Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Rises Over 50 Points; Tandem Diabetes Care Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.32 percent to 20,727.99 while the NASDAQ rose 0.23 percent to 5,834.77. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.32 percent to 2,356.05.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the financial sector proved to be a source of strength for the market. Leading the sector was strength from Sotherly Hotels Inc SOHO and Bancorp Inc TBBK.

In trading on Thursday, basic materials shares fell 0.29 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Silver Wheaton Corp. (USA) SLW, down 5 percent, and Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) AUY, down 5 percent.

Top Headline

Conagra Brands Inc CAG reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Conagra reported Q3 earnings of $0.48 per share on revenue of $1.98 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.44 per share on revenue of $1.98 billion.

Equities Trading UP

HTG Molecular Diagnostics Inc HTGM shares shot up 120 percent to $4.70 after the company disclosed that it has obtained CE marking in the EU for HTG EdgeSeq ALKPlus Assay.

Shares of Versar Inc. VSR got a boost, shooting up 25 percent to $1.96 after the company disclosed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Transatlantic Afghanistan District, has awarded a new multi-year contract to the company valued at over $2.3 million.

Flexion Therapeutics Inc FLXN shares were also up, gaining 37 percent to $26.90. Fierce Pharma reported that Sanofi is on verge of $1 billion-plus deal for Flexion, according to sources.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tandem Diabetes Care Inc TNDM shares dropped 24 percent to $1.17. Tandem Diabetes Care priced 18 million share offering at $1.25 per share.

Shares of Alphatec Holdings Inc ATEC were down around 20 percent to $2.15 as the company reported a $18.9 million private placement.

Heat Biologics Inc HTBX was down, falling around 16 percent to $0.870. Heat Biologics priced its 5 million share offering at $0.80 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.79 percent to $47.66 while gold traded down 0.33 percent to $1,248.70.

Silver traded up 0.18 percent Thursday to $17.61, while copper rose 0.02 percent to $2.63.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.75 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.69 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.80 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 1.04 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.75 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.20 percent.

Economics

Initial jobless claims rose 15,000 to 258,000 in the latest week. Economists projected jobless claims to reach 240,000 in the week.

New-home sales rose 6.1 percent to an annual rate of 592,000 in February. Economists were expecting a 571,000 annual pace.

Supplies of natural gas dropped 150 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a fall of 153 billion cubic feet.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is set to speak in Washington at 12:30 p.m. ET.

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

Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak in Chicago at 7:00 p.m. ET.