Mid-Day Market Update: U.S. Stocks Turn Negative; Dow Down Over 350 Points

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.38 percent to 25,666.47 while the NASDAQ declined 1.18 percent to 7,505.96. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.14 percent to 2,771.53.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, the industrial shares rose 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BG Staffing, Inc. BGSF up 8 percent, and Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. BW up 9 percent.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 1 percent.

Top Headline

Childrens Place Inc PLCE reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance.

Childrens Place said it earned $1.10 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $530.6 million versus expectations of $2.12 per share and $554.16 million.

Children's Place expects FY2019 earnings of $5.25 to $5.75 per share, on sales of $1.89 billion to 1.92 billion. Analysts project earnings of $8.99 per share on sales of $2.01 billion. The company also announced that it will acquire IP assets of Gymboree and Crazy 8 for $76 million.

Equities Trading UP

Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND shares got a boost, shooting up 60 percent to $111.20 after the company disclosed that its TransCon Growth Hormone trial met its primary endpoint.

Shares of Nightstar Therapeutics plc NITE shot up 66 percent to $25.18 after the company agreed to be acquired by Biogen Inc BIIB for $25.50 per share in cash.

Yangtze River Port and Logistics Limited YRIV shares were also up, gaining 107 percent to $0.9345 after the company disclosed in its annual report a defamation lawsuit against Hindenburg Research, Nathan Anderson, ClaritySpring Securities, LLC, and ClaritySpring Inc for orchestrated market manipulation.

Equities Trading DOWN

Evoke Pharma, Inc. EVOK shares dropped 57 percent to $1.3200 after the company received a DR letter from the FDA on its Gimoti New Drug Application. The letter describes concerns in three sections of the NDA.

Shares of NantHealth, Inc. NH were down 21 percent to $0.8834 in a potential selloff after the stock gained over 100 percent on Friday.

Okta, Inc. OKTA was down, falling around 12 percent to $76.35 after analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey downgraded the company's stock from Buy to Hold.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4 percent to $56.60 while gold traded down 0.9 percent to $1,288.00.

Silver traded down 0.9 percent Monday to $15.12, while copper fell 0.7 percent to $2.912.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.24 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.08 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.15 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.02 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.39 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.39 percent.

Economics

U.S. construction spending fell 0.6 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.