Mid-Afternoon Market Update: CSS Industries Surges Following Acquisition News; Advaxis Shares Slide
|Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.48% to 29206.82 while the NASDAQ fell 0.20% to 9370.32. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.20% to 3,322.99.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Real estate shares climbed 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Safehold Inc SAFE 4.68%, up 5%, and American Realty Investors, Inc. ARL 0.93%, up 5%.
In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 1.5%.
Top Headline
Halliburton Company HAL 0.71% reported better-than-expected Q4 results.
Halliburton reported fourth-quarter earnings of $0.32 per share, beating the Street estimate of $0.29 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.191 billion, beating the Street estimate of $5.11 billion.
Equities Trading UP
Genprex Inc GNPX 202.78% shares shot up 219% to $1.15 after the company announced that it has received FDA fast track designation for its Oncoprex Immunogene Therapy that targets lung cancer.
Shares of CSS Industries Inc CSS 100.54% got a boost, shooting up 99% to $9.35 after the company announced it will be acquired by IG Design Group for $9.40 per share in cash.
Novavax, Inc. NVAX 63.07% shares were also up, gaining 61% to $9.26 on continued momentum after the company reported that the FDA has granted Fast Track designation for its NanoFlu in older adults. Shares are also higher in sympathy with other vaccine-related companies amid an outbreak of a deadly virus in China.
Equities Trading DOWN
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp TNXP 9.35% shares tumbled 9% to $1.41 after the company filed for an offering of 3.2 million shares of its common stock.
Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARWR 16.77% were down 16% to $47.23. SVB Leerink initiated coverage on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals with an Underperform rating and a $32 price target.
Advaxis, Inc. ADXS 14.04% was down, falling 13% to $1.0499. Advaxis priced its 10 million share registered direct offering at $1.05 per share.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $58.25, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,558.10.
Silver traded down 1.5% Tuesday to $17.81, while copper fell 1.0% to $2.792.
Euro zone
European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.14%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.49%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.65% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.05%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.54% while UK shares fell 0.53%.
Economics
On the economics calendar Tuesday, there is no important data due out.
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