Mid-Day Market Update: Vince Holding Surges After Q2 Results; Ritter Pharmaceuticals Shares Slide

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.21% to 27240.50 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 8201.68. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 3,014.30.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares climbed 1% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AgroFresh Solutions, Inc. AGFS, up 5%, and Taseko Mines Limited TGB, up 5%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Castle Creek Pharmaceutical Holdings announced it will acquire Fibrocell Science, Inc. FCSC, a cell and gene therapy company in a $3 per share cash.

Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals is a privately held company developing therapies for patients with rare, serious or debilitating dermatologic conditions. Castle Creek Pharmaceuticals already has a licensing and development collaboration with Fibrocell, which began in April.
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Equities Trading UP

MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. MTSL shares shot up 41% to $1.69 after reporting half-year results. Mer Telemanagement reported H1'19 EPS of $(0.04) on sales of $2.6 million.

Shares of Fibrocell Science Inc FCSC got a boost, shooting up 60% to $2.93 after the company agreed to be acquired by Castle Creek Pharmaceutical for an all-cash consideration of $3 per share.

Vince Holding Corp. VNCE shares were also up, gaining 23% to $14.12 after the company reported Q2 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Ardelyx, Inc. ARDX shares tumbled 12% to $5.52. Ardelyx announced the FDA has approved its tenapanor, brand name Ibsrela, a 50mg twice-daily oral pill for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adults. The drug acts locally in the gastrointestinal tract by inhibiting the sodium-hydrogen exchanger, leading to increased bowel movements and decreased abdominal pain.

Shares of Park City Group, Inc. PCYG were down 16% to $6.45 after reporting Q4 results.

Ritter Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RTTR was down, falling 71% to $0.3148 following a clinical readout. Ritter said the Phase 3 trial of RP-G28 that's being evaluated for lactose intolerance failed to show statistical significance in its pre-specified primary endpoint..

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $55.02, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,504.40
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Silver traded down 1.4% Friday to $17.925, while copper rose 2.3% to $2.7005.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.28%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.37%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.5% and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.3% while UK shares rose 0.3%.

Economics

The import price index dropped 0.5% for August, while export prices declined 0.6% last month.

U.S. retail sales increased 0.4% for August, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2% rise.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to 92 in September, versus 89.8 in previous month.

U.S. business inventories rose 0.4% for July, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3% gain.

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