Mid-Afternoon Market Update: BlueLinx Surges On Cedar Creek Acquisition; Anthera Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.60 percent to 25,185.06 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.28 percent to 7,582.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.14 percent to 2,782.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained 0.43 percent.

In trading on Monday, industrial shares fell 0.49 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Navistar International Corp NAV, down 6 percent, and China Distance Education Hldgs Ltd (ADR) DL down 10 percent.

Top Headline

Lumentum Holdings Inc LITE, a provider of optical and photonic products, offered to buy Oclaro Inc OCLR in a deal which values its stock at approximately $9.99 per share, or $1.8 billion in equity value.

Equities Trading UP

BlueLinx Holdings Inc. BXC shares shot up 68 percent to $26.55. BlueLinx Holdings reached an agreement to acquire Cedar Creek, a building wholesaler distributor, for $413 million.

Shares of Oclaro Inc OCLR got a boost, shooting up 27 percent to $10.00. Lumentum Holdings Inc LITE announced plans to acquire Oclaro for $9.99 per share in cash and stock.

United Community Bancorp Inc UCBA shares were also up, gaining 24 percent to $24.90. Civista Bancshares Inc CIVB announced plans to acquire United Community Bancorp for implied deal value of $26.22 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc ANTH shares dropped 81 percent to $0.504 following announcement that the company would terminate development of Sollpura after Phase 3 study did not achieve primary endpoint.

Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. OREX were down 76 percent to $0.330 after the company reported that it would file voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of Bankruptcy Code and plans for near-term sale.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc MACK was down, falling around 11 percent to $10.27. Merrimack reported a Q4 loss of $0.89 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.43 percent to $61.15 while gold traded down 0.24 percent to $1,320.80.

Silver traded down 0.47 percent Monday to $16.53, while copper fell 0.43 percent to $3.1225.

Eurozone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.25 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.43 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.08 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.58 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.04 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.13 percent.

Economics

The U.S. government budget deficit increased 12 percent year-over-year to $215 billion in February.