Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Stars Group Jumps On Merger With Flutter Entertainment; Lantheus Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.85% to 26080.58 while the NASDAQ fell 1.65% to 7,778.52. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.78% to 2,887.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares slipped by just 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CBL & Associates Properties, Inc CBL, up 4%, and Franklin Street Properties Corp. FSP, up 2%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 2.7%.

Top Headline

Lennar Corporation LEN reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.

Lennar reported third-quarter earnings of $1.59 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.32. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.857 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $5.49 billion.


Equities Trading UP

The Stars Group Inc. TSG shares shot up 27% to $19.44 after the company announced an all-stock merger with Flutter Entertainment. The merger will combine two businesses in the sports betting and gaming sector. On completion of the merger, Flutter shareholders will own approximately 54.64% and The Stars Group shareholders would own approximately 45.36% of the share capital of the combined group.

Shares of Immuron Limited IMRN got a boost, shooting up 9% to $2.9292. The Australian biotech said it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, or NMRC, to collaborate on the manufacturing and evaluation of anew product designed to protect against traveler'sdiarrhea caused by campylobacter and ETEC pathogens. Immuron, which focuses on developing oral immunotherapies for the prevention and treatment of gut-mediated pathogens, said the Department of Defense has approved funding of $3.7 million for the project.

Naked Brand Group Limited NAKD shares were also up, gaining 21% to $0.0619 on continued momentum from yesterday after the stock had double the volume on seemingly no company-specific news.

Equities Trading DOWN

Savara Inc. SVRA shares tumbled 57% to $1.0650 after the company announced FDA response from Type C meeting on molgradex for aPAP development program. Savara said FDA response indicates data provided in briefing package do not provide sufficient evidence of efficacy and safety and did not recommend that the company submit a biologics license application for molgradex.

Shares of United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI were down 25% to $8.30 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued FY20 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Lantheus Holdings, Inc. LNTH was down, falling 21% to $18.93 after the company announced plans to acquire Progenics.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.8% to $52.66, while gold traded up 1.2% to $1,507.40.

Silver traded up 2% Wednesday to $17.645, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.571.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.7%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.77%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 2.87%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 2.76%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 3.12% while UK shares fell 3.23%.

Economics

U.S. private sector employers added 135,000 jobs in September, ADP reported.

U.S. crude supplies gained 3.1 million barrels for the week ended September 27, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a rise of 1.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped 200,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles slipped 2.4 million barrels last week.