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Top Midday Stories: NextEra, Dominion to Combine in All-Stock Deal; Big Pharma Firms Denied Certiorari by Supreme Court in Medicare Pricing Case
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 Index were down in late-morning trading Monday, as Wall Street monitored oil prices and US Treasury yields amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.In company news, NextEra Energy (NEE) and Dominion Energy (D) said Monday they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock deal. Under the terms of the transaction, Dominion shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.8138 shares of NextEra for each Dominion share they own at the close of the deal, which is expected in the next 12 to 18 months. NextEra shareholders will own about 74.5% of the combined company, while Dominion shareholders will own the remaining 25.5%. NextEra shares were down 5.5% around midday, while Dominion shares were up 9.6%.The US Supreme Court on Monday denied writ of certiorari petitions by six big pharmaceutical companies seeking to challenge the legality of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. AstraZeneca (AZN), Novartis (NVS), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals all had their petitions denied by the Supreme Court. Shares of AstraZeneca, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers were up 1.1%, 0.8%, 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively, while Novo Nordisk was down 1%.Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing that it sold all of its stake in UnitedHealth Group (UNH). Separately, a New York state court judge on Monday prohibited prosecutors from using some evidence found in the backpack of Luigi Mangione, who is standing trial for the murder of UnitedHealth Group's UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, CNBC reported. UnitedHealth shares were down 1.5%, while Berkshire's class A and class B shares were up 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.Citigroup (C) and BlackRock's (BLK) HPS Investment Partners are launching a 15 billion euro ($17.48 billion) private capital program to expand access to private financing for corporate and sponsor-owned borrowers in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region, the companies said Monday. Citigroup shares were down 0.2%, while BlackRock shares were up 0.5%.Price: $88.24, Change: $-5.13, Percent Change: -5.49%
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