Mid-Day Market Update: Allergan Jumps On Acquisition News; Conatus Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.38% to 26624.77 while the NASDAQ fell 0.95% to 7,929.49. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.55% to 2,929.04.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.08% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Allergan plc AGN, up 26%, and Xencor, Inc. XNCR, up 13%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Lennar Corporation LEN announced better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Lennar reported second-quarter earnings of $1.30 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.14. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.6 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $5.1 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Pyxus International, Inc. PYX shares shot up 27% to $17.05 after Imperial Capital initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and announced a $71 price target.

Shares of Allergan plc AGN got a boost, shooting up 27% to $164.05. AbbVie Inc ABBV reached a deal to acquire Allergan for $63 billion. Allergan shareholders will receive 0.8660 AbbVie shares and $120.30 in cash for each Allergan share, for a total of $188.24 per Allergan share.

Rafael Holdings, Inc. RFL shares were also up, gaining 16% to $27.76. Rafael Pharmaceuticals entered into an out-licensing agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical to accelerate clinical development and commercialization of cancer drug candidate CPI-613 in Japan and other Asian countries.
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Equities Trading DOWN

Acer Therapeutics Inc. ACER shares tumbled 78% to $4.33 after the FDA rejected its New Drug Application for EDSIVO.

Shares of Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. CNAT were down 64% to $0.3280 after the company announced its ENCORE-LF trial of Emricasan did not meet its primary endpoint. The company will discontinue treatment, reduce its workforce and pursue strategic alternatives.

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA was down, falling 27% to $5.29. Gamida Cell announced the launch of a proposed follow-on public offering of about $30 million worth of its shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $58.03, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,428.30.

Silver traded up 0.1% Tuesday to $15.39, while copper rose 1.2% to $2.7375.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.36%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.73%. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 0.38%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.13% while UK shares rose 0.08%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 2.5% during the first three weeks of June versus May.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index increased 2.5% year-over-year in April, versus a revised 2.6 percent rise in the prior month.

The FHFA's house price index rose 0.4% in April, compared to a 0.1% increase in the prior month.

New home sales fell 7.8% for May to an annual rate of 626,000 in May.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index fell to 121.5 for June, versus a revised reading of 131.3.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index fell to 3 for June, versus prior reading of 5.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in St. Louis, Missouri at 6:30 p.m. ET.