After soaring through March and starting April on a bullish note, stocks retreated Monday as investors inched away from riskier assets. The move toward safety sent commodities prices sliding, which pressured emerging markets stocks. Here in the U.S., the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost a third of a percent while the Nasdaq Composite shed nearly half a percent.
The Federal Reserve releases minutes from its March meeting Wednesday and that could reveal some clues regarding how the central bank is viewing a potential interest rate hike at its April meeting. Market participants will likely soon begin bracing for first-quarter earnings season, which starts in earnest next week.
While stocks started the week in the red, there was nothing but good cheer for Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW), Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Virgin America Inc (NASDAQ:VA), which stood out as three of today’s best stocks.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp (EW)
Medical device manufacturer Edwards Lifesciences jumped nearly 17% on volume that was more than five times the daily average after the California-based company’s heart valve, the Sapien 3, produced strong results in a large trial.
EW’s heart valve was approved last year for patients who would be at high risk if they had open-heart surgery. The study followed patients using the EW after a month and after a year and discovered reduced strokes and death as compared to traditional open-heart surgical valve replacement. Several analysts increased earnings estimates for EW as a result of the trial.
For example, Canaccord Genuity raised its 2016 EPS estimate on EW to $2.72 from $2.68 a share on sales of $2.796 billion, up from $2.779 billion, according to Investor’s Business Daily. In 2017, Canaccord Genuity expects EW to earn $3.21 a share, up from $3.09, on revenue of $3.1 billion, up from $3.06 billion.
Twitter Inc (TWTR)
Shares of Twitter surged almost 7% on heavy volume on reports Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) is considering a partnership with TWTR. MA’s president of international markets said in an interview with CNBC that the company is always talking to companies in Silicon Valley and that TWTR occupies an important space in the social media world.
MA did not offer specific details on how it would potentially work with TWTR other than to say it envisions a possible partnership with TWTR resembling its other linkups with big tech companies.
Shares of TWTR are down more than 26% year-to-date.
Virgin America Inc (VA)
Shares of airline Virgin America climbed 41.7% on volume that was more than 15 times the daily average after rival Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) said it will buy VA for $2.6 billion. That means ALK is paying $57 a share for VA, a massive premium to where VA shares traded before rumors broke last month that the company was a viable takeover target.
The deal will create the fifth-largest U.S. airline, according to Reuters. ALK’s deal for VA could also help the former remain independent, as it has often been mentioned as a possible takeover target itself.
Billionaire Richard Branson’s holding company owns nearly a quarter of VA. According to Reuters, the legendary businessman was saddened by news VA is being acquired.
At the time of this writing Todd Shriber did not own shares in any of the aforementioned securities.
