Mid-Day Market Update: Fred's Drops After Q3 Results; Adial Pharmaceuticals Shares Surge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.03 percent to 24,534.43 while the NASDAQ declined 0.46 percent to 7,065.71. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,646.85.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the real estate shares climbed 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Macerich Company MAC up 6 percent, and Maui Land & Pineapple Co. MLP up 5 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell 0.5 percent.

Top Headline

Ciena Corporation CIEN reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter and announced a new $500 million share repurchase program.

Ciena reported quarterly earnings of $0.53 per share on revenue of $899.4 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.48 per share on revenue of $861.48 million.

Equities Trading UP

Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ADIL shares got a boost, shooting up 68 percent to $3.41 after the company announced it would expand its alcohol abuse treatment into the opioid abuse market.

Shares of Yulong Eco-Materials Limited YECO shot up 27 percent to $5.65 after the company acquired Michelangelo's Pieta for $75 million worth of Yulong shares.

Qudian Inc. QD shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $6.27 after the company issued 2019 guidance and reported a $300 million new share repurchase program.

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation AGTC shares dropped 48 percent to $3.4000 after reporting the company’s gene delivery platform did not show signs of clinical activity and Biogen terminated their collaboration agreement.

Shares of Fred's, Inc. FRED were down 24 percent to $1.91. Fred's reported a Q3 loss of $0.83 per share on sales of $306.413 million.

Tailored Brands, Inc. TLRD was down, falling around 29 percent to $14.28. Tailored Brands reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company cut FY18 adjusted EPS guidance. The company also announced it received notification from a significant U.S. customer of a decision not to renew an existing agreement in 2019.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.76 percent to $51.54 while gold traded down 0.22 percent to $ 1,247.30.

Silver traded down 0.14 percent Thursday to $14.83, while copper rose 0.07 percent to $2.772.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.82 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 0.61 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.29 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.09 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell 27,000 to 206,000 for the latest week.

U.S. import prices dropped 1.6 percent for November, while export prices fell 0.9 percent.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 77 billion cubic feet for the week ended December 7, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a fall of 79 billion cubic feet.

Data o money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.