Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Worthington Drops On Earnings Miss; Fred's Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.43 percent to 19,968.87 while the NASDAQ rose 0.39 percent to 5,478.97. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.29 percent to 2,269.15.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Basic materials shares gained around 0.77 percent in trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Century Aluminum Co CENX, and Cliffs Natural Resources Inc CLF.

In trading on Tuesday, healthcare shares slipped by 0.16 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SCMP, down 22 percent, and Sangamo Biosciences, Inc. SGMO, down 12 percent.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BBRY reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Tuesday.

BlackBerry posted adjusted earnings of $0.01 per share in the quarter on revenue of $301 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to lose $0.01 per share on revenue of $332 million.

Equities Trading UP

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT shares shot up 158 percent to $5.06 following announcement of a licensing deal with Novartis AG (ADR) NVS.

Shares of Fred's, Inc. FRED got a boost, shooting up 88 percent to $20.93. Fred's and its subsidiary Fred's Pharmacy, agreed to purchase 865 stores and certain assets from Walgreens and Rite Aid in a deal valued at $950 million.

Akebia Therapeutics Inc AKBA shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $10.25. Akebia and Otsuka Pharmaceutical announced a partnership to develop and commercialize vadadustat in the U.S.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SCMP shares dropped 22 percent to $13.02 after the company reported a proposed convertible senior note offering.

Shares of NeoPhotonics Corp NPTN were down 15 percent to $10.59. NeoPhotonics issued a weak outlook for the fourth quarter and reported a deal to sell its Low Speed transceiver unit to APAT Optoelectronics for $26.4 million.

Worthington Industries, Inc. WOR was down, falling around 8 percent to $51.29 after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fiscal second quarter on Monday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.53 percent to $53.34 while gold traded down 0.83 percent to $1,133.20.

Silver traded up 0.04 percent Tuesday to $16.10, while copper rose 0.14 percent to $2.50.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.48 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.76 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.47 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.33 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.56 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.38 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.5 percent during the first three weeks of December versus November.