Finance News Archive

San Diego-based Lucia Capital Group announced Thursday that Derek Bruton, former managing director of independent adviser services at LPL Financial (Nasdaq: LPLA), has been named CEO.

Disappointing corporate earnings reports and new global economic issues sent stock prices sharply lower Thursday.

ViaSat Inc. announced that the Wideband Small Tactical Terminal it co-developed with Harris Corporation has been certified by the NSA and is ready for delivery to U.S. and international military customers, and Qualcomm Inc. announced that its investment arm Qualcomm Ventures made a strategic investment in home healthcare company, Portea Medical, to help the firm scale its network and service delivery, according to company announcements, SEC filings and Bloomberg News.

A program to bring more books to the children in San Diego County's lower income families was launched recently by Mission Federal Credit Union and the United Way of San Diego County.

FTD Companies Inc. and Liberty Interactive Corp. have executed a definitive agreement under which FTD will acquire Liberty's Provide Commerce floral and gifting businesses. Provide Commerce is headquartered in San Diego.

Investors are crying over Argentina. Stocks are down sharply this morning, the last day of trading for July, not because of corporate earnings or bad U.S. economic news, but because the government of Argentina threw a fit and decided not to pay interest on some of its outstanding bonds.

Major Economic Releases

Natural Alternatives Intl. announced it has settled its unfair competition and patent infringement claims against DNP International Co. Inc., with DNP agreeing to immediately exit the beta-alanine business, Qualcomm Inc. announced that its subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has taken a further step towards the vision of demonstrating how technology innovations can help address some of the challenges the education sector faces by completing the acquisition of EmpoweredU, a pioneer in the development of an intuitive, mobile-centric cloud-based learning environment that is both device and operating system agnostic, according to company announcements, SEC filings and Bloomberg News.

The heat is on. Wall Street once again reacted yesterday to the situation in Ukraine. The stepped-up economic sanctions against Russia by the EU and U.S. sent stocks lower -- the Dow industrials dropped 71 points -- on concerns of how Vladimir Putin will respond to the actions.

Major Economic Releases

San Diego continues a steady recovery that has, in many aspects, beat expectations. Unemployment is down and household net worth is up. The IPO market is strong, retail sales are on the rise and bank performance has improved, paving the way for greater small-business lending. Still, many experts agree that the economy, housing markets and labor situation remain fragile.

Activist fund manager Relational Investors LLC said it won’t seek new target companies while co-founder Ralph Whitworth is on leave for health problems, opting to focus instead on existing investments.

Concerns about more economic sanctions against Russia by the European Union and the United States turned an early rally Tuesday into modest losses at the close of trading.

The coming weekend will be the unofficial start of the back-to-school shopping season, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.: (Nasdaq: ADMP) announced that the FDA will review its new drug application for the pre-filled, single-dose epinephrine injection syringe for emergency treatment of allergic reactions, and Cubic Corp.: (NYSE: CUB) announced it was awarded more than $700 million contract to continue service to London, England, with a provision for up to a 10-year term, according to company announcements, SEC filings and Bloomberg News.

La Jolla Pharmaceutical Co. (Nasdaq: LJPC), a developer of therapeutics targeting significant life-threatening diseases, has closed its underwritten public offering of 5,395,000 shares of common stock.

Waiting for the Fed. Stocks meandered yesterday -- the Dow industrials were up 22 points and the Nasdaq dropped five -- as Janet Yellen and the Fed folks began a two-day meeting to assess the nation's economy and prepare to release the latest reading on inflation, employment and interest rates.

Major Economic Releases

The San Diego Association of Governments last week authorized the issuance of $350 million worth of tax revenue bonds to raise money for high-priority regional transportation improvements, after gaining AAA scores from the Standard & Poor’s and Fitch bond ratings agencies.

San Diego's Targeson Inc. announced it has received the Notice of Award for year 2 of the company’s 2R44 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.