Mid-Day Market Update: Invacare Surges Following Strong Q4 Results; Motif Bio Shares Slide

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.56 percent to 25,399.80 while the NASDAQ declined 0.15 percent to 7,409.20. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.46 percent to 2,740.28.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the energy shares climbed 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Precision Drilling Corporation PDS up 13 percent, and Marathon Oil Corporation MRO up 9 percent.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell 1.5 percent.

Top Headline

Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Wednesday.

Second-quarter earnings came in at 73 cents per share, beating estimates by a penny. Sales came in at $12.4 billion, missing estimates by $10 million.

The company reported strong third-quarter earnings guidance and expects sales growth of 4-6 percent year-over-year. Cisco also added $15 billion to its buyback plan.

Equities Trading UP

Invacare Corporation IVC shares got a boost, shooting up 71 percent to $9.09 after reporting strong Q4 results.

Shares of Arcimoto, Inc. FUV shot up 59 percent to $5.41. The stock may be moving in sympathy with Electrameccanica, which spiked after a Bloomberg article highlighted its Solo electric vehicle. Arcimoto makes similar electric vehicles.

Precipio, Inc. PRPO shares were also up, gaining 30 percent to $0.2210 after the company reported a 66 percent year-over-year increase in FY18 sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

Motif Bio plc MTFB shares dropped 74 percent to $2.73 after the FDA said it cannot accept the company's new drug application for iclaprim in its current state and indicated additional data may be needed.

Shares of Sierra Wireless, Inc. SWIR were down 25 percent to $11.56 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results and issued weak Q1 guidance.

Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. CLBS was down, falling around 24 percent to $4.06 after the company reported data from its Phase 2a trial of ALBS03 diabetes therapy; data showed no improvement in primary endpoint.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3 percent to $53.75 while gold traded down 0.14 percent to $1,313.30.

Silver traded down 0.81 percent Thursday to $15.525, while copper fell 0.11 percent to $2.77.

Eurozone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.04 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.28 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.39 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 0.33 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.18 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.3 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 4,000 to 239,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 225,000.

The Producer Price Index dropped 0.1 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent rise.

U.S. retail sales fell 1.2 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent rise.

U.S. business inventories fell 0.1 percent for November.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 78 billion cubic feet for the week ended February 8, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a rise of 79 billion cubic feet.

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