Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Slides Over 200 Points; Landec Shares Drop On Q2 Earnings

Toward the end of trading Friday, the Dow traded down 0.76% to 28,650.09 while the NASDAQ fell 0.68% to 9,030.59. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.61% to 3,237.94. Leading and Lagging Sectors Real estate shares climbed 0.7% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Essential Properties Realty Trust Inc EPRT, up 3%, and New England Realty Associates LP NEN, up 3%. In trading on Friday, materials shares fell 1.1%. Top Headline Lamb Weston Holdings Inc LW reported better-than-expected Q2 results and raised FY20 guidance. Lamb Weston posted quarterly earnings of $0.95 per share on sales of $1.109 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.84 per share on sales of $964.88 million. Equities Trading UP Yuma Energy, Inc. YUMA shares shot up 34% to $4.1096 amid crude oil which was up more than 3.5% to over the $63/barrel level. Traders have targeted this name previously given volatility in oil markets; the company has a float of just over 1 million shares, making it susceptible to increased volatility. Shares of Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. ACOR got a boost, shooting up 21% to $2.38 after Point72 reported a 9.8% passive stake in the company. Cinedigm Corp. CIDM shares were also up, gaining 15% to $0.8290 after the company signed a definitive stock purchase agreement to acquire a 29% stake in Starrise Media. Equities Trading DOWN Novan, Inc. NOVN shares tumbled 73% to $0.8499. Novan released top-line efficacy results from the Phase 3 B-SIMPLE program that evaluated SB206 for the treatment of molluscum contagiosum, which showed that statistical significance was not achieved for the primary endpoint in either B-SIMPLE1 or B-SIMPLE2. Shares of DPW Holdings, Inc. DPW were down 30% to $1.6724 after rising 101.65% on Thursday. Landec Corporation LNDC was down, falling 12% to $9.83 after the company reported a wider-than-expected loss for its second quarter. Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 2.5% to $62.68, while gold traded up 1.5% to $1,551.00. Silver traded up 0.6% Friday to $18.145, while copper fell 1.5% to $2.782. Euro zone European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 dropped 0.33%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.46%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.56%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.25%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.04% while UK shares rose 0.24%. Economics The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 47.2 in December, versus a reading of 48.1 in November. Construction spending rose 0.6% in November, versus a revised 0.1% rise in the prior month. Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 58 billion cubic feet for the week ended December 27, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were projecting a drop of 67 million bcf. U.S. crude supplies dropped 11.46 million barrels for the week ended December 27, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a fall of 3.1 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 3.212 million barrels, while distillate supplies gained 8.776 million for the week. The total number of active U.S. oil rigs slipped by 7 to 670 rigs this week, Baker Hughes Inc reported. The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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