Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Lower; Golden Meditech Agrees To Sell Interest In China Cord Blood

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.06 percent to 19,807.38 while the NASDAQ declined 0.14 percent to 5,424.58. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12 percent to 2,246.57.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 0.42 percent in trading on Friday.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares slipped by 0.14 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genie Energy Ltd GNE, down 3 percent, and Consolidated Water Co. Ltd. CWCO, down 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Golden Meditech Holdings Limited agreed to sell its equity interest in China Cord Blood Corp CO for RMB5.764 billion in cash.

Equities Trading UP

Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc MRNS shares shot up 22 percent to $1.02 as the company disclosed that ganaxolone has received Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of Fragile X Syndrome.

Shares of Iconix Brand Group Inc ICON got a boost, shooting up 4 percent to $9.31 after the company reported an agreement to divest Sharper Image brand to ThreeSixty Group for $100 million in cash.

Supercom Ltd SPCB shares were also up, gaining 7 percent to $3.09 after the company disclosed that it has been awarded a $9 Million secure web land and geographical information system contract by a large Latin America government customer.

Equities Trading DOWN

Innocoll Holdings PLC INNL shares dropped 59 percent to $0.719 after the company disclosed that it has received a Refusal to File letter from the FDA related to XARACOLL New Drug Application.

Shares of Opko Health Inc. OPK were down around 13 percent to $9.99 after the company reported the commencement of data analysis in Phase 3 study of hGH-CTP. The company disclosed that there was no statistical difference on primary endpoint between hGH-CTP and placebo.

Gevo, Inc. GEVO was down, falling around 11 percent to $0.175. Gevo reported a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.15 percent to $53.69 while gold traded down 0.05 percent to $1,157.50.

Silver traded up 0.04 percent Friday to $16.23, while copper rose 0.70 percent to $2.51.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.25 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.34 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.19 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.20 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.20 percent.

Economics

The Chicago PMI dropped 3 points to a reading of 54.6 in December.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.