Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; SunPower To Receive $298 Million Equity In Company Split

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.37% to 27,579.37 while the NASDAQ fell 0.34% to 8,446.12. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.32% to 3,083.12.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Trinity Place Holdings Inc. TPHS, up 2%, and Marcus & Millichap, Inc. MMI, up 2%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

SunPower Corporation SPWR announced it plans to separate into two independent publicly-traded companies: SunPower and Maxeon Solar Technologies.

Maxeon Solar will be the manufacturer and marketer of premium solar panels. Concurrent with the transaction, an equity investment of $298 million will be made in Maxeon Solar by long-time partner Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

Equities Trading UP

Carbonite, Inc. CARB shares shot up 24% to $22.88 after the company announced it would be acquired by OpenText for $23 per share in cash.

Shares of TransEnterix, Inc. TRXC got a boost, shooting up 17% to $0.2640 after the company announced that Anthony Fernando was appointed as the new President and CEO.

Qurate Retail, Inc.. QRTEA shares were also up, gaining 12% to $10.56 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 EPS results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Lipocine Inc. LPCN shares tumbled 69% to $0.8380 after an adverse FDA verdict on its lead drug Tlando, previously known as LPCN 1021. Lipocine said Monday the FDA said "nay" for the third time for its Tlando, an oral testosterone replacement therapy for use in adult males for treating conditions associated with hypogonadism, which is a deficiency of endogenous testosterone. The complete response letter, or CRL, issued by the FDA signaling the application cannot be approved in the present form, pointed to one deficiency — the efficacy trial not meeting the three secondary endpoints for maximal testosterone concentration. The CRL, however, did not identify issues related to chemistry, manufacturing and controls.

Shares of ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited ASLN were down 60% to $0.8402 after the company reported that the TreeTopp global pivotal study of varlitinib in biliary tract cancer did not meet its co-primary endpoint.

NextCure, Inc. NXTC was down, falling 51% to $40.59 after the company announced a 44% patient discontinuation rate in its NC318 Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $56.66, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,465.30.

Silver traded up 0.2% Monday to $16.85, while copper fell 0.7% to $2.663.

Euro zone


European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.4%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.4%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.1% while UK shares fell 1.2%.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.