Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Childrens Place Misses Q4 Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.11 percent to 26,055.34 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.35 percent to 7,621.99. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.27 percent to 2,811.23.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the financial shares rose 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Jupai Holdings Ltd JP up 20 percent, and Golden Bull Ltd DNJR up 9 percent.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.3 percent.

Top Headline

Childrens Place Inc PLCE reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance.

Childrens Place said it earned $1.10 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $530.6 million versus expectations of $2.12 per share and $554.16 million.

Children's Place expects FY2019 earnings of $5.25 to $5.75 per share, on sales of $1.89 billion to 1.92 billion. Analysts project earnings of $8.99 per share on sales of $2.01 billion. The company also announced that it will acquire IP assets of Gymboree and Crazy 8 for $76 million.

 

Equities Trading UP

Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND shares got a boost, shooting up 63 percent to $113.10 after the company disclosed that its TransCon Growth Hormone trial met its primary endpoint.

Shares of Nightstar Therapeutics plc NITE shot up 66 percent to $25.17 after the company agreed to be acquired by Biogen Inc BIIB for $25.50 per share in cash.

Bluegreen Vacations Corporation BXG shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $15.93 following earlier press release from BBX Capital highlighting intent to take the company private through short-form merger at $16 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Evoke Pharma, Inc. EVOK shares dropped 59 percent to $1.26 after the company received a DR letter from the FDA on its Gimoti New Drug Application. The letter describes concerns in three sections of the NDA.

Shares of The Children's Place, Inc. PLCE were down 11 percent to $83.93 after the company reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance.

Windstream Holdings, Inc. WIN was down, falling around 14 percent to $0.3200 after the company announced it will be delisted from Nasdaq by March 6th.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8 percent to $56.23 while gold traded down 0.9 percent to $1,287.20.

Silver traded down 0.6 percent Monday to $15.17, while copper fell 0.9 percent to $2.9055.

 

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.7 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.8 percent.

Economics

Data on motor vehicle sales for February will be released today.

U.S. construction spending fell 0.6 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for February is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET.