Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Negative; AveXis Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.04 percent to 20,926.33 while the NASDAQ declined 0.12 percent to 5,893.72. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.07 percent to 2,379.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares climbed 0.53 percent in trading on Friday.

In trading on Friday, healthcare shares fell 0.46 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included The Medicines Company MDCO, down 21 percent, and Amgen, Inc. AMGN, down 7 percent.

Top Headline

Tiffany & Co. TIF reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter.

Tiffany reported Q4 adjusted earnings of $1.45 per share on revenue of $1.23 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.38 per share on revenue of $1.22 billion.

For fiscal 2017, Tiffany expects sales to increase in low-single digits and by a mid-single-digit percentage on a constant-exchange-rate basis. The company projects FY2017 EPS to rise by a high-single-digit percentage over 2016 EPS of $3.55 and by a mid-single-digit-percentage over 2016's adjusted EPS of $3.75.

Equities Trading UP

Caladrius Biosciences Inc CLBS shares shot up 14 percent to $5.81 after the company posted upbeat Q4 results.

Shares of Norsat International Inc (USA) NSAT got a boost, shooting up 22 percent to $9.85 after the company reported the receipt of new indication of interest by Privet Fund Management LLP at $10.25 per share.

AveXis Inc AVXS shares were also up, gaining 17 percent to $85.23 after the company reported topline data from the phase I study for AVXS-101. AveXis reported a Q4 loss of $25.4 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Bioamber Inc BIOA shares dropped 24 percent to $2.40. BioAmber reported FY16 adjusted loss of $1.07 per share on revenue of $8.3 million.

Shares of Innocoll Holdings PLC INNL were down around 20 percent to $1.49. Innocoll posted a narrower-than-expected quarter loss, but revenue missed estimates. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Innocoll from Buy to Hold.

CorMedix Inc. CRMD was down, falling around 29 percent to $1.46 after the company reported Q4 results and issued a business update.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.28 percent to $49.38 while gold traded up 0.20 percent to $1,229.60.

Silver traded up 0.12 percent Friday to $17.35, while copper rose 0.54 percent to $2.692.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.01 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.09 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.01 percent, and the French CAC 40 declined 0.21 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.01 percent.

Economics

U.S. industrial production came in flat for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent gain.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 97.60 in March, versus a reading of 96.3 in February. Economists were expecting a reading of 97.00.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent for February.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.