Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Qudian Falls Following Downbeat Q3 Earnings; NovaBay Pharmaceuticals Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.07% to 28024.60 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 8,546.86. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04% to 3,121.69.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed 0.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ellomay Capital Ltd. ELLO, up 4%, and Spark Energy, Inc. SPKE, up 3%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 1.6%.

Top Headline

United Bankshares Inc UBSI announced plans to buy Carolina Financial Corp CARO in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

Carolina Shareholders will receive 1.13 United Shares for each Carolina share owned. The transaction represents a premium of around 16% over Friday's closing price.

Equities Trading UP

Karuna Therapeutics, Inc. KRTX shares shot up 344% to $78.46 on a positive clinical trial readout. Boston, Massachusetts-based Karuna said the Phase 2 clinical trial that evaluated its lead candidate KarXT for the treatment of acute psychosis in patients with schizophrenia met the primary endpoint.

Shares of Standard Diversified Inc. SDI got a boost, shooting up 26% to $13.69 after the company announced plans to pursue a corporate reorganization with its subsidiary Turning Point Brands.

NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NBY shares were also up, gaining 31% to $0.6677 after the company announced its NovaSight daily vitamin will launch on Amazon.com.

Equities Trading DOWN

Wanda Sports Group Company Limited WSG shares tumbled 13% to $2.83 after reporting Q3 results.

Shares of Qudian Inc. QD were down 24% to $5.70 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 EPS results and lowered its sales guidance. The company also issued FY19 sales guidance of RMB4 billion below analyst estimate RMB9 Billion.

Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp. PHIO was down, falling 26% to $0.1397 after the company priced $1 million stock offering at $0.10 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $56.76, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,471.40.

Silver traded up 0.3% Monday to $16.995, while copper fell 0.7% to $2.62.

Euro zone


European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.04%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.53%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.26%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.16% while UK shares rose 0.07%.

Economics

The NAHB housing market index dropped to 70 in November, compared to a reading of 71 in the prior month.

The Treasury International Capital report for September will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.