Mid-Afternoon Market Update: ADMA Biologics Jumps On FDA Nod For Immunodeficiency Therapy; Evoke Pharma Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.38 percent to 26,159.56 while the NASDAQ gained 0.18 percent to 7,843.22. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.02 percent to 2,866.52.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the materials shares rose 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd KL up 4 percent, and Forterra, Inc. FRTA up 8 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 0.8 percent.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA reported-worse-than expected Q2 results and lowered FY19 EPS growth guidance.

Walgreens reported quarterly earnings of $1.64 per share on sales of 34.5 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.74 per share on sales of $34.62 billion.

Walgreens Boots Alliance lowered its FY19 adjusted EPS guidance from up 7%-12% to roughly flat.

Equities Trading UP

ADMA Biologics Inc ADMA shares got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $5.24. ADMA announced Monday after the market close that the FDA approved its Asceniv, a novel, patented, intravenous immunoglobulin productfor the treatment of primary humoral immunodeficiency disease, or PIDD, in adults and adolescents ages12-17. PIDD is a collective name for more than 300 diseases that occur due to defects in the body's immune system, invariably manifesting as acute or recurrent infections.

Shares of Sangamo Therapeutics Inc SGMO shot up 29 percent to $12.25. Sangamo Therapeutics had a trio of news releases Tuesday: data readout froma clinical trial, an update on broader clinical developmentand an agreement to secure access to a large-scale adeno-associated virusmanufacturing from a contract development and manufacturing organization. Interim data from the Phase 1/2 Alta studyevaluating Sangamo's investigational SB-525 gene therapy for severe hemophilia A showed that it was well-tolerated and demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in Factor VIII levels across the four dosage cohorts. The company is partnering with Pfizer on the therapy.

EDAP TMS S.A. EDAP shares were also up, gaining 28 percent to $3.8167 after reporting Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Apyx Medical Corp APYX shares dropped 44 percent to $3.8600 after the company withdrew its application for premarket notification 510(k) regulatory clearance of j-plasma/renuvion for use in dermal resurfacing procedures.

Shares of Evoke Pharma Inc EVOK were down 46 percent to $0.9143 after the company received a complete response letter from the FDA addressing deficiencies in its New Drug Application for Gimoti.

Five Star Senior Living Inc. FVE was down, falling around 38 percent to $0.5985 after the company announced the restructuring of business arrangements with Senior Housing Properties. This includes a $25 million short-term revolving credit facility provided by Senior Housing Properties Trust.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5 percent to $62.52 while gold traded up 0.1 percent to $1,295.60.

Silver traded down 0.3 percent Tuesday to $15.055, while copper fell 0.4 percent to $2.912.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.35 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.23 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.01 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.62 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.33 percent while U.K. shares rose 1.01 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders fell 1.6 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.1 percent drop.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was flat during the first four weeks of March versus February.