Mid-Day Market Update: Steelcase Surges On Upbeat Q3 Results; Aduro BioTech Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.04% to 28277.07 while the NASDAQ rose 0.22% to 8842.66. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.07% to 3,194.76.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Uniti Group Inc UNIT, up 13%, and Corecivic Inc CXW, up 3%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

General Mills, Inc. GIS reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

General Mills reported second-quarterly earnings of 95 cents per share on Wednesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 88 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $4.42 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $4.43 billion.

General Mills reaffirmed its full-year fiscal 2020 targets for sales, profit, and EPS, and raised its target for free cash flow conversion.

Equities Trading UP

Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MIRM shares shot up 60% to $26.42. Mirum Pharmaceuticals shares climbed 111% on Monday after the company announced it completed a successful pre-NDA meeting with the FDA for its Maralixibat.

Shares of Steelcase Inc. SCS got a boost, shooting up 18% to $22.52 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 EPS and sales results.

Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SYRS shares were also up, gaining 22% to $5.65 after the company announced it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Global Blood Therapeutics to discover, develop, and commercialize novel therapies for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. GBT will pay Syros $20 million upfront and fund up to $40 million in preclinical research for at least three years.

Equities Trading DOWN

Qiwi plc QIWI shares tumbled 12% to $18.69 after the company named Boris Kim as CEO, effective January 15. QIWI appointed Maria Shevchenko as Deputy CEO.

Shares of Aduro BioTech Inc ADRO were down 13% to $1.00 after William Blair downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

Solid Biosciences Inc. SLDB was down, falling 14% to $4.13 following on an update on its clinical development program for its SGT-001, its gene transfer investigational candidate for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $60.91, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,479.60.

Silver traded down 0.2% Wednesday to $17.035, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.805.

Euro zone


European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.13%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.08%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.01%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.43%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.02% while UK shares rose 0.21%.

Economics

U.S. crude supplies dropped 1.1 million barrels for the week ended December 13, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a decline of 2.5 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 2.5 million barrels, while distillate supplies gained 1.5 million barrels for the week.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will speak at 12:40 p.m. ET.