Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Momenta Pharmaceuticals Jumps Following Acquisition News; Galapagos Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.02% to 27,782 while the NASDAQ fell 0.35% to 11,171. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.15% to 3,385.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,482,820 cases with around 171,830 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,407,350 COVID-19 cases with 109,880 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,767,250 confirmed cases and 52,880 deaths. In total, there were at least 22,164,230 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 781,520 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained 0.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included KVH Industries, Inc. KVHI, up 20%, and Everspin Technologies, Inc. MRAM, up 14%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares fell by 1.6%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation TGT reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Target reported quarterly earnings of $3.38 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $1.62 per share. The company’s sales came in at $22.70 billion, exceeding expectations of $20.09 billion.

The company’s comparable sales jumped 24.3%, while digital comparable sales climbed 195% during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MNTA shares shot up 69% to $52.15 after Johnson & Johnson announced plans to acquire Momenta Pharmaceuticals for $6.5 billion in cash.

Shares of Allied Esports Entertainment Inc. AESE got a boost, shooting 46% to $1.96 after the company announced that its Odyssey tournament had roughly 1.6 million live views at over a six-day event.

Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc. HRMY shares were also up, gaining 59% to $38.15 after the company priced its upsized initial public offering of 5,348,837 shares at $24.00 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. BMRN shares tumbled 35% to $76.75 after the company received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA for valoctocogene voxaparvovec gene therapy for severe hemophilia A. Stifel downgraded Biomarin Pharmaceutical from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $127 to $100.

Shares of Galapagos NV GLPG were down 25% to $141.47 after Gilead received a complete response letter from the FDA requesting data from two studies for Filgotinib before completing its review of the NDA and expressed concern about the benefit/risk profile. The two companies are collaborative partners in the global development and commercialization of Filgotinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered the price target on the stock from $192 to $134.

Vipshop Holdings Limited VIPS was down, falling 20% to $19.25 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 results. The company also announced the CFO will be resigning for personal reasons.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $42.82, while gold traded down 1.9% to $1,974.20.

Silver traded down 2% Wednesday to $27.51, while copper rose 1.4% to $3.017.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.65%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.72%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 1.06%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.74%, French CAC 40 rose 0.79% and UK shares rose 0.58%.

Economics

Crude inventories declined 1.6 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said. Gasoline inventories fell 3.3 million barrels, while distillate inventories increased 200,000 barrels last week.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin is set to speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.