Mid-Day Market Update: Melinta Therapeutics Gains After FDA Accepts sNDA For Bacterial Pneumonia Drug; Sesen Bio Shares Drop

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.04% to 26476.32 while the NASDAQ fell 0.06% to 7948.95. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03% to 2,917.02.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares rose 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included PPDAI Group Inc. PPDF, up 7%, and Sirius International Insurance Group, Ltd. SG, up 6%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

Winnebago Industries, Inc. WGO reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views.

Winnebago reported quarterly earnings of $1.04 per share on sales of $ $528.94 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.01 per share on sales of $564.03 million.

Equities Trading UP

Foresight Autonomous Holdings Ltd. FRSX shares shot up 35% to $1.27 after the company signed a commercial agreement with Elbit Systems for exclusive marketing of its software for the defense market.

Shares of Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc ARCT got a boost, shooting up 39% to $8.05 after the company expanded its research collaboration and licensing agreement with Ultragenyx to develop nucleic acid therapies. The company will receive upfront payments and an equity investment.

Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. MLNT shares were also up, gaining 194% to $5.82 after the company said the FDA accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for priority review of its BAXDELA sNDAfor the treatment of community acquired bacterial pneumonia.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sesen Bio, Inc. SESN shares tumbled 24% to $1.40. Sesen Bio priced its 20.41 million share offering at $1.47 per share.

Shares of Genocea Biosciences, Inc. GNCA were down 19% to $4.14 after the company reported a 10 million shares common stock offering.

Legacy Reserves Inc. LGCY was down, falling 28% to $0.0789 after the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $53.89, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,349.50.

Silver traded down 0.2% Wednesday to $14.97, while copper fell 0.9% to $2.68.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.41%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.19%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.16% while UK shares fell 0.53%.

Economics

U.S. crude supplies dropped 3.1 million barrels for the week ended June 14, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a fall of 2 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped 1.7 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles fell 600,000 barrels.

The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.