Mid-Day Market Update: Accuray Jumps Following Strong Q2 Results; Rexahn Pharmaceuticals Shares Slide

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.53 percent to 24,533.77 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.17 percent to 7,032.40. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14 percent to 2,636.54.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Wednesday, the consumer staples shares climbed 0.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Procter & Gamble Co PG up 5 percent, and LifeVantage Corp LFVN up 6 percent.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell 0.4 percent.

Top Headline

Procter & Gamble Co PG reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised its sales forecast for the full year.

Procter & Gamble posted quarterly earnings of $1.25 per share on revenue of $17.438 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.21 per share on revenue of $17.14 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Auris Medical Holding AG EARS shares got a boost, shooting up 14 percent to $0.4523 after the company announced publication of data showing promotion of memory restoration in mice.

Shares of Athersys, Inc. ATHX shot up 12 percent to $1.5601 after the company announced positive results from its exploratory clinical study of MultiStem cell therapy.

Accuray Incorporated ARAY shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $4.48 after the company reported stronger-than-expected Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RNN shares dropped 45 percent to $0.5560. Rexahn priced its 10.75 million unit offering at $0.80 per share.

Shares of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. BLPH were down 22 percent to $0.6844 after the company priced a 10 million share common stock offering at $0.70 per share.

Avalon GloboCare Corp. AVCO was down, falling around 40 percent to $7.53 after climbing 124.11 percent on Tuesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.34 percent to $52.83 while gold traded down 0.25 percent to $1,286.30.

Silver traded down 0.13 percent Wednesday to $15.305, while copper fell 0.17 percent to $2.655.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.25 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.35 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.3 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.02 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.27 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.85 percent.

Economics

The MBA's index of mortgage application activity declined 2.7 percent in the week ended January 18, 2019.

The FHFA house price index rose 0.4 percent month-over-month in November.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index rose to -2.00 for January, versus prior reading of -8.00. However, economists were expecting a reading of -6.00.