Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Down 170 Points; Gemphire Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.65% to 27,093.54 while the NASDAQ fell 0.95% to 8,242.83. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.61% to 3,001.29.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares slipped by just 0.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ambev S.A. ABEV, up 8%, and Beyond Meat, Inc. BYND, up 6%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Facebook, Inc. FB reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Adjusted earnings came in at $1.99, beating estimates by 12 cents. Sales came in at $16.886 billion, beating estimates by $476 million. DAUs increased 8% year-over-year to 1.59 billion, while MAUs increased 8% year-over-year to 2.41 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. GEMP shares shot up 25% to $0.8755 after the company announced a merger with NeuroBO Pharmaceuticals.

Shares of Anika Therapeutics, Inc. ANIK got a boost, shooting up 34% to $54.88 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 sales results.

EDAP TMS S.A. EDAP shares were also up, gaining 17% to $3.11 after the company reported preliminary Q2 sales are up 45% from last year.

Equities Trading DOWN

Align Technology, Inc. ALGN shares tumbled 28% to $198.14 after the company issued Q3 EPS and sales guidance below analyst estimates. Evercore ISI Group downgraded the company's stock from Outperform to In-Line and lowered the price target from $340 to $220.

Shares of Lantheus Holdings, Inc. LNTH were down 20% to $23.11 after the company reported downbeat Q2 sales and lowered FY2019 guidance.

Spirit Airlines, Inc. SAVE was down, falling 21% to $43.43 after multiple firms downgraded the company's stock following the release of the company's Q2 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $56.19, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,416.70.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $16.48, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.71.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.56%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.43%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.8%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.28%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.5% while UK shares fell 0.17%.

Economics

Durable-goods orders increased 2% in June, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.7% rise.

The advance trade deficit in goods shrank 1.2% to $74.2 billion in June. However, economists were expecting a deficit of $72.6 billion. Wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in June, while advanced retail inventories declined 0.1%.

Initial jobless claims fell 10,000 to 206,000 in the latest week. However, economists projected a reading of 218,000.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.