Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Park City Falls Following Q4 Results; MER Telemanagement Solutions Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.06% to 27199.48 while the NASDAQ fell 0.35% to 8,166.08. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.22% to 3,003.05.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares climbed 1.2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ferroglobe PLC (NYSE: GSM), up 8%, and Taseko Mines Limited (NYSE: TGB), up 9%.

In trading on Friday, real estate shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Castle Creek Pharmaceutical Holdings announced it will acquire Fibrocell Science, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCSC), a cell and gene therapy company in a $3 per share cash.

Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals is a privately held company developing therapies for patients with rare, serious or debilitating dermatologic conditions. Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals already has a licensing and development collaboration with Fibrocell, which began in April.
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Equities Trading UP

MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ: MTSL) shares shot up 30% to $1.56 after the company reported better-than-expected H1'19 EPS results. Mer Telemanagement reported H1'19 EPS of $(0.04) on sales of $2.6 million.

Shares of Fibrocell Science Inc (NASDAQ: FCSC) got a boost, shooting up 60% to $2.93 after the company agreed to be acquired by Castle Creek Pharmaceutical for an all-cash consideration of $3 per share.

Vince Holding Corp. (NYSE: VNCE) shares were also up, gaining 25% to $14.40 after the company reported Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARDX) shares tumbled 16% to $5.27. Ardelyx announced the FDA has approved its tenapanor, brand name Ibsrela, a 50mg twice-daily oral pill for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adults. The drug acts locally in the gastrointestinal tract by inhibiting the sodium-hydrogen exchanger, leading to increased bowel movements and decreased abdominal pain.

Shares of Park City Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYG) were down 13% to $6.65 after reporting Q4 results.

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTTR) was down, falling 70% to $0.32 following a clinical readout. Ritter said the Phase 3 trial of RP-G28 that's being evaluated for lactose intolerance failed to show statistical significance in its pre-specified primary endpoint.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $54.85, while gold traded down 0.9% to $1,493.70.

Silver traded down 3.9% Friday to $1,493.70, while copper rose 2.2% to $2.6985.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.34%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.44%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.47% and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.22% while UK shares rose 0.31%.

Economics

The import price index dropped 0.5% for August, while export prices declined 0.6% last month.

U.S. retail sales increased 0.4% for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2% rise.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 92 in September, versus 89.8 in previous month.

U.S. business inventories rose 0.4% for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3% gain.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 5 to 733 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.