Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Slides Over 2%; MannKind Shares Dip On Termination Of Afrezza Deal With Sanofi

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.03 percent to 17,154.83 while the NASDAQ slipped 0.04 percent to 4,901.39. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28 percent to 2,018.23. Leading and Lagging Sectors Tuesday afternoon, the healthcare sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Alimera Sciences Inc ALIM and Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. INFI. In trading on Tuesday, energy shares declined by 0.51 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Tidewater Inc. TDW, down 10 percent, and W&T Offshore, Inc. WTI, down 8 percent. Top Headline Commercial Metals Company CMC reported a drop in its earnings for its first quarter. The company's quarterly net earnings slipped to $25.1 million, or $0.21 per share, compared to $32.2 million, or $0.27 per share, in the year-ago period. Earnings from continuing operations slipped to $0.22 per diluted share from $0.29 per diluted share. Its net sales dropped to $1.2 billion from $1.7 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $1.36 billion. Equities Trading UP Smith & Wesson Holding Corp SWHC shares shot up 12 percent to $26.04 as the company issued a stronger-than-expected third-quarter and fiscal-year 2016 guidance. Shares of Solaredge Technologies Inc SEDG got a boost, shooting up 5 percent to $29.29. Goldman Sachs added SolarEdge Technologies to Conviction Buy list and raised the price target from $32.00 to $41.00. First Solar, Inc. FSLR shares were also up, gaining 8 percent to $71.93. Goldman Sachs upgraded First Solar from Neutral to Buy and raised the price target from $61.00 to $100.00. Equities Trading DOWN MannKind Corporation MNKD shares dropped 48 percent to $0.757 after the company announced the termination of its licence and collaboration agreement with Sanofi SA (ADR) SNY. MannKind noted that it is reviewing its strategic options for Afrezza as a result of the termination of the collaboration with Sanofi. Shares of Republic Airways Holdings Inc. RJET were down 14 percent to $3.10. Deutsche Bank downgraded Republic Airways from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $8.00 to $4.00. Akebia Therapeutics Inc AKBA was down, falling around 14 percent to $10.76 following announcement of public offering, corporate and clinical developments. The company announced it plans on offering and selling $75 million worth of its common stock in a public offering. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded down 2.18 percent to $35.96, while gold traded up 0.26 percent to $1,078.00. Silver traded up 1.15 percent Tuesday to $14.00, while copper rose 0.77 percent to $2.10. Eurozone European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 0.62 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.24 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 1.20 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.26 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.34 percent, while U.K. shares rose 0.72 percent. Economics The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.3 percent in December versus November.