Mid-Day Market Update: Veritiv Falls After Q4 Results; Horizon Pharma Shares Surge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.15 percent to 25,946.33 while the NASDAQ declined 0.32 percent to 7,530.71. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.22 percent to 2,786.33.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the real estate shares rose 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CBL & Associates Properties, Inc CBL up 5 percent, and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, Inc. BHR up 3 percent.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1.3 percent.

Top Headline

J C Penney Company Inc JCP reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

J C Penney said it earned $0.18 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $3.79 billion versus expectations of $0.11 per share and $3.79 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. RKDA shares got a boost, shooting up 68 percent to $9.09 after announcing a new business unit dedicated to Cannabis.

Shares of Sequential Brands Group, Inc. SQBG shot up 32 percent to $1.58 after the company announced a collaboration with Canopy Growth on a CBD product development.

Horizon Pharma Public Limited Company HZNP shares were also up, gaining 28 percent to $28.00 after the company said its phase 3 trials for active thryoid eye disease treatment met primary and all secondary endpoints.

Equities Trading DOWN

Novavax, Inc. NVAX shares dropped 65 percent to $0.7401 after the company disclosed that Phase 3 PrepareTM trial of ResVax did not meet primary endpoint of prevention of medically significant RSV LRTI.

Shares of Syneos Health, Inc. SYNH were down 18 percent to $42.83 as company delayed its Q4 earnings report in order to allow time to complete its Form 10-K. Management said added time was needed in order to conduct a review of internal controls related to financial reporting.

Veritiv Corporation VRTV was down, falling around 21 percent to $27.78 after reporting downbeat Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2 percent to $57.06 while gold traded down 0.4 percent to $1,316.60.

Silver traded down 0.5 percent Thursday to $15.685, while copper fell 0.2 percent to $2.957.

 

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.1 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.7 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.8 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.2 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.4 percent.

Economics

U.S. GDP grew at an annual pace of 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.6 percent growth.

Initial jobless claims rose 8,000 to 225,000 in late February. However, economists were expecting a reading of 221,000.

The Chicago PMI rose 8 points to a reading of 64.7 for February.

Domestic supplies of natural gas dropped 166 billion cubic feet for the week ended February 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a fall of 171 billion cubic foot.

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Rob Kaplan will speak in San Antonio, TX at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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