Mid-Day Market Update: United Natural Foods Falls On Downbeat Q4 Results; Immuron Shares Surge

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 1.81% to 26093.31 while the NASDAQ fell 1.63% to 7,779.80. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.73% to 2,889.47.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares slipped by just 0.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clipper Realty Inc. CLPR, up 2%, and Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP, up 1.5%.

In trading on Wednesday, industrial shares fell 2.1%.

Top Headline

Lennar Corporation LEN reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.

Lennar reported third-quarter earnings of $1.59 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.32. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.857 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $5.49 billion.


Equities Trading UP

The Stars Group Inc. TSG shares shot up 31% to $20.05 after the company announced an all-stock merger with Flutter Entertainment.

Shares of Immuron Limited IMRN got a boost, shooting up 10% to $2.95. The Australian biotech said it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, or NMRC, to collaborate on the manufacturing and evaluation of anew product designed to protect against traveler'sdiarrhea caused by campylobacter and ETEC pathogens. Immuron, which focuses on developing oral immunotherapies for the prevention and treatment of gut-mediated pathogens, said the Department of Defense has approved funding of $3.7 million for the project.

Naked Brand Group Limited NAKD shares were also up, gaining 20% to $0.0612 on continued momentum from yesterday after the stock had double the volume on seemingly no company-specific news.

Equities Trading DOWN

Savara Inc. SVRA shares tumbled 55% to $1.11 after the company announced FDA response from Type C meeting on molgradex for aPAP development program. Savara said FDA response indicates data provided in briefing package do not provide sufficient evidence of efficacy and safety and did not recommend that the company submit a biologics license application for molgradex.

Shares of United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI were down 26% to $8.14 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued FY20 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Lantheus Holdings, Inc. LNTH was down, falling 20% to $19.13 after the company announced plans to acquire Progenics.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $52.72, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,501.40.

Silver traded up 1.2% Wednesday to $17.515, while copper rose 0.3% to $2.569.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.73%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.84%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.89%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 2.33% while UK shares fell 3.07%.

Economics

U.S. private sector employers added 135,000 jobs in September, ADP reported.

U.S. crude supplies gained 3.1 million barrels for the week ended September 27, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a rise of 1.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories dropped 200,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles slipped 2.4 million barrels last week.