Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 1%; Dare Bioscience Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.20% to 28881.58 while the NASDAQ rose 0.49% to 9223.50. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.38% to 3277.76.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares climbed 0.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Venator Materials PLC VNTR, up 9%, and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile QM, up 7%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Primo Water Corporation PRMW announced it will be acquired by Cott Corp COT for $14 per share in cash and stock.

Equities Trading UP

Dare Bioscience Inc DARE shares shot up 124% to $1.87 after the company announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Bayer for US commercial rights to Ovaprene. Dare will receive an upfront payment of $20 million and up to $310 million in milestones.

Shares of CounterPath, Corp. CPAH got a boost, shooting up 32% to $5.18 after climbing 304.12% on Friday.

MEREO BIOPHARMA/ADR MREO shares were also up, gaining 28% to $2.69 after the company announced it has entered into a global licensing agreement with Oncologie for Navicixizumab. Mereo will receive an upfront payment of $4 million with an additional $2 million payment conditional on CMC milestone and up to $300 million in future milestones

Equities Trading DOWN

Acasti Pharma Inc ACST shares tumbled 71% to $0.63 after the company announced its TRILOGY 1 Phase 3 trial of CaPre did not reach statistical significance.

Shares of Stage Stores Inc SSI were down 54% to $3.34 after the company reported a 1.4% year-over-year rise in its holiday same-store sales. The company announced it expects full-year 2019 earnings to be $25 million to $30 million below the low end of the previously announced guidance range.

Ameri Holdings Inc AMRH was down, falling 28% to $1.76 after the company announced it plans to merge with Jay Pharma..

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $58.38, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,551.60.

Silver traded down 0.4% Monday to $18.035, while copper rose 1.6% to $2.859.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.18%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.31%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.52%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.3%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.1% while UK shares rose 0.3%.

Economics

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will speak at 12:40 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget report for December is schedule for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.