Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Down 575 Points; OHR Pharmaceutical Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 2.46 percent to 22,771.76 while the NASDAQ declined 2.52 percent to 6,498.11. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.02 percent to 2,459.25.

Thursday afternoon, the real estate shares climbed 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included

up 6 percent, and

up 7 percent. In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 3.8 percent.

on Thursday announced an agreement to buy

in a cash and stock deal, with an equity valuation of $74 billion. Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share they hold in Celgene. Additionally, Celgene shareholders also stands to receive one tradable contingent value right, or CVR, for each Celgene share, entitling them to receive a payment for achievement of future regulatory milestones. The terms value each of Celgene shares at $102.43 and one CVR. The cash and stock consideration alone represents a 54 percent premium to Celgene's closing price Jan. 2. The boards of both companies approved the transaction.

shares got a boost, shooting up 59 percent to $0.1744 after announcing a merger with NeuBase. Ohr shareholders will own 20 percent of the combined company. Shares of

shot up 53 percent to $1.15 after announcing a marketing and distribution agreement with Coeptis Pharma. Kitov will receive $3.5 million of milestone payments.

shares were also up, gaining 32 percent to $4.73 after the company announced it met its primary endpoint for its phase 1 trial.

shares dropped 13 percent to $45.32 after the company announced plans to buy Celgene at $50 per share in cash in a $74 billion deal. Shares of

were down 75 percent to $0.1900 after the company announced its top-line results from its placebo-controlled ASCEND trial of AEVI-001 in children with ADHD did not achieve statistical significance on primary endpoint.

was down, falling around 8 percent to $144.77 after the company slashed its previously issued first-quarter sales guidance Wednesday from a range of $89 billion to $93 billion to $84 billion — $7.5 billion less than the Street's expectations of $91.5 billion in sales.

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.71 percent to $46.87 while gold traded up 0.65 percent to $1,292.40. Silver traded up 0.71 percent Thursday to $15.76, while copper fell 2.1 percent to $2.568.

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.98 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.31 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 0.61 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.55 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 1.66 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.62 percent.

Private-sector employers added 271,000 jobs in December, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported. However, economists projected a gain of 179,000 jobs. Initial jobless claims rose 10,000 to 231,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a 218,000 reading. The ISM manufacturing index declined to 54.1 in December, versus prior reading of 59.3. Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.