Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Turns Negative; SmileDirectClub Shares Fall On Downbeat Q4 Results
|Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.44% to 26961.81 while the NASDAQ rose 0.12% to 8976.54. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.26% to 3120.09.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Information technology shares climbed 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Opera Limited OPRA 15.01%, up 13%, and Cloudflare, Inc. NET 8.18%, up 9%.
In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 2.3%.
Top Headline
Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW 5.04% reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views. The company also issued weak earnings outlook for FY20.
Lowe's reported quarterly earnings of $0.94 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.91. The company reported quarterly sales of $16.03 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $16.17 billion.
Lowe's said it expects FY20 adjusted earnings of $6.45 to $6.65 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $6.67 per share.
Equities Trading UP
SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. SLS 27.78% shares shot up 29% to $2.67 after the company reported follow-up Phase 1/2 clinical data for Galinpepimut-S in acute myeloid leukemia.
Shares of Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd APT 25.53% got a boost, shooting 24% to $12.38 after surging 40% on Tuesday. Alpha Pro Tech expects 'higher than normal' gross margin in Q1 as a result of the Coronavirus.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. TNXP 159.64% shares were also up, gaining 160% to $1.05 after the company announced a strategic collaboration with Southern Research to support development of a vaccine, codenamed TNX-1800, a live modified horsepox virus vaccine for percutaneous administration, to protect against COVID-19.
Equities Trading DOWN
Aptorum Group Limited APM 51.39% shares tumbled 51% to $7.00 after the company reported the pricing of $10 million registered direct offering.
Shares of SmileDirectClub, Inc. SDC 29.96% were down 30% to $7.97 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results. Jefferies downgraded SmileDirectClub from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $22 to $10.
Menlo Therapeutics Inc. MNLO 31.93% was down, falling 32% to $2.9950. Menlo Therapeutics said its Phase 2 study of serlopitant for the treatment of chronic pruritus of unknown origin did not meet the primary endpoint of showing a statistically significant reduction in pruritus in patients treated with serlopitant compared to placebo based upon a 4-point improvement responder analysis.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 2.2% to $48.78, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,647.80.
Silver traded down 1.5% Wednesday to $17.915, while copper fell 0.4% to $2.568.
Euro zone
European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.01% the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.71%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.44% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.12%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.09% while UK shares rose 0.35%.
Economics
New home sales rose 7.9% to an annual rate of 764,000 in January.
U.S. crude supplies rose 500,000 barrels for the week ended February 21, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 2.8 million barrels. Gasoline supplies fell 2.7 million barrels, while distillate supplies declined 2.1 million barrels for the week.
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