Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 2%; Vital Therapies Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.39 percent to 26,072.77 while the NASDAQ declined 0.40 percent to 7,940.73. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.09 percent to 2,890.49.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, the telecommunication services shares rose 1.62 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telecom Argentina S.A. TEO 2.33% up 3 percent, and AT&T Inc. T 2.46% up 2.5 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, information technology shares fell 1.01 percent.

Top Headline

Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd FOMX 8.78% announced positive top-line results for its third Phase 3 clinical trial that evaluated its FMX101 for treating moderate-to-severe acne.

The company said the pipeline candidate met both co-primary endpoints of absolute change from baseline in inflammatory lesion count at Week 12 and Investigator Global Assessment treatment success at Week 12.

FMX101's safety profile was consistent with that determined from the previous two Phase 3 studies.

Equities Trading UP

Nemaura Medical Inc NMRD 43.54% shares shot up 56 percent to $3.43 after reporting 'positive' interim data from clinic portion of sugarBEAT FDA clinical trial.

Shares of Galapagos NV GLPG 16.96% got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $122.18. Gilead and Galapagos disclosed that the Phase 3 FINCH 2 study that evaluated their investigational selective JAK1 inhibitor filgotinib for treating adults with moderate-to-severe active rheumatoid arthritis met its primary endpoint in the proportion of patients achieving an American College of Rheumatology 20-percent response, or ACR20, at Week 12.

Regional Health Properties Inc RHE 68.96% shares were also up, gaining 108 percent to $0.2809 after the announcement that the company will forbear from exercising its right to accelerate outstanding loans.

Equities Trading DOWN

Vital Therapies Inc VTL 91.67% shares dropped 90 percent to $0.65 after the company reported that topline results of VTL-308 failed to achieve primary and secondary endpoints of improvement in survival. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald and Raymond James downgraded the stock.

Shares of Netlist, Inc. NLST 38.06% were down 40 percent to $0.39 after the company priced a $10 million registered offering at $0.45 per share.

MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. MTSI 10.51% was down, falling around 13 percent to $19.240. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded MACOM Technology from Hold to Sell and lowered the price target from $22 to $20.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.37 percent to $70.89 while gold traded up 0.02 percent to $1,202.40.

Silver traded up 0.08 percent Wednesday to $14.165, while copper rose 0.55 to $2.636.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.25 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.02 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.13 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.06 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.68 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.62 percent.

Economics

The Producer Price Index fell 0.1 percent for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent gain.

Domestic crude supplies dropped 5.3 million barrels for the week ended September 7, the Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a decline of 1.3 million barrels. Gasoline stockpiles climbed 1.25 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose 6.16 million barrels for the week.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lael Brainard is set to speak in Detroit, MI at 12:45 p.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET.