Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Quest Resource Falls Following Q4 Results; Bio-Path Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.49 percent to 23,759.64 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.05 percent to 6,873.37. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33 percent to 2,590.28.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the energy shares gained 0.82 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Zion Oil & Gas, Inc. ZN, up 7 percent, and Legacy Reserves LP LGCY, up 6 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, telecommunication services shares rose by just 0.1 percent.

Top Headline

International Speedway Corporation ISCA reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter, while sales missed estimates.

International Speedway reported adjusted earnings of $0.60 per share on revenue of $148.88 million. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.57 per share on revenue of $151.05 million

For its fiscal 2018, International Speedway affirmed its revenue forecast of $680.0 million to $695.0 million.

Equities Trading UP

Cellectis S.A. CLLS shares shot up 17 percent to $35.960. Cellectis and Allogene Therapeutics intends to continue strategic cancer immunotherapy partnership which originally consisted of Pfizer and Cellectis.

Shares of Bio-Path Holdings, Inc. BPTH got a boost, shooting up 34 percent to $2.37 after the biotechnology company announced encouraging interim data from a Phase 2 clinical trial of its prexigebersen therapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Bio-Path reported FY17 loss of $0.80 per share.

Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $163.74. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Spotify Technology with a Buy rating and a $175.00 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

Longfin Corp. LFIN shares dropped 31 percent to $9.863 following investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Longfin posted aFY17 net loss of $26.4 million on sales of $75 million.

Shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RIGL were down 21 percent to $2.783. Rigel did not achieve primary endpoint for Phase 2 study of fostamatinib In IgA nephropathy.

Quest Resource Holding Corporation QRHC was down, falling around 13 percent to $1.99 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.81 percent to $63.52 while gold traded down 0.72 percent to $1,337.20.

Silver traded down 1.57 percent Tuesday to $16.41, while copper rose 0.18 percent to $3.0555.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.49 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.53 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.44 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.78 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.29 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.37 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.4 percent during the first four weeks of March versus February.