Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Sage Therapeutics Drops After Brexanolone Drug Fails Phase III Testing; Aldeyra Therapeutics Shares Gain

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.27 percent to 22,116.82 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.18 percent to 6,443.63. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.20 percent to 2,493.18.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the financial shares surged 0.53 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BRT Apartments Corp BRT, up 19 percent, and Fang Holdings Ltd SFUN, up 9 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 1.36 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. BIP, down 4 percent, and Genie Energy Ltd GNE down 4 percent.

Top Headline

Progress Software Corporation PRGS reported strong preliminary results for its third quarter and lifted its quarterly dividend by 12 percent.

Progress Software expects Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.48 per share on revenue of $97.6 million. Analysts were projecting earnings of $0.42 per share on revenue of $95.8 million.

The company increased its quarterly dividend to $0.14 per share from $0.125 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Aethlon Medical, Inc. AEMD shares shot up 60 percent to $2.98 after the company disclosed Expedited Access Pathway designation from the FDA to accelerate US access to Hemopurifier.

Shares of Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc ALDX got a boost, shooting up 46 percent to $6.22 as the company disclosed 'positive' results from dry eye disease Phase 2a clinical trial.

Quotient Ltd QTNT shares were also up, gaining 33 percent to $4.94 after the company reports results from latest MosaiQ performance evaluation studies prior to commencing verification and validation studies.
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Equities Trading DOWN

SAGE Therapeutics Inc SAGE shares dropped 14 percent to $75.91 after the company disclosed that its Phase 3 STATUS trial of brexalonone in super-refractory status epilepticus did not meet its primary endpoint.

Shares of Limoneira Company LMNR were down 7 percent to $22.76. Limoneira reported Q3 earnings of $0.52 per share on revenue of $40.4 million. The company projects full-year earnings of $0.51 to $0.55 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.55 per share.

Advaxis, Inc. ADXS was down, falling around 19 percent to $5.51. Advaxis reported a Q3 loss of $32.6 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.52 percent to $48.32 while gold traded down 0.10 percent to $1,334.40.

Silver traded up 0.16 percent Tuesday to $17.93, while copper fell 0.95 percent to $3.037.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.52 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.45 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.40 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.62 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.17 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose 0.1 point to 105.3 for August.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index gained 4.5 percent year-over-year in the week ending September 9.