BP Plc (NYSE: BP) on Monday agreed to sell its Arco Aluminum unit to a consortium of Japanese companies for $680 million. The British oil giant is also close to the resumption of drilling existing oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico nearly one year since an explosion caused the massive oil spill that gripped the region for months. The London-based oil company said it has received an informal approval to begin drilling again, according to the BBC on Monday. The report added the company will be able to restart drilling in July. BP shares rose more than 1% in morning trading.
Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) jumped more than 10% after the company presented additional Contrave data from Phase 3 COR-II trial. The additional data showed that overweight and obese patients treated with Contrave, or naltrexone sustained release/bupropion SR, maintained normal 24-hour circadian patterns over one year of treatment. These data were from the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, or ABPM, sub-study of the COR-II trial that also showed weight loss and improvements in markers of cardiometabolic risk.
Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) soared more than 13% after the company announced that its experimental weight-loss drug yielded positive results and helped reduce blood pressure.
General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) slumped more than 4% after its business-jet unit Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. announced that a Gulfstream G650 aircraft crashed during a test flight on Saturday, killing two pilots and two flight-test engineers.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM) rallied more than 6% after it signed a non-binding document contemplating the purchase of Micron Technology Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MU) manufacturing facility in Japan’s Nishiwaki City. The proposed acquisition would almost double Tower’s current manufacturing capacity, Tower said in a statement released on Business Wire today.
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