Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Trina Solar Gains Following Go-Private Deal; Insperity Shares Drop

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.21 percent to 18,392.76 while the NASDAQ gained 0.40 percent to 5,182.87. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.16 percent to 2,170.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, healthcare shares climbed by 0.57 percent. Top gainers in the sector included Amarin Corporation plc (ADR) AMRN and Array Biopharma Inc ARRY.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell by 3.1 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Whiting Petroleum Corp WLL, down 12 percent, and Oasis Petroleum Inc. OAS, down 9 percent.

Top Headline

Tesla Motors Inc TSLA announced plans to acquire SolarCity Corp SCTY for $2.6 billion in stock, or $25.83 a share.

SolarCity's shareholders will receive 0.11 shares of Tesla's stock for each one share of SolarCity they own.

Equities Trading UP

FleetMatics Group PLC FLTX shares shot up 39 percent to $59.60 after Verizon Communications Inc. VZ announced plans to buy Fleetmatics at $60 per share in cash.

Shares of Trina Solar Limited (ADR) TSL got a boost, shooting up 24 percent to $10.27 after the company announced on Monday it will be taken private by a consortium of investors which values the company at approximately $1.1 billion, or $11.60 per ADS.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc IONS shares were also up, gaining 30 percent to $38.02. Biogen Inc BIIB and Ionis Pharmaceuticals evealed that nusinersen, their investigational treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), met the primary endpoint at interim analysis of the final stage of ENDEAR trial.

Equities Trading DOWN

Insperity Inc NSP shares dropped 13 percent to $68.22. Insperity posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings, but the company missed analysts’ sales estimates.

Shares of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals KERX were down 33 percent to $4.93 after the company revealed that there is an imminent supply interruption of Auryxia (ferric citrate) tablets due to a production-related issue converting active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to finished drug product. As a result, the company also withdrew the outlook for the current year. The company also reported second quarter results incurring a net loss of $44.7 million, or $0.42 loss per share, wider than a net loss of $26.9 million, or $0.26 loss per share, for the comparable period in 2015.

Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corp ITEK was down, falling around 29 percent to $6.70 as the company reported a proposed public offering of $50 million of Convertible Senior Notes due 2021.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.94 percent to $39.96 while gold traded up 0.16 percent to $1,359.70.

Silver traded up 0.80 percent Monday to $20.51, while copper fell 1.04 percent to $2.20.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.59 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.86 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.73 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.07 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.69 percent, while U.K. shares fell 0.45 percent.

Economics

The final reading of Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 52.9 in July, versus a June reading of 51.3.

The ISM manufacturing index slipped to 52.60 in July, versus a prior reading of 53.20. However, economists were expecting a reading of 53.00.

U.S. construction spending declined 0.6 percent for June.