Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Negative; Anavex Life Sciences Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.08 percent to 24,287.08 while the NASDAQ declined 0.46 percent to 7,533.07. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,724.83.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the real estate shares climbed 1.25 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima IRS up 8 percent, and Cedar Realty Trust, Inc. CDR up 5 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 0.48 percent.

Top Headline

Acuity Brands, Inc. AYI reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter on Tuesday.

Acuity Brands posted Q3 adjusted earnings of $2.37 per share on revenue of $944 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $2.16 per share on sales of $900.06 million.

Equities Trading UP

Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc. JNP shares shot up 31 percent to $11.4250 after the company agreed to be acquired by Catalent, Inc. CTLT for $11.50 per share in cash.

Shares of Micronet Enertec Technologies, Inc. MICT got a boost, shooting up 32 percent to $1.66 after the company reported a strategic transaction with 14.89 percent stakeholder BNN Technology.

Anavex Life Sciences Corp. AVXL shares were also up, gaining 40 percent to $3.72 in reaction to an encouraging announcement from Australia's regulatory body. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on treating neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases said it received approval by the Australian Human Research Ethics Committee to start a phase 2b/3 trial of its Anavex 2--73 for the treatment of early Alzheimer's disease.

Equities Trading DOWN

Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. ORMP shares dropped 9 percent to $6.48 after the company reported a $18.1 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Black Box Corporation BBOX were down 38 percent to $1.25.

Epizyme, Inc. EPZM was down, falling around 8 percent to $12.50. Leerink Swann downgraded Epizyme from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.61 percent to $73.49 while gold traded up 1.3 percent to $1,257.80.

Silver traded up 1.45 percent Tuesday to $16.065, while copper fell 1.04 to $2.9135.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.81 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.22 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.61 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.86 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.84 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.60 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.4 percent during the first four weeks of June versus May.

U.S. factory orders rose 0.4 percent for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent increase.