Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Down 150 Points; Savara Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.52% to 28494.98 while the NASDAQ fell 0.56% to 8,956.45. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.50% to 3,223.66.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 0.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE), up 8%, and Valaris PLC (NYSE: VAL), up 11%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

Nio Inc – ADR (NYSE: NIO) reported strong third-quarter results and issued upbeat guidance Monday.

The company posted revenue of 1,836.8 million yuan ($257 million), a 25% year-over-year increase. The top-line results exceeded the $230.08-million consensus estimate.

A third-quarter non-GAAP loss of 33 cents per share beat the consensus estimate by a penny. Originally, the FDA had set a PDUFA action date of Oct. 14, which was extended by three months.

Equities Trading UP

Sol Gel Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: SLGL) shares shot up 71% to $15.75. The top-line results from two pivotal Phase 3 trials for Twyneo showed statistically significant improvement on all co-primary endpoints in the treatment of patients with acne vulgaris, Sol-Gel said.

Shares of Nio Inc - ADR (NYSE: NIO) got a boost, shooting up 81% to $4.39 after the company reported strong third-quarter results and issued upbeat guidance.

Savara Inc. (NASDAQ: SVRA) shares were also up, gaining 100% to $3.46 after the company was granted FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation for Molgradex for the treatment of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

Equities Trading DOWN

Wave Life Sciences Ltd (NASDAQ: WVE) shares tumbled 50% to $7.97 after reporting topline data and addition of higher dose cohort in ongoing Phase 1b/2a PRECISION-HD2 trial in Huntington's disease.

Shares of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR) were down 14% to $2.245.

Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) was down, falling 16% to $17.02 after gaining 5.78% on Friday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $61.66, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,518.30.

Silver traded up 0.2% Monday to $17.98, while copper fell 0.2% to $2.823.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.85%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.91%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index declined 1.06%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.66%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.91% while UK shares fell 0.76%.

Economics

The US trade deficit on goods shrank to $63.19 billion in November, compared to $66.8 billion in the prior month.

U.S. wholesale inventories were unchanged in November 2019, versus economists' expectations of a 0.3% rise.

The pending sales index rose 1.2% for November, versus economists' expectations for a 1.2% gain.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index fell to a reading of -3.2 in December, versus -1.3 in the prior month.