Durham, SC Will Be Home to Google’s New Engineering Hub

Tech giant Google announced Thursday that they are opening Google’s new engineering hub in Durham, North Carolina. Their target is to open this year and hire an initial 150 people.  Eventually, the office can support 1,000 jobs and can potentially grow into one of Google Cloud’s top five hubs.

News For The Day: US Treasury Yields Hit 1.7% Even As Fed Won’t Hike Interest

5 Stocks to Watch Out For Friday, March 19 

Upstart Holdings Inc ▲(UPST 115.09 USD +54.30 (89.32%)) rocketed into space during yesterday’s trading but seems to have cooled down a bit after hours. Its 4Q showed the company gained 39% year-over-year, as lending volume jumped 57%. 2020 adjusted earnings hit $0.23 per share compared to a loss in 2019. In addition, JMP Securities upgraded UPST from “Market Perform” to “Outperform.” 

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. ▲(WSM 161.57 USD +25.24 (18.51%)) picked up where it left off Wednesday, gaining even more ground during Thursday’s trading. The furniture and cookware company posted fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday that beat analysts’ expectations. WSM hopes the trend continues this year. 

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc ▲(HIG 68.15 USD +10.74 (18.71%)) shares went up to more than 18% and experienced some trade halts yesterday. Hartford confirmed reports that rival insurance firm Chubb submitted an unsolicited proposal for a possible takeover. Chubb said in a statement that its proposal was a mixture of cash and stock that values The Hartford at $65 per share. With the stock price now over the Chub offer, things might settle down a bit. 

PPL Corp ▲(PPL 29.69 USD +1.67 (5.96%)) stocks rose during Thursday's trading as the energy company announced that it entered into definitive agreements to sell Western Power Distribution, it is UK utility business National Grid PLC for £7.8 billion. In a separate transaction, PPL will acquire National Grid's Narragansett Electric Company from Rhode Island. It will pay $3.8 billion for the stock. This refocuses PPL into a US-only utility powerhouse. 

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc ▲(SRPT After hours 87.75 USD +4.75 (5.72%)) shares popped more than 8% before settling back to a 5.72% gain at Thursday’s close. The biopharmaceutical company released new trial results for its limb-girdle muscular dystrophy treatment, and reported encouraging results, with participants showing continued improvement in functional measures.

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