Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Down Over 350 Points; Sophiris Bio Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.54 percent to 23,730.40 while the NASDAQ climbed 1.76 percent to 6,788.71. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.56 percent to 2,559.50.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the financial shares slipped by just 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Fidelity Southern Corporation LION up 18 percent, and KCAP Financial Inc KCAP up 8 percent.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell 2.9 percent.

Top Headline

Hitachi agreed to acquire the power grid division of ABB Ltd ABB. Hitachi will acquire 80.1 percent of the power-grid unit with an enterprise value of $11 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. SGYP shares got a boost, shooting up 54 percent to $0.1230 after Health Canada accepted Cipher Pharmaceuticals' new drug submission for PLECANATIDE.

Shares of Fidelity Southern Corporation LION shot up 18 percent to $25.23 after the company and Ameris Bancorp ABCB agreed to merge.

Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. DFFN shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $3.4068 after the US Patent Office awarded the company exclusive rights for the use of its TSC drug in conjunction with tPA for stroke treatment.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sophiris Bio, Inc. SPHS shares dropped 45 percent to $1.1250 after announcing the company's phase 2b prostate cancer trial showed no additional benefit to patients.

Shares of Dova Pharmaceuticals, Inc. DOVA were down 36 percent to $9.44. Dova Pharmaceuticals appointed David Zaccardelli as President and CEO. The company expects Q4 net poduct sales of $2.4 million to $2.7 million for DOPTELET.

Cancer Genetics, Inc. CGIX was down, falling around 33 percent to $0.3698 after the company terminated its proposed merger with NovellusDx.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.27 percent to $50.04 while gold traded up 0.67 percent to $1,249.70.

Silver traded up 0.70 percent Monday to $14.74, while copper fell 0.58 percent to $2.7465.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.14 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 0.83 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.15 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.86 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.11 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.05 percent.

Economics

The Empire State manufacturing index dropped 12.4 points to 10.9 for December. However, economists were projecting a reading of 20.1.

The housing market index declined 4 points to a reading of 56 in December.

The Treasury International Capital report for October is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.