Mid-Day Market Update: Conatus Jumps Following Announcement of Licensing Deal With Novartis; Sucampo Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.43 percent to 19,968.82 while the NASDAQ rose 0.48 percent to 5,483.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.39 percent to 2,271.34.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 0.64 percent in trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Fred's, Inc. FRED, and Kandi Technologies Group Inc KNDI.

In trading on Tuesday, healthcare shares rose by just 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SCMP, down 17 percent, and Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated CORT, down 7 percent.

Top Headline

BlackBerry Ltd BBRY reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter on Tuesday.

BlackBerry posted adjusted earnings of $0.01 per share in the quarter on revenue of $301 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to lose $0.01 per share on revenue of $332 million.

Equities Trading UP

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc CNAT shares shot up 128 percent to $4.47 following announcement of a licensing deal with Novartis AG (ADR) NVS.

Shares of Fred's, Inc. FRED got a boost, shooting up 77 percent to $19.72. Fred's and its subsidiary Fred's Pharmacy, agreed to purchase 865 stores and certain assets from Walgreens and Rite Aid in a deal valued at $950 million.

Akebia Therapeutics Inc AKBA shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $10.23. Akebia and Otsuka Pharmaceutical announced a partnership to develop and commercialize vadadustat in the U.S.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SCMP shares dropped 17 percent to $13.88 after the company reported a proposed convertible senior note offering.

Shares of NeoPhotonics Corp NPTN were down 12 percent to $10.96. NeoPhotonics issued a weak outlook for the fourth quarter and reported a deal to sell its Low Speed transceiver unit to APAT Optoelectronics for $26.4 million.

Flotek Industries Inc FTK was down, falling around 12 percent to $9.25 after the company issued an interim update on Q4 operations. The company expects Q4 total Energy Chemistry segment revenue to increase by 10 percent to 15 percent versus the third quarter, 2016.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1 percent to $53.59 while gold traded down 1.14 percent to $1,129.70.

Silver traded down 1.80 percent Tuesday to $15.80, while copper rose 0.02 percent to $2.50.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.33 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.82 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 1.11 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.23 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.48 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.20 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.5 percent during the first three weeks of December versus November.