U.S. stocks rallied Wednesday after the Federal Reserve, as expected, left interest rates unchanged. Further boosting equities and riskier assets, the Fed language implied that the central bank is likely to raise rates just twice this year, down from the four-rate-hike plan markets were expecting heading into this year.
That was enough to lift the S&P 500 to a gain of 0.56% while the Dow Jones Industrial added 0.43%. The Nasdaq Composite finished higher by 0.75%.
Slack global economic growth and benign inflation are among the reasons the Fed will be slow to raise rates this year, but inflation was not a problem today for CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CPXX) and Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), as those stocks saw significant price inflation for a variety of reasons.
CBS Corporation (CBS)
Media conglomerate CBS climbed 3.5% a day after the company said it is considering options for its radio stations, including a possible sale. New York-based CBS owns nearly 120 radio stations across the U.S., most of which are located in large media markets.
The company did not say exactly what its plans are with the radio stations or how long it will take for those plans to come to fruition. Increased competition and lower advertising revenue have been drags on CBS radio operations, compelling the company to seek alternatives for the business in an effort to unlock value for CBS investors.
Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (CPXX)
Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc, the small biotech company that saw its shares surge more than 400% on Tuesday, continued rocketing higher Wednesday. Shares of CPXX gained 4.9% on volume that was more than nine times the daily average after it was revealed that Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management owns 8.3% of CPXX.
CPXX surged Tuesday after the company said tests of its new Leukemia treatment were successful. Now flirting with $10 a share, CPXX barely traded above $2 in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s surge.
Shares of CPXX represent just a small percentage of Cohen’s $11 billion portfolio.
Oracle Corporation (ORCL)
Enterprise software maker Oracle rose 3.8% after the California-based company said its cloud-computing revenue jumped 40% during the most recently completed quarter.
Cloud computing accounts for 8% of ORCL revenue. Revenue for the ORCL core software business declined 4% to $6.3 billion.
ORCL also shocked investors by saying it will add $10 billion to its share buyback plan. Shares of ORCL are up more than 10% this year.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
