Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises Over 150 Points; LSC Communications Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.59% to 27331.43 while the NASDAQ rose 0.37% to 8234.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.57% to 3002.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares rose 1.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sierra Metals Inc. SMTS, up 11%, and The Sherwin-Williams Company SHW, up 7%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

The Coca-Cola Co KO reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter.

Coca-Cola reported second quarter earnings of $0.63 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.61 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $10 billion, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $9.84 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Therapix Biosciences Ltd. TRPX shares shot up 50% to $3.44 after the company said Tuesday that it has signed a letter of intent for a merger with the Canadian cannabis company Destiny Biosciences.

Shares of Chiasma, Inc. CHMA got a boost, shooting up 26% to $7.83 after the company announced its CHIASMA OPTIMAL trial of Mycapssa met its primary and all secondary endpoints.

Realogy Holdings Corp. RLGY shares were also up, gaining 19% to $6.16 after the company announced Tuesday a new collaboration with Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN to simplify the process of finding and moving into a new home.

Equities Trading DOWN

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MRNS shares tumbled 68% to $1.2693. Marinus— a pharma company that focuses on developing therapies for epilepsy, depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders — announced results from the second part of aPhase 2 Magnolia clinical trial that evaluated intravenous ganaxolone in women with postpartum depression, or PPD. The results showed that the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, or HAM-D17, scores at 28 days of treatment were the same as aplacebo.

Shares of LSC Communications, Inc. LKSD were down 36% to $2.2150. LSC Communications and Quad/Graphics, Inc. QUAD have terminated a merger agreement of an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion. Quad will pay LSC a termination fee of $45 million. LSC Communications also cut 2019 sales guidance.

Tile Shop Holdings Inc TTS was down, falling 22% to $3.09 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $56.72, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,419.90.

Silver traded up 0.3% Tuesday to $16.455, while copper fell 0.7% to $2.704.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.98%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.29%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.01%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.64%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.92% while UK shares rose 0.56%.

Economics

The FHFA's house price index rose 0.1% for May.

U.S. existing home sales fell 1.7% to an annual rate of 5.27 million for June.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index fell to (12) for July, versus a prior reading of 3.