Mid-Day Market Update: Anthera Pharma Drops On Disappointing Phase 3 Data; Ocera Therapeutics Shares Surge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.07 percent to 19,931.13 while the NASDAQ declined 0.39 percent to 5,466.22. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.36 percent to 2,260.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Basic materials shares gained around 0.41 percent in trading on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Mechel PAO (ADR) MTL, and Cliffs Natural Resources Inc CLF.

In trading on Wednesday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares slipped by 0.40 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Fred's, Inc. FRED, down 4 percent, and Zagg Inc ZAGG, down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Shares of Galena Biopharma Inc GALE, a nano-cap biopharmaceutical company that focuses on hematology and oncology therapeutics for the treatment of unmet medical needs, gained around 43 on Wednesday.

Galena is currently evaluating its GALE-401 therapy for the treatment of thrombocythemia. The company confirmed the regulatory pathway to advance its therapy into a pivotal, Phase 3 trial.

Galena said that after meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it can now confirm the development program and the proposed clinical trial is appropriate for a New Drug Application filing as part of the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway.

Equities Trading UP

Galena Biopharma Inc GALE shares shot up 43 percent to $2.80. Galena is currently evaluating its GALE-401 therapy for the treatment of thrombocythemia. The company confirmed the regulatory pathway to advance its therapy into a pivotal, Phase 3 trial.

Shares of Micronet Enertec Technologies Inc MICT got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $1.41 after the company disclosed that its subsidiary has received a $1,060,000 continuous purchase order for its recently released TREQr5 product.

Ocera Therapeutics Inc OCRX shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $2.60. H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage on Ocera Therapeutics with a Buy rating and a $10 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc ANTH shares dropped 66 percent to $0.682 after the company disclosed that the Phase 3 SOLUTION study with Sollpura has missed the primary endpoint.

Shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd NAK were down around 13 percent to $2.15.

VisionChina Media Inc (ADR) VISN was down, falling around 13 percent to $4.95. VisionChina reported Q3 GAAP earnings of $0.63 per share on revenue of $12.8 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.33 percent to $54.08 while gold traded up 0.09 percent to $1,139.80.

Silver traded up 0.35 percent Wednesday to $16.05, while copper fell 0.54 percent to $2.50.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.18 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.60 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.72 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.09 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.15 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.38 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 1.3 percent year-over-year during the first four weeks of December.

The pending home sales index dropped 2.5 percent to 107.3 in November, compared to 110 in the previous month.

The Treasury is set to auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.