>>> US After Hours Summary: MNST +12%, AVGO +4% following earnings/gui


After Hours Summary: MNST +12%, AVGO +4% following earnings/guidance, AUPH +52% on positive lupus nephritis data.... TDOC -11%, JUNO -9%, PSTG -7% following earnings/guidance

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: MNST +12.4%, BLDP +10%, GKOS +7%, CWST +6.9%, HIIQ +6.4%, WTI +4.2%, PEIX +4.1%, AVGO +4%, EPE +3.1%, ALIM +2.3%, GERN +2.3%, AJRD +1.9% (ticking higher), JCAP +1.5%, HDSN +1.4%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: AUPH +51.8% (announces its Phase IIb AURA-LV study in lupus nephritis met the complete and partial remission endpoints at 48 weeks; AURORA Phase III trial with low dose voclosporin on track to commence in 2Q17), VRML +17% (announces a contracted agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for OVA1), ALQA +12.7% (Celgene [CELG] increases active stake to 22.2% (Prior 15.9%) -- Celgene purchased 4 mln shares in ALQA's 2/27 private placement), SWKS +1.3% (AVGO sympathy), VRX +1.2% (corrects 'misleading report about Salix investigation'), FBHS +0.6% (authorizes $300 mln share repurchase program over the next two years)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: TDOC -10.5%, JUNO -8.9%, PSTG -7.3%, RTRX -7%, NKTR -4.8%, PLNT -4.8%, PDLI -4.7%, OPK -4.5%, SHAK -3.9%, BOX -1.3%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: AXTI -9.3% (to offer and sell shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering), AHP -5.4% (commences offerings of 1,150,000 shares of 5.50% Series B Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock and 5.75 mln of its common stock), ARES -4.5% (commences a public offering of 7.5 mln common units representing limited partnership interests by a selling unitholder), TASR -0.9% (light volume; files to delay Form 10-K)

(ZH) Prominent Hedge Fund Trader Jumps To His Death In Manhattan

Prominent Hedge Fund Trader Jumps To His Death In Manhattan

A prominent 47-year-old hedge fund trader was killed when he jumped from a luxury apartment building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, in an apparent suicide, authorities told the NY Post.
Kevin Bell, most recently head of Credit Risk at Arrowgrass Capital, jumped from a ninth-floor kitchen window at the Apthorp building on West End Avenue near West 79th Street around 7:20 a.m. He landed on scaffolding that was set up in front of the building and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bell left a note indicating he had been depressed, the source said. He had a history of depression, the source added.
According to the NY Post, Bell left behind a wife and two daughters. His family was at home when he jumped, according to the source. “The family is hysterical. He was under a lot of meds. He did not give a specific reason why he jumped, but he was depressed,” the source said.

Bell, a graduate of Duke University, worked at Arrowgrass Capital Partners, where he was head of credit risk, according to his LinkedIn page. Arrowgrass managed $4.5 billion as of mid-2016. It is run by former Deutsche Bank traders Henry Kenner and Nicholas Niell, and in 2015 had been stocking its ranks with Saba alumni after losing several employees in its credit-trading group in April. The firm focuses on strategies including corporate distressed assets in the U.S. and Europe.
Prior to Arrowgrass, Bell worked at various prominent hedge funds and banks including Saba Capital, Citadel, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
“We are deeply saddened that our friend and colleague Kevin Bell has passed away today. We extend our sympathies and condolences to his family,” Arrowgrass spokesman Nick Lord told The Post in a statement from the UK.
A building worker said some residents saw the man’s body. “A couple of our residents reported hearing a thud,” the worker said. “The daughter of a tenant looked out the window and she told her mother there was a man lying down on the scaffolding.”
The worker said the mother saw the body and notified building workers.
“He was bleeding,” the worker said. “Some of the residents are pretty shaken up.”
Based on resident reports, this is not the first suicide at the building: a man who works in a nearby doctor’s office was stunned about the suicide. “Oh my God, another one?” he said in disbelief. “Somebody committed suicide a few months ago … on the other side of the building. I can’t believe it, it’s almost exactly the same thing, but just around the side.”
Among the Apthorp building’s famed tenants were Al Pacino, Sydney Poitier and singer and Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson. The building, which is modeled after the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and takes up an entire city block, from Broadway to West End Avenue between 78th and 79th streets.
It was unknown as of this writing if Bell's alleged depression had been impacted by recent market performance.

>>> US Close Dow +1.46% S&P +1.37% Nasdaq +1.35% Russell +1.94%

Closing Market Summary: Stocks Dash to New Record Highs Following Trump Address

President Trump's first address to Congress appeared to be a hit, at least among investors, as traders confidently pushed the major averages to fresh record highs on Wednesday. The Dow (+1.5%) finished just slightly ahead of the benchmark S&P 500 (+1.4%) and the Nasdaq (+1.4%), while the small-cap Russell 2000 (+1.9%) outperformed.

It wasn't necessarily ‘what' Mr. Trump said on Tuesday evening that fueled investors' confidence, it was ‘how' he said it. The new president looked, well, ‘presidential', a good sign that his controversial style can be toned-down when need be. More importantly, he showed investors that he is committed to getting his pro-growth promises through Congress, even if it means a little compromise.

Financials (+2.8%) led the day's advance, a role that the sector has taken frequently in the stock market's post-election rally. The financial space is now higher by 26.0% since the presidential election on November 8 and currently hovers at its highest level in over a decade.

The Treasury market aided financials in their advance as unevenly distributed selling pressure steepened the yield curve. Treasuries closed lower across the board but the 2-yr Treasury note held up relatively well compared to its peers. The 2-yr yield finished two basis points higher at 1.29% while the 10-yr yield closed higher by six basis points at 2.46%.

Selling pressure plagued U.S. Treasuries after hawkish comments from New York Fed President Dudley (FOMC voter) on Tuesday evening. Mr. Dudley got investors seriously thinking about the possibility of a March rate hike, saying the case for increasing interest rates has become "a lot more compelling."

The fed funds futures market now points to March as an increasingly likely time for the next rate hike to be announced with an implied probability of 66.4%, spiking from yesterday's reading of 35.4%.

Just behind the financial space at the top of today's leaderboard was the energy sector (+2.1%), which finished Wednesday substantially higher despite a downtick in crude oil. The energy component closed 0.4% lower at $53.82/bbl, squandering its early modest gain following the latest EIA crude inventory report, which showed a build of 1.5 million barrels.

Conversely, the consumer discretionary (+1.0%) and the consumer staples (+0.4%) sectors failed to keep pace with the broader market amid a downtick in retailers. Best Buy (BBY 42.14, -1.99), Ross Stores (ROST 66.80, -1.78), and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO 14.34, -1.51) all reported their earnings between yesterday's close and today's open, but the reactions were generally negative after all three companies issued some form of disappointing guidance.

However, the SPDR S&P 500 Retail ETF's (XRT 42.89, -0.04) loss was capped thanks in part to a positive performance from Lowe's (LOW 81.45, +7.08). The company spiked 9.5% after reporting better than expected earnings and revenues in addition to issuing upbeat guidance.

On the downside, the rate-sensitive utilities (-1.0%) and real estate (-0.3%) sectors were the only two groups to finish Wednesday in the red. The spaces slipped in reaction to today's uptick in interest rates.

Also of note, the Wall Street Journal reported late this afternoon that Snap, the parent company of the popular messaging app Snapchat, will be priced in its IPO at $17.00/share. The company will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow morning under the ticker ‘SNAP'.

Today's economic data included January Personal Income, February ISM Index, January Construction Spending, and the MBA Mortgage Applications Index: 

  • January personal income rose 0.4%, which is in line with the consensus. Meanwhile, January personal spending increased 0.2% while the consensus expected a reading of 0.3%. The December Personal Spending and Personal Income readings were both left unrevised at 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively. Core PCE prices for January rose 0.3% (consensus 0.2%). The December reading was left unrevised at 0.1%.
    • The sticking point with this report is twofold: (1) Real PCE declined 0.3%, led by a 0.3% decline in goods spending and a 0.2% decline in spending on services. That is going to be a negative input for Q1 GDP forecasts; and (2) The PCE Price Index was up 1.9% year-over-year, which leaves it tracking toward, and very close to, the Fed's longer-run inflation target of 2.0%, which is to say it seems to satisfy the argument of any Fed official aiming to raise the policy rate at the March meeting (the core PCE Price Index was up 1.7% year-over-year, unchanged from December).
  • The ISM Index for February rose to 57.7 from an unrevised reading of 56.0 in January while the consensus expected an uptick to 56.1.
    • The key takeaway from the report is that manufacturing purchasing managers are feeling better about business prospects based in large part on the faster growth they are seeing in new orders.
  • The Construction Spending report for January showed a 1.0% decrease while the consensus expected an increase of 0.6%. The prior month's reading was revised to +0.1% from -0.2%.
    • The key takeaway from the report is that the decline in January was driven by public construction spending.
  • The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index, which was released earlier this morning, increased 5.8% to follow last week's 2.0% downtick.

Additionally, the Fed's Beige Book for March indicated that the economy expanded at a modest to moderate pace from early January through mid-February. The report also showed that business were generally optimistic about the near-term outlook but to a somewhat lesser degree than in the prior report.

On Thursday, investors will receive February Challenger Job Cuts at 7:30 ET and the weekly Initial Claims report at 8:30 ET.

  • Nasdaq Composite +9.7% YTD
  • S&P 500 +7.0% YTD
  • Dow Jones Industrial Average +6.9% YTD
  • Russell 2000 +4.2% YTD

Reuters - FCC blocks stricter broadband privacy rules from taking effect

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday blocked some Obama administration rules approved last year that would have subjected broadband providers to stricter scrutiny than websites, a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc .

The rules, which were scheduled to take effect on Thursday, aimed to protect personal consumer data. They would subject broadband internet service providers to more stringent data security requirements than websites like Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc or Alphabet Inc's Google unit.

The decision will "provide time for the FCC to work with the (Federal Trade Commission) to create a comprehensive and consistent framework for protecting Americans’ online privacy," the agency said in a statement.

Under the rules, internet service providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geo-location, financial information, health information, children's information and web browsing history for advertising and internal marketing. For less sensitive information such as email addresses or service tiers, consumers would be able to opt out.

FCC Chair Ajit Pai and acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen in a joint statement said they would work to ensure a consistent privacy framework.

"After all, Americans care about the overall privacy of their information when they use the internet, and they shouldn’t have to be lawyers or engineers to figure out if their information is protected differently depending on which part of the internet holds it," they said. "The federal government shouldn’t favor one set of companies over another - and certainly not when it comes to a marketplace as dynamic as the Internet."

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, said she opposed the move. "The same agency that should be the 'cop on the beat' when it comes to ensuring appropriate consumer protections is leaving broadband customers without assurances that their providers will keep their data secure," she said in a statement.

Republican commissioners including Pai said in October that the rules unfairly give websites the ability to harvest more data than service providers and dominate digital advertising.

The FCC in 2015 stripped the FTC of the authority to oversee broadband privacy, and the pair said they believe authority should be returned to the FTC.

WSJ : Snapchat Parent Snap Prices IPO Above Projected Range

Snapchat Parent Snap Prices IPO Above Projected Range
Shares priced at $17 each, valuing firm at $24 billion in biggest U.S. tech debut since Alibaba

Snap Inc. shares priced at $17 each, above the projected range and valuing the company at nearly $24 billion, the highest such total for a U.S.-listed initial public offering since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in 2014.

Snap, parent of the popular disappearing-message app Snapchat, last month projected its initial shares would price between $14 to $16 a share, but in recent days, a per-share price of $17 or $18 was expected by people familiar with the offering.

The stock is expected to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol “SNAP.” If the IPO is successful, it could awaken what has been a largely dormant tech IPO market, according to analysts, investors and bankers.


Snap executives have traversed the U.S., plus a stop in London, to pitch to prospective investors. The company was pressed about growth potential for daily average users, Snap’s ability to ramp up revenue per user, the founders’ unusually high level of voting control, the logic behind calling itself a camera company and its plans to fight competition, according to several investors who were considering taking part in the IPO.

The recent drought of startups going public has emboldened many investors to brush aside these concerns, they said. “People love the space, and it isn’t like there’s a new entrant every quarter or every year even,” said Sean Stiefel, portfolio manager at Navy Capital LLC, who said he is buying into the deal.

Snap executives are taking unusual steps to try to ensure the IPO’s success, people familiar with the deal said.

The company has said roughly one-quarter of its planned float—the total number of shares that will be sold in the offering—would be subject to a lockup of one year before they can be sold. The company planned to sell those shares to a consortium of existing investors, who got in before the IPO process began, people familiar with the deal said. Other investors will be locked up for less time. Such moves could damp volatility by limiting the number of short-term stockholders who can jump in and out.

Snap’s chief strategy officer, Imran Khan, has taken a big role alongside lead underwriters Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and is helping to decide which firms receive an allocation of the new shares, said people familiar with the deal. Such decisions are typically handled largely by the underwriters. Before Mr. Khan joined Snap, he headed internet banking at Credit Suisse Group AG, where he helped lead Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s IPO in 2014.

Snap also hopes to avoid a surge in shares, some of the people said, which can be viewed as untenable and suggests the company and selling shareholders could have obtained a higher price for the shares in the offering.


Investors piled into some recent tech IPOs, including Nutanix Inc. and Twilio Inc., when they went public in 2016 during what became the slowest year for U.S. tech IPOs since 2009. Nutanix’s stock rose 131% in its first day of trading and remains nearly double its IPO price. Twilio’s stock closed up 92% on its first day of trading at $28.79 and nearly reached $69 in the months following its IPO. It remains up more than 100% from its IPO price but is down more than 50% from its post-IPO highs.

If Snap’s debut goes well, it could encourage other tech startups to move forward with IPOs. While Uber Technologies Inc. and Airbnb Inc. are unlikely to make debuts in 2017, many of the smaller firms between $1 billion and $5 billion are expected to go public this year, said bankers and lawyers familiar with the pipeline.

As of January, there were more than 150 technology companies valued at $1 billion or more by venture-capital firms, according to The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource, which track companies valued at $1 billion or more through their Billion Dollar Startup Club.

WSJ : Winning Bet on Snap Shows Luck’s Leading Role in Venture Business

Winning Bet on Snap Shows Luck’s Leading Role in Venture Business
Lightspeed’s $8 million investment yielded stock that will likely be worth over $1 billion after Wednesday’s IPO

Jeremy Liew got lucky. A colleague at Lightspeed Venture Partners told him that his daughter and her friends were hooked on a new app called Snapchat. Mr. Liew, sensing the next hot thing in tech, wanted to invest.
It took days for the venture capitalist to track down the young man behind the company, a Stanford University senior named Evan Spiegel, and then a dash of good fortune to persuade him to stop by Lightspeed’s office.
That meeting in early 2012 led to one of the most lucrative startup bets since the dot-com boom. Lightspeed’s $485,000 seed money, plus another $7.5 million investment, yielded stock that will likely be worth over $1 billion after the company now known as Snap Inc. prices its public offering expected Wednesday. Venture firm Benchmark, another early Snap investor, put in $24 million for a stake set to be worth about $2 billion.
Mr. Liew declined to comment about the IPO and the company’s future prospects.
Striking gold in the venture business is exceedingly rare, the product of not only investment acumen and business connections but also lots of luck. Blockbuster investments can cement a firm’s reputation for years to come, and give it an inside track on the next wave of promising entrepreneurs.
Accel Partners still basks in the halo of an investment made 12 years ago after its investment principal Kevin Efrusy got a tip from an intern at Stanford about a website called Thefacebook. Mr. Efrusy all but broke down the startup’s door to convince the company to take his firm’s money.

Accel’s $15 million investment ultimately returned $5.6 billion after Facebook Inc. went public in 2012, a nearly 400-to-1 payout, according to the firm’s spokesman.
Years of lackluster returns may have taken some shine off Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, yet it still has a top venture brand name 18 years after it struck deals for dot-com era winners like Alphabet Inc., then called Google. That $12 million investment in 1999 reaped $4.8 billion for Kleiner, said a spokeswoman for the firm.


Kleiner missed the ensuing social-networking craze, betting on Friendster instead of Facebook, and steered vast sums of money into capital-intensive clean-technology projects, a troubled investment that is taking years for Kleiner to shake off. Kleiner did invest in Snap in 2014, and will roughly double its return in the IPO, and has had several successful investments such as in Nest Labs, bought by Google last year for over $3 billion.
Mr. Efrusy says finding startups like Facebook or Snap is akin to getting struck by lightning, but that smart investors prepare themselves by looking for companies and founders with unique characteristics. “You have to be holding a metal rod in a thunderstorm in the middle of Kansas,” he said.
Mr. Liew watches for social-media companies exploding in popularity among young women, who he says are the trendsetters.
Even for the best funds, the vast majority of venture deals aren’t lottery winners. Of the more than 14,300 U.S. companies that raised venture capital in the past decade, Snap will become one of just 30, or 0.2%, that later got valued in an IPO at $1 billion or more, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
The venture industry hopes Snap’s offering ignites the IPO market, which dried up last year in part because public investors haven’t shown a willingness to pay up for private tech companies whose valuations rocketed past their business fundamentals. Fewer IPOs mean venture firms are struggling to turn their paper gains into cash.
Lightspeed, founded in 2000, hopes investments in Snap, and other companies like Nutanix Inc. and AppDynamics Inc. that have gone public or were acquired, will solidify its place as a top firm.
Back in 2012, Mr. Liew tried at least three different ways to reach Snapchat before he located Mr. Spiegel’s name. His lucky break was that Mr. Spiegel was a Stanford student, where Mr. Liew graduated, giving him access to the university’s Facebook group. Mr. Liew messaged Mr. Spiegel and got a response in minutes.
When Mr. Spiegel visited Lightspeed’s office he shared internal analytics data that showed user growth exploding. The 21-year-old impressed Lightspeed’s partners with his insight that evaporating conversations meant people shared more spontaneously on Snapchat than other social networks.
“Accidents don’t last,” Mr. Efrusy said. “Entrepreneurs get lucky, but they also have to be good. Look at the difference between the trajectories of Facebook and Myspace.”
Fears Snapchat was used for sexting were allayed by data that showed most photos were shared while teens were in school. About two weeks after that meeting, Lightspeed struck a deal while Mr. Spiegel was on spring break in Argentina.
Lightspeed’s trophy investment is slightly tarnished, though. A condition of the firm’s investment, earlier reported by the New York Times, guaranteed Lightspeed the right of first refusal to invest a large amount in Snap’s subsequent funding round.
The idea was to protect its economic interest in the company if things went well. But when a new investor, General Catalyst Partners, emerged in the summer of 2012, Lightspeed exercised its right to boost its ownership and that investor walked away. This angered Mr. Spiegel, who blamed Lightspeed for the broken deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Rival venture capitalists have seized on the episode, calling it a blemish on Lightspeed’s record.
A Snap spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mr. Liew declines to discuss the episode in detail. He still communicates on occasion with Snap executives, according to people familiar with the matter, contrary to rumors that all communication has ceased in recent years. He was in attendance at the company’s IPO roadshow event in San Francisco on Monday.

>>> Closing Commodities: Crude erases initial morning gains & close lower

Closing Commodities: Crude erases initial morning gains & closes with a loss for the day after EIA reported mixed data; natural gas extends yesterday's gains ahead of tomorrow's inventory data release

  • Crude oil erased all initial morning gains and turned negative after EIA reported mixed data; crude build below expectations coupled with a gasoline draw below Consensus
  • April crude oil futures fell $0.19 (-0.4%) to $53.82/barrel
  • Reminder: Baker Hughes rig count data will be released Friday at 1 pm ET.
  • EIA highlights:
    • Crude oil inventories had a build of +1.5 mln barrels (consensus called for a build of about +3.079 mln barrels).
    • Gasoline inventories had a draw of -0.5 mln barrels (consensus called for a draw of -1.789 mln barrels).
    • Distillate inventories had a draw of -0.9 mln barrels.
  • Natural gas extended yesterday's notable +3.4% gains ahead of tomorrow's EIA data
    • April natural gas closed $0.02 higher (+0.7%) at $2.80/MMBtu
    • EIA natural gas data will be released tomorrow at 10:30 am ET.
      • Expectations call for EIA to report a draw of just around ~4 bcf, compared to last week's draw of 114 bcf. If realized, this would be the smallest winter draw on record.
      • Reminder: The release of Monday's updated 15-day weather forecast shifted moderately warmer, creating downward bias earlier in the week.
  • In precious metals, gold extended yesterday's losses on a strong dollar index following yesterday evening's Presidential address to Congress
    • April gold ended today's session down $4.40 (-0.4%) to $1249.30/oz
    • May silver closed today's session $0.01 higher (+0.1%) at $18.48/oz
  • The dollar index was +0.6% around the 101.72 level
    • Commodities, as measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index, were +0.7% around the 88.32 level

FT : Canadian fossils push back date of origins of life,

Canadian fossils push back date of origins of life
Hudson Bay microbes proven to be up to 4.3bn years old

The world’s oldest known fossils have been found in ancient Canadian rocks, a discovery that will push back the accepted scientific timeframe for the origins of life on Earth.

Remains of microbes that lived 3.8bn-4.3bn years ago were identified in the Nuvvuagittuq belt in eastern Canada, some of the world’s oldest sedimentary rocks, by an international team led by University College London.

The microbes, which originated in a system of deep-sea hydrothermal vents, were formed by bacteria that obtained energy by oxidising iron minerals. Similar microbes live close to hot water vents in today’s oceans.

“Our discovery supports the idea that life emerged from hot seafloor vents shortly after planet Earth formed,” said Matthew Dodd of UCL, lead author of the scientific paper published in Nature magazine. Earth is understood to have formed about 4.5bn years ago.

Until now the oldest individual organisms preserved as fossils were microfossils from Western Australia dated at 3.46bn years old.

Scientists also recently found mats of bacteria that lived in shallow water, known as stromatolites, in 3.7bn-year-old rocks from Greenland. “The Greenland stromatolites and our discovery show a rapid diversification of life in different environments,” said Mr Dodd.

Nick Lane, an evolutionary biochemist at UCL who was not involved in the research, said the finds were “evidence of a vibrant early ecosystem” on Earth.

A high level of proof is required by scientists that ancient microfossils are really remains of living organisms rather than non-biological artefacts in the rocks. Several previous claims, notably the alleged discovery in 1996 of microbes in a Martian meteorite from Antarctica, were undermined by subsequent analysis.

This led the UCL-led team to undertake extensive chemical and physical examinations of the microscopic tubes and filaments found in the Canadian rocks to rule out other possible explanations such as temperature and pressure changes during and after the sediment’s burial and mineralisation.


They found that the microfossils, which are composed of the iron oxide mineral haematite, have the same branching structure as modern bacteria living near hydrothermal vents.

They are also associated with other carbon and calcium minerals that accompany fossils in younger rocks.

“The structures are composed of the minerals expected to form from putrefaction [of dead bacteria] and have been well documented throughout the geological record, from the beginning until today,” said Dominic Papineau, the project leader.

“The fact we unearthed them from one of the oldest known rock formations suggests we have found direct evidence of one of Earth’s oldest life forms.”

It is hoped further research will narrow down the age range for the Nuvvuagittuq rocks.

The first geological era after Earth’s formation is known as the Hadean period, with intense volcanism, meteorite bombardment and a dense atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide. When Earth cooled enough for liquid water to form is not clear. But if life began quickly in Earth’s first oceans, the likelihood is increased of it being widespread elsewhere in the universe.

Because conditions on Earth and neighbouring Mars were very similar in the first few hundred million years of their existence, this raises hopes that fossils could be found in ancient Martian sedimentary rocks.

Mr Dodd said that unless Earth was a special exception, “we expect to find evidence for past life on Mars 4bn years ago”.

FT : House of Lords votes to protect EU citizens’ rights

House of Lords votes to protect EU citizens’ rights
Call for May to ‘think again’ as peers pass amendment to Brexit bill

The House of Lords has voted by an overwhelming majority to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK after Brexit, in defiance of Theresa May.

Peers backed an amendment to the government’s Article 50 Bill — which will give Mrs May the power to trigger the formal Brexit process — by a majority of 102.

The amendment requires the government to guarantee unilaterally that EU citizens living in the UK will retain all the rights they currently enjoy once Britain leaves the bloc.

The government had argued that Britain should wait until other EU countries offered reciprocal guarantee for UK citizens abroad. However peers found that unpersuasive.

The vote was the biggest turnout by peers since 1999, according to the House of Lords library.

A number of Tories voted against the government after a passionate debate in which several Conservatives spoke out.

Conservative peer Lord Bowness warned the government not to “bargain with people”, saying: “We are not dealing with enemy aliens in times of war.”

He did not wish to be associated with the government’s “mean-spirited” position, he said.

Former Tory minister Viscount Hailsham also argued in favour of the amendment, saying that it “offends natural justice” to remove rights from EU citizens retrospectively.

The peers’ decision came despite assurances from Amber Rudd, the home secretary, that reciprocal rights would be an early priority in the Brexit negotiations.

The legislation will now return to the House of Commons, which voted by a majority of 42 against a similar amendment last month.

A Tory aide said the government was confident that it would have a majority in favour of excising the peers’ amendment, and opposition peers have indicated they are unlikely to have the appetite for a prolonged fight.

But Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit secretary, said Labour would now back the amendment — despite Labour siding with the government when the Bill was discussed by MPs.

Richard Newby, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords, called on Theresa May, the prime minister, to “think again”.

“Theresa May has been stubbornly determined to use EU citizens in the UK as bargaining chips. Today the Lords have told her this is not acceptable,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Exiting the EU said it was disappointing that the Lords had chosen to amend the bill when the government’s position on EU nationals “has repeatedly been made clear”.

The spokesperson said: “We want to guarantee the rights of EU citizens who are already living in Britain, and the rights of British nationals living in other member states, as early as we can.”

Ahead of the vote, Ms Rudd wrote to peers urging them not to go against the government.

Ministers had the “utmost respect” for EU citizens and wanted to guarantee their rights as quickly as possible, Ms Rudd said.

However, she added that a “one-sided guarantee” from the UK could damage the interests of British people living abroad who could “end up facing two years of uncertainty if any urgency to resolve their status were removed”.

In the letter, which was similar to one the home secretary had previously sent to MPs, Ms Rudd promised that “nothing will change for any EU citizen, whether already resident in the UK or moving from the EU, without parliament’s approval”.

She blamed “a few EU countries” for rebuffing the UK government’s attempts to reach a reciprocal agreement for UK citizens living abroad before formal negotiations begin.

Baroness Smith, Labour’s leader in the Lords, said the letter was “deeply disappointing”, adding: “Confirming the rights of those EU citizens living in the UK can only be of benefit to our citizens worried about their future in EU countries.”

Peers will further challenge the government next week, when they will attempt to force ministers to grant parliament a “meaningful” vote on the final terms of the exit deal once Mrs May’s negotiations have concluded. .

Mrs May has said she plans to trigger Article 50 by the end of this month.