Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 250 Points; Delphi Technologies Shares Gain On Acquisition News

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.88% to 28,786 while the NASDAQ rose 1.55% to 9,280.64. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.23% to 3,283.46.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telaria, Inc. TLRA 8.26%, up 8%, and SeaChange International, Inc. SEAC 8.35%, up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.3%.

Top Headline

Pfizer Inc. PFE 5.06% reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Pfizer reported quarterly earnings of $0.55 per share, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of 57 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $12.7 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $12.61 billion.

Pfizer sees fiscal year 2020 adjusted EPS $2.82-$2.92 versus the $2.90 estimate and sales $48.5 billion-$50.5 billion versus the $49.52 billion estimate.

Equities Trading UP

Armata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARMP 92.62% shares shot up 88% to $5.25. Armata Pharmaceuticals and Innoviva reported a $25 million strategic investment to support advancement of Armata's bacteriophage development programs.

Shares of Delphi Technologies PLC DLPH 61.44% got a boost, shooting up 61% to $15.77 after the company announced it will be acquired by BorgWarner for $3.3 billion in an all-stock transaction.

Acceleron Pharma Inc. XLRN 41.78% shares were also up, gaining 42% to $75.12 following a data readout. Acceleron said a Phase 2 study dubbed PULSAR that evaluated its sotatercept in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, or PAH, met its primary and key secondary endpoints. The experimental drug showed a statistically significant reduction in pulmonary vascular resistance – the primary endpoint - at week 24 versus placebo. The study also achieved the key secondary endpoint of significant improvements in six-minute walk distance, and other secondary endpoints, including amino-terminal brain natriuretic propeptide, and WHO functional class. It was also found to be generally well tolerated.

Equities Trading DOWN

NanoViricides, Inc. NNVC 42.35% shares tumbled 44% to $8.82 after surging 86.98% on Monday.

Shares of TESSCO Technologies Incorporated TESS 24.73% were down 25% to $9.05 after the company reported downbeat Q3 results.

Allied Healthcare Products, Inc. AHPI 32.41% was down, falling 32% to $2.94 after surging 50% on Monday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $53.45, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,567.40.

Silver traded down 3.4% Tuesday to $17.45, while copper fell 0.5% to $2.583.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.84%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.26%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 2.61% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.90%, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.07% while UK shares rose 0.93%.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting.

U.S. durable goods orders rose 2.4% in December, versus a revised 3.1% decline in the previous month.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.1% during the first three weeks of January versus December.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index climbed 2.6% year-over-year in November, compared to a 2.2% rise in the previous month.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index rose to 131.6 in January, versus a revised reading of 128.2 in the previous month.