Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 300 Points; Assertio Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 1.09% to 29060.42 while the NASDAQ fell 0.72% to 9,503.11. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.69% to 3,322.81.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares climbed 0.1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Farmer Bros. Co. FARM, up 12%, and Beyond Meat, Inc. BYND, up 4%.

In trading on Friday, material shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released employment data for the month of January, and the jobs report came in above economists’ expectations.

The nonfarm payroll number came in at +225,000, well above consensus economist expectations of +158,000.

The unemployment rate increased 0.1% to 3.6%, but the labor participation rate also increased 0.2% to 63.4%, its highest level since 2013. The so-called “real” unemployment rate, which factors in those out of the workforce and those who are underemployed, increased 0.2% to 6.9%.

Equities Trading UP

Assertio Therapeutics, Inc. ASRT shares shot up 43% to $1.49. Assertio Therapeutics said it has entered into a definitive agreement with Collegium Pharmaceutical to sell its Nucynta franchise products for $375 million in cash at closing, less royalties received by it in 2020.

Shares of Telenav, Inc. TNAV got a boost, shooting 22% to $5.76 after the company reported upbeat Q2 results.

LightPath Technologies, Inc. LPTH shares were also up, gaining 50% to $1.17 after reporting Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Zogenix, Inc. ZGNX shares tumbled 36% to $33.66 after the company reported mixed topline results for a Phase 3 study, dubbed Study 1601, evaluating its lead investigational therapy Fintepla in Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, or LGS, a severe treatment-resistant childhood-onset epilepsy. The company announced a secondary endpoint in its Phase 3 trial of FINTEPLA did not reach statistical significance. Ladenburg Thalmann downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral and lowered its price target from $60 to $35 per share.

Shares of Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SLRX were down 59% to $0.8250 after the company priced its $9.6 million offering.

Myriad Genetics, Inc. MYGN was down, falling 29% to $20.90 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results. The company also reported the President and CEO, Mark Capone, resigned.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $50.42, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,575.40.

Silver traded down 0.6% Friday to $17.715, while copper fell 1.6% to $2.552.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.27%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.01%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.05% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.45%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.14% while UK shares fell 0.51%.

Economics

The nonfarm payroll number came in at +225,000, well above consensus economist expectations of +158,000. The unemployment rate increased 0.1% to 3.6%.

US wholesale inventories declined 0.2% in December, versus a 0.1% increase in November.

The total number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 1 to 676 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported.

Data on consumer credit for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.