Mid-Day Market Update: Audentes Therapeutics Climbs On Acquisition News; ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.51% to 27364.23 while the NASDAQ fell 1.18% to 8466.75. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.16% to 3,077.79.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.8% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Industrial Logistics Properties Trust ILPT, up 6%, and Q&K International Group Ltd - ADR QK, up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, financial shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc CLF announced plans to acquire AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS for $1.1 billion, or $3.36 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. BOLD shares shot up 106% to $58.91 after the company agreed to be acquired by Astellas Pharma for $60 per share in cash.

Shares of DarioHealth Corp. DRIO got a boost, shooting up 55% to $7.76 after the company reported the launch of Dario-powered digital diabetes program on Walmart.com.

ViewRay, Inc. VRAY shares were also up, gaining 31% to $4.46 after the company announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration with Elekta AB and Medtronic. The company also announced a $75 million common stock offering.

Equities Trading DOWN

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited ASLN shares tumbled 47% to $2.74 after the company priced a 5.2 million ADS offering at $2.50 per ADS.

Shares of Cara Therapeutics, Inc. CARA were down 28% to $18.71 after the company reported mixed results from its Phase 2 trial of Oral Korsuva in chronic kidney disease patients with moderate-to-severe pruritus.

CBL & Associates Properties, Inc CBL was down, falling 29% to $0.96 after the company announced the suspension of common and preferred dividends. The company says it sees a decline in net operating income as a result of ‘heightened retailer bankruptcies, restructurings and store closings in 2019.’

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.5% to $55.67, while gold traded up 1.1% to $1,484.50.

Silver traded up 1.6% Tuesday to $17.245, while copper fell 0.6% to $2.6355.

Euro zone


European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.68%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.14%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.14%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.16%, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.19% while UK shares fell 1.73%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.4% during the first four weeks of November versus October.