Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 300 Points; Uniqure Shares Gain Following Release Of Clinical Trial Data

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 2 percent to 16,568.03 while the NASDAQ slipped 2.49 percent to 4,715.49. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.97 percent to 1,951.03. China's Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 7.04 percent today.

On Thursday, utilities shares slipped by just 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included

, up 2 percent, and

, up 1 percent. In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares tumbled by 2.86 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included

, down 11 percent, and

, down 11 percent.

reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results. KB reported a quarterly profit of $44 million, or $0.43 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $852.8 million, or $8.56 per share. Its revenue climbed 24 percent to $985.8 million. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.50 per share on revenue of $1.07 billion.

shares shot up 31 percent to $27.73 after the company reported that both co-primary endpoints met in top line Heplisav-B Phase 3 results. Shares of

got a boost, shooting up 9 percent to $16.42 after the company raised its guidance for the fourth quarter. The company's comparable sales slipped 8.9 percent for December.

shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $16.83 after the company detailed positive topline results from a clinical study. Uniqure reported preliminary topline results from the low-dose cohort of an ongoing Phase I/II clinical trial being conducted in adult hemophilia B patients treated with uniQure's novel AAV5/FIX gene therapy, AMT-060.

shares dropped 37 percent to $9.50 after the company reported an offering of $75 million in common shares. Shares of

were down 30 percent to $0.903 after the company priced 19.8 million shares at $1.10 per share for total gross proceeds of $21.75 million.

was down, falling around 11 percent to $10.50 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q4 results.

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.12 percent to $33.25, while gold traded up 1.58 percent to $1,109.10. Silver traded up 2.64 percent Thursday to $14.35, while copper fell 3.11 percent to $2.02.

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 2.21 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dipped 1.50 percent, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index tumbled 1.14 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.72 percent, while U.K. shares fell 1.96 percent.

US jobless claims declined to 277,000 in the week ended January 2, versus an unrevised 287,000 in the previous week. However, economists were expecting claims to total 275,000 in the week. Supplies of natural gas slipped by 113 billion cubic feet for the week ended January 1, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Analysts were projecting a drop of 93 billion cubic feet to 97 billion cubic feet.