Mid-Afternoon Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Lower; Casey's General Stores Shares Surge On Earnings Beat

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.2 percent to 26,011.12 while the NASDAQ fell 0.15 percent to 7,811.78. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.17 percent to 2,881.83.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose 0.9 percent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JW-A), up 8 percent, and Intelsat SA I, up 8 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares fell by 0.7 percent.

Top Headline

H & R Block Inc HRB reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its dividend.

H&R Block posted quarterly earnings of $4.32 per share on sales of $2.33 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $4.14 per share on sales of $2.32 billion. H&R Block raised its quarterly dividend from $0.25 to $0.26 per share.

H&R Block announced plans to acquire Wave Financial for $405 million in cash.

Equities Trading UP

Jaguar Health Inc JAGX shares shot up 35 percent to $10.10 after the company announced its subsidiary, Napo Therapeutics, will receive preclinical services from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop lechlemer, a drug for cholera indication.

Shares of Casey's General Stores Inc CASY got a boost, shooting up 11 percent to $147.53 after the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its quarterly dividend from 29 cents per share to 32 cents per share.

Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc ZYNE shares were also up, gaining 19 percent to $13.77 after the company said Tuesday it received a new U.S. patent for one of its cannabis-focused treatments. Zynerba said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued US Patent No. 10,314,792, titled "Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder with Cannabidiol." The patent includes claims related to methods of treating autism through the administration of a synthetic cannabidiol.

Equities Trading DOWN

CymaBay Therapeutics, Inc. CBAY shares tumbled 45 percent to $6.07 after the company announced results from an ongoing 52-week Phase 2b dose-ranging, paired liver biopsy study of "seladelpar" for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Seladelpar is used in development for the treatment of liver diseases. The results showed reductions in liver fat were minimal and not significant compared to placebo.

Shares of Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. ACHV were down 32 percent to $2.63 after the company announced positive results Tuesday from the ORCA-1 dose-selection trial of cytisinicline for smoking cessation. The primary endpoint was the reduction in daily smoking, a self-reported measure. Across all treatment arms, subjects on cytisinicline experienced a 74-80-percent median reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked over a 25-day treatment period — compared to a 62-percent reduction in the placebo arms.

Beyond Meat, Inc. BYND was down, falling 22 percent to $131.40 after rising 21.24 percent on Monday. JP Morgan downgraded Beyond Meat from Overweight to Neutral and raised the price target from $120 to $121.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2 percent to $53.17, while gold traded up 0.2 percent to $1,331.70.

Silver traded up 0.7 percent Tuesday to $14.74, while copper rose 0.3 percent to $2.67.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.69 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.13 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.61 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 0.92 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.48 percent while UK shares rose 0.31 percent.

Economics

The Producer Price Index rose 0.1 percent for May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent increase.