the market is priced in for three rate hikes at this time."

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Immunomedics' shares surged 19.48 percent to close at $6.01 a share on Thursday. The stock traded between $4.79 and $6.08 on 17.51 million shares traded. On Thursday, a lawsuit filed by the company's largest investor, VenBio, halted Immunomedics' previously announced licensing deal for its cancer drug IMMU-132 worth $2 billion with Seattle Genetics. Shares of Immunomedics have gained approximately 63.8 percent year-to-date.

On March 3rd, VenBio announced that Immunomedics stockholders have elected all four of VenBio's independent, highly-qualified nominees to the Company's Board at the twice-delayed 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders held today. "We are very pleased with the preliminary results of today's vote, which clearly show that stockholders agree that real change is needed at IMMU," said Dr. Behzad Aghazadeh, Managing Partner and portfolio manager at VenBio, in a press release.

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VIVUS' shares spiked 16.35 percent to close at $1.21 a share on Thursday. The stock traded between $1.17 and $1.25 on volume of 5.71 million shares traded. On March 8th, the Company reported a net income of $56.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to a net loss of $12.2 million in the same quarter a year ago. Total revenues were $81.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, significantly higher than revenue of $15.3 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2015, on account of license and milestone revenue of $69.4 million. Cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities were $269.5 million at December 31, 2016. Shares of VIVUS have gained approximately 5.22 percent year-to-date.

"We have strengthened our balance sheet, with the $70 million received from the license of U.S, Canada, South America and India STENDRA commercial rights to Metuchen; secured our STENDRA U.S. intellectual property rights with a settlement with Hetero; and began the process of building our product candidate pipeline with the addition of tacrolimus for the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension," said Seth H. Z. Fischer, VIVUS' CEO.

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Today's Coverage:

Immunomedics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMMU)

VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS)

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