Mid-Afternoon Market Update: FuelCell Energy Falls On Downbeat Q4 Results; Neurotrope Shares Rise

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.28% to 29,278.63 while the NASDAQ rose 0.57% to 9,424.49. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33% to 3,331.61.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included ACM Research Inc ACMR, up 16%, and IMPINJ Inc PI, up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings, while sales missed views.

Johnson & Johnson reported quarterly earnings of $1.88 per share on Wednesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.87. The company reported quarterly sales of $20.75 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $20.78 billion.

The company says it sees fiscal year 2020 adjusted operational EPS at $9-$9.15, and operational sales at $85.8-$86.6 billion.

Equities Trading UP

One Stop Systems, Inc. OSS shares shot up 31% to $2.69 after the company issued Q4 and FY19 sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Shares of Neurotrope, Inc. NTRP got a boost, shooting up 91% to $2.7696 on above 50 times average volume following a corporate update from the company. Following the completion of data analysis for a confirmatory Phase 2 study dubbed "203 study" that evaluated its experimental Alzheimer's disease candidate Bryostatin-1, Neurotrope said the data showed improvement in cognitive function of pre-specified Moderate Stratum patients at week 13, which is the primary endpoint. Neurotrope also announced it has been awarded a $2.7 million funding from the National Institute of Health to support an additional Phase 3 study focused on the Moderate Stratum for which it reported an improvement. The company said it plans to meet with the FDA to present the totality of data from the NTRP101-202 and NTRP101-203 studies.

Genprex, Inc. GNPX shares were also up, gaining 57% to $1.80 on continued momentum after the company announced that it received FDA fast track designation for its Oncoprex Immunogene Therapy that targets lung cancer.

Equities Trading DOWN

NanoViricides, Inc. NNVC shares tumbled 56% to $3.73 after the company priced its 2.5 million share common stock offering at $3 per share.

Shares of FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL were down 25% to $2.16 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results.

Novavax, Inc. NVAX was down, falling 28% to $7.07 after the company filed for a $100 million mixed shelf offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 2.4% to $56.97, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,556.80.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $17.82, while copper fell 1% to $2.767.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.39%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.58% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.30%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.58% while UK shares fell 0.51%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to a reading of -0.35 in December, compared to a revised reading of +0.41 in the prior month.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index was flat during the first two weeks of January versus December.

The FHFA house price index rose 0.2% in November, versus a revised 0.4% increase in October.

Existing home sales rose 3.6% to an annual rate of 5.54 million for December.