Martoma guilty of insider trading

NEW YORK — A federal jury on Thursday convicted Mathew Martoma on insider trading charges in what may be the last criminal case to emerge from a decade-long investigation of Steven Cohen and his SAC Capital Advisors hedge fund.

The jury found Martoma, a former SAC portfolio manager, guilty of seeking out confidential information related to a clinical trial for an experimental Alzheimer’s drug. The inside information — provided mainly by a doctor familiar with the results of the clinical trial who was the government’s main witness — helped SAC avoid losses and generate profits totaling $275 million in July 2008.

The 39-year-old former trader is expected to face a prison sentence of seven to 10 years.

Initial jobless claims drop

WASHINGTON — In a positive sign heading into today’s unemployment report, initial jobless claims dropped sharply last week, offsetting a surprising jump the previous week.

There were 331,000 people who applied for first-time unemployment benefits in the week ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday.

That was down from an upwardly revised 351,000 the previous week, which was the highest level since mid-December.

Twitter’s stock shows decline

Twitter’s stock plunged Thursday, dropping 24 percent to close at $50.05 a share, after a fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday showed significant declines in usage and a slowdown in the growth of the new users.

While such a steep one-day drop is extreme, it may have brought the shares down closer to a valuation that many Wall Street analysts think matches the company’s growth prospects.

— From wire reports