Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 150 Points; Himax Technologies Shares Slide After Nomura Downgrade

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.83 percent to 18,109.35 while the NASDAQ declined 0.88 percent to 5,258.98. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.79 percent to 2,147.64.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, energy shares slipped by just 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CONSOL Energy Inc. CNX, and Transocean LTD RIG.

In trading on Monday, healthcare shares tumbled by 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Acorda Therapeutics Inc ACOR, down 15 percent, and Natus Medical Inc BABY, down 10 percent.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM reported a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter.

The shell eggs producer suffered a net loss of $30.9 million, or a loss of $0.64 a share, for the first quarter. In comparison, the company earned a profit of $143.0 million, or $2.97 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Street estimated a loss of $0.33 a share.

Cal-Maine Foods' net sales plunged 60.7 percent from $609.9 million to $239.8 million and came in below analysts' expectations of $274.57 million.

Equities Trading UP

Array Biopharma Inc ARRY shares shot up 69 percent to $6.16 after the company disclosed that its COLUMBUS Phase 3 study of encorafenib plus binimetinib for BRAF-mutant melanoma has achieved primary endpoint.

Shares of Lipocine Inc LPCN got a boost, shooting up 15 percent to $4.45 after the company reported positive top-line Phase 2b study results for LPCN 1111.

Chemtura Corp CHMT shares were also up, gaining 15 percent to $32.53 after being acquired by Lanxess for $33.50 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Pain Therapeutics, Inc. PTIE shares dropped 55 percent to $1.23 after the company reported that it has received a complete response letter from the FDA. The FDA determined that REMOXY cannot be approved.

Shares of Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) HIMX were down 18 percent to $8.77. Nomura downgraded Himax Technologies from Buy to Neutral.

RetailMeNot Inc SALE was down, falling around 21 percent to $8.92. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded RetailMeNot from Hold to Sell.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.60 percent to $46.08 while gold traded up 0.18 percent to $1,344.10.

Silver traded down 1.09 percent Monday to $19.60, while copper fell 0.23 percent to $2.20.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.55 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.27 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index tumbled 1.58 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 2.19 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 1.80 percent while U.K. shares fell 1.32 percent.

Economics

New home sales declined 7.6 percent in August to an annual rate of 609,000. Economists were expecting a 601,000 rate for the month.