Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Down Over 200 Points; Precipio Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.8 percent to 26130.23 while the NASDAQ declined 0.51 percent to 7913.01. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.68 percent to 2,876.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the utilities shares rose 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE up 2 percent, and Kenon Holdings Ltd. KEN up 2 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares fell 1.3 percent.

Top Headline

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc PHAS said the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for its PB2452, a novel reversal agent for AstraZeneca plc AZN's antiplatelet drug ticagrelor.

The BTD was accorded based on the Phase 1 data, which showed PB2452 achieved immediate and sustained reversal of ticagrelor's antiplatelet effects.

Equities Trading UP

Command Center, Inc. CCNI shares got a boost, shooting up 32 percent to $5.19 following news the company will merger in an all-stock deal with Hire Quest.

Shares of Chimerix, Inc. CMRX shot up 23 percent to $2.56. Chimerix announced the appointment of former Endocyte CEO Michael Sherman as its CEO, effective immediately. Additionally, the company announced the appointment of Michael Andriole, also a former Endocyte executive, to the newly created position of Chief Business Officer.

Precipio, Inc. PRPO shares were also up, gaining 32 percent to $0.3220 following news the company is in talks with a manufacturer to produce its IV-cell media.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd. HOLI shares dropped 24 percent to $17.75 following news of a 7.8 million common stock offering. The stock was downgraded by JP Morgan.

Shares of Vaxart, Inc. VXRT were down 35 percent to $0.9703 after the company announced pricing of its public offering of common stock at $1.10 per share.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling around 25 percent to $3.7430 after the company announced and priced a $17.5 million common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6 percent to $64.01 while gold traded up 0.5 percent to $1,308.30.

Silver traded down 0.1 percent Tuesday to $15.21, while copper rose 0.1 percent to $2.934.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.47 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.46 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.94 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.65 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.35 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose 0.1 points to a seasonally adjusted 101.8 for March.

U.S. job openings declined to 7.09 million in February, versus prior reading of 7.62 million, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.