Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1%; Marinus Pharmaceuticals Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.03% to 26961.38 while the NASDAQ fell 0.46% to 8040.00. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06% to 2,983.08.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CBL & Associates Properties, Inc CBL, up 16%, and Cedar Realty Trust, Inc. CDR, up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

Conagra Brands Inc CAG reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed views.

Earnings came in at 43 cents per share, beating estimates of 39 cents. Sales came in at $2.391 billion, versus estimates of $2.48 billion.
.


Equities Trading UP

Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MRNS shares shot up 17% to $1.60 following a positive clinical readout from the company. Marinus said the Phase 2 study evaluating the intravenous formulation of Ganaxolone, a positive allosteric modulator of GABAA, in refractory status epilepticus, or RSE, met the primary endpoint, with no patients progressing to IV anesthetics within 24 hours of treatment initiation.

Shares of Rite Aid Corporation RAD got a boost, shooting up 11% to $8.50 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 EPS results. The company also narrowed FY20 EPS guidance and reaffirmed its sales guidance.

SAExploration Holdings, Inc. SAEX shares were also up, gaining 13% to $2.04 after the company was awarded a $28 million ocean-bottom marine project.

Equities Trading DOWN

BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. BTAI shares tumbled 20% to $7.86. BioXcel Therapeutics priced 2.303 million share common stock offering at $8.255 per share.

Shares of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ENTA were down 17% to $59.49. Enanta Pharmaceuticals announced topline results from the Phase 2a ARGON-1 study that evaluated its EDP-305 for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, which showed that the study met the primary endpoint, with a statistically significant ALT reduction of 28 U/L in the EDP-305, 2.5mg arm compared to 15 U/L in the placebo arm at week 12. JP Morgan downgraded the company from Neutral to Underweight and lowered the price target from $86 to $57.

Pearson plc PSO was down, falling 15% to $9.02 after the company announced it now expects adjusted operating profit in 2019 to be at the bottom of the guidance range of £590M - £640M and adjusted EPS at the bottom of the guidance range of 57.5P to 63.0P.
 

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $55.91, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,514.20.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $17.91, while copper fell 1.3% to $2.579.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.61%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.49%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.73%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.44%, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.66% while UK shares rose 0.84%.

Economics

Gross domestic product increased at an annual pace of 2% in the second quarter, unchanged versus the previous estimate.

Initial jobless claims rose 3,000 to 213,000 in the latest week. However, economists expected a reading of 211,000.

The advance trade deficit in goods increased 0.5% to $72.8 in August. However, economists were expecting a $74 billion deficit. The advanced wholesale inventories rose 0.4% in August, while advanced retail inventories were flat.

The pending home sales index rose 1.6% for August.

Domestic supplies of natural gas climbed 102 billion cubic feet for the week ended September 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a gain of 93 billion cubic feet.

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