Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up Over 1%; Affimed Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.05 percent to 26,473.61 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.06 percent to 7,740.18. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.05 percent to 2,882.95 .

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the energy shares rose 1.39 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Antero Midstream Partners LP AM up 13 percent, and Tidewater Inc. TDW up 12 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, materials shares fell 2.74 percent.

Top Headline

Helen of Troy Limited HELE reported upbeat results for its second quarter and raised its FY19 guidance.

Helen of Troy posted Q2 adjusted earnings of $1.98 per share on sales of $393.55 million. However, analysts expected earnings of $1.60 per share on sales of $349.19 million.

Helen of Troy now expects FY19 adjusted earnings to $7.65 to $7.90 per share, and sales of $1.54 billion to $1.56 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Agile Therapeutics, Inc. AGRX shares shot up 88 percent to $0.87 after the company completed a formal dispute resolution process with the FDA.

Shares of One Horizon Group Inc OHGI got a boost, shooting up 64 percent to $0.39 after the company reported the purchase of intellectual property rights for 123Wish marketplace platform.

Antero Midstream Partners LP AM shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $33.32 after the company announced a merger agreement with AMGP and announced a $600 million buyback.

Equities Trading DOWN

Trevena Inc TRVN shares dropped 61 percent to $1.17 after earlier reports that FDA staff noted a data assessment finding the company's opioid treatment has abuse, overdose potential and ability to produce a physical dependence.

Shares of Affimed N.V. AFMD were down 24 percent to $3.53 after the company said it has put its CD19/CD3-targeting T cell engager AFM11 on clinical hold. AFM11 is being evaluated in two early-stage clinical trials to treat patients with relapsed or refractory CD19 positive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, or NHL, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL.

Arbutus Biopharma Corp ABUS was down, falling around 24 percent to $6.90 after the company announced it will delay the initiation of a Phase 1 trial for AB-452 RNA destabilizer. The company said it is taking time to further characterize the compound following nonclinical safety findings.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.17 percent to $75.16 while gold traded up 0.19 percent to $1,190.80.

Silver traded up 0.50 percent Tuesday to $14.40, while copper rose 1.55 to $2.81.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.19 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.67 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.06 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.25 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.35 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.06 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined 0.9 point to a reading of 108.8 in September.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams is set to speak in Bali, Indonesia at 9:15 p.m. ET.

New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak in Bali, Indonesia at 10:35 p.m. ET.