Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.5%; Mallinckrodt Shares Climb After Strong Q4 Results

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.25 percent to 25,646.09 while the NASDAQ declined 0.66 percent to 7,372.89. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.49 percent to 2,766.01.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday afternoon, the healthcare shares slipped by just 0.4 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Clovis Oncology Inc CLVS, up 11 percent, and Tenet Healthcare Corp THC, up 10 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, telecommunications services shares tumbled 1.51 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included PLDT Inc (ADR) PHI, down 3 percent, and Comcast Corporation CMCSA down 6 percent.

Top Headline

Macy's Inc M reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

The company said it earned $2.82 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $8.67 billion versus expectations of $2.71 per share on revenue of $8.68 billion.

Macy's expects FY18 sales to be down 0.5 percent to 2 percent and adjusted earnings of $3.55 to $3.75 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Mallinckrodt PLC MNK shares shot up 22 percent to $19.76 as the company reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter.

Shares of LSB Industries, Inc. LXU got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $8.35. LSB Industries reported Q4 earnings from continuing operations of $(0.30) per share on sales of $88.917 million.

National General Holdings Corp NGHC shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $23.04 following Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Akorn, Inc. AKRX shares dropped 35 percent to $19.83 after Fresenius Kabi AG announced an independent investigation into alleged breaches of FDA data integrity requirements related to product development. Akorn later released a statement confirming its active participation in the probe.

Shares of InspireMD Inc NSPR were down 31 percent to $2.68. InspireMD priced its 1 million share offering at $3 per share.
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Akcea Therapeutics Inc AKCA was down, falling around 27 percent to $16.49 as the company posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. Cowen & Co. downgraded Akcea Therapeutics from Outperform to Market Perform, while Wells Fargo downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.5 percent to $62.95 while gold traded down 1.10 percent to $1,318.20.

Silver traded down 1.34 percent Tuesday to $16.40, while copper fell 1.44 percent to $3.178.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.18 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.02 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.08 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.01 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.10 percent.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders declined 3.7 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 1.7 percent drop.

The trade gap in goods increased 3 percent to $74.4 billion in January.

Retail inventories gained 0.8 percent in January, while wholesale inventories rose 0.7 percent.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.6 percent during the first three weeks of February versus January.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller composite home price index gained 6.3 percent year-over-year in December.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index gained to 130.80 for February, versus prior reading of 125.40. Economists expected a reading of 126.20.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index climbed to 28.00 in February, versus previous reading of 14.00. Economists were projecting a reading of 15.00.