Mid-Day Market Update: Novan Falls On Failed Study; Acorda Therapeutics Shares Surge

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.81% to 28634.01 while the NASDAQ fell 0.70% to 9,028.57. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.67% to 3,235.98.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Essential Properties Realty Trust Inc EPRT, up 2%, and Physicians Realty Trust DOC, up 2%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

Lamb Weston Holdings Inc LW reported better-than-expected Q2 results and raised FY20 guidance.

Lamb Weston posted quarterly earnings of $0.95 per share on sales of $1.109 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.84 per share on sales of $964.88 million.

Equities Trading UP

Yuma Energy, Inc. YUMA shares shot up 40% to $4.30 amid crude oil which was up more than 3.5% to over the $63/barrel level. Traders have targeted this name previously given volatility in oil markets; the company has a float of just over 1 million shares, making it susceptible to increased volatility.

Shares of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR got a boost, shooting up 18% to $2.32 after Point72 reported a 9.8% passive stake in the company.

Titan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. TTNP shares were also up, gaining 31% to $0.28.

Equities Trading DOWN

Novan, Inc. NOVN shares tumbled 73% to $0.8430. Novan released top-line efficacy results from the Phase 3 B-SIMPLE program that evaluated SB206 for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum, which showed that statistical significance was not achieved for the primary endpoint in either B-SIMPLE1 or B-SIMPLE2.

Shares of DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW were down 30% to $1.6774 after rising 101.65% on Thursday.

Landec Corporation LNDC was down, falling 10% to $10.02 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its second quarter.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 3.6% to $63.39, while gold traded up 1.5% to $1,551.40.

Silver traded up 0.6% Friday to $ 18.155, while copper fell 1.5% to $2.782.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.39%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.54%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.51%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.23%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.12% while UK shares rose 0.23%.

Economics

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 47.2 in December, versus a reading of 48.1 in November.

Construction spending rose 0.6% in November, versus a revised 0.1% rise in the prior month.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 58 billion cubic feet for the week ended December 27, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a drop of 67 million bcf.

U.S. crude supplies dropped 11.46 million barrels for the week ended December 27, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a fall of 3.1 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 3.212 million barrels, while distillate supplies gained 8.776 million for the week.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard will speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.