Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Silver Futures Up 2%; Foamix Pharma Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.30 percent to 20,535.44 while the NASDAQ rose 0.08 percent to 5,833.09. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.23 percent to 2,338.59.

Leading and Lagging Sectors
Healthcare shares rose by 0.57 percent on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Impax Laboratories Inc IPXL, up 39 percent, and Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd. NVMI, up 12 percent.

In trading on Monday, basic materials shares slipped by 0.50 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Aluminum Corp. of China Limited (ADR) ACH, down 5 percent, and Freeport-McMoRan Inc FCX, off 5 percent.

Top Headline

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter.

G-III Apparel posted a Q4 loss of $0.16 per share on revenue of $603.29 million. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.10 per share on revenue of $622.76 million.

G-III expects FY 2018 earnings of $0.80 to $0.90 per share, and revenue of $2.73 billion. Analysts projected earnings of $1.41 per share on revenue of $2.88 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. APOP shares shot up 69 percent to $10.66 after the company disclosed that the first stem cell transplant has been completed in its Phase I/II trial.

Shares of Impax Laboratories Inc IPXL got a boost, shooting up 39 percent to $12.83. Impax named Paul Bisaro as CEO.

Systemax Inc. SYX shares were also up, gaining 30 percent to $9.39 as the company agreed to sell all of its unprofitable European Technology Products Group businesses.

Equities Trading DOWN

Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd FOMX shares tumbled 43 percent to $5.15 after the company reported the topline results of its two Phase 3 trials for FMX101 in patients with moderate-to-severe acne. The company did not demonstrate statistical significance on one of two primary endpoints.

Shares of G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII were down 16 percent to $19.26 after the company reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued a weak forecast.

Sierra Wireless, Inc. (USA) SWIR was down, falling 8 percent to $27.40. Raymond James downgraded Sierra Wireless from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.65 percent to $47.66, while gold traded up 0.53 percent to $1,258.30.

Silver traded up 2.01 percent Monday to $18.11, while copper fell 0.04 percent to $2.63.

Euro zone
European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.40 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.06 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.32 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX declined 0.57 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.07 percent while UK shares dropped 0.59 percent.

Economics

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Kaplan will speak in College Station, Texas at 6:30 p.m. ET.