Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nightstar Therapeutics Surges On Acquisition News; Evoke Pharma Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.91 percent to 25,788.95 while the NASDAQ declined 0.47 percent to 7,559.33. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.63 percent to 2,786.05.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the real estate shares slipped by just 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Washington Real Estate Investment Trust WRE up 5 percent, and Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. UBP up 4 percent.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 2 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 66 percent to $114.88 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 $25.19 after the company agreed to be acquired by Biogen Inc BIIB for $25.50 per share in cash.

Yangtze River Port and Logistics Limited YRIV shares were also up, gaining 88 percent to $0.8500 after the company disclosed in its annual report a defamation lawsuit against Hindenburg Research, Nathan Anderson, ClaritySpring Securities, LLC, and ClaritySpring Inc for orchestrated market manipulation.

Equities Trading DOWN

Evoke Pharma, Inc. EVOK shares dropped 59 percent to $1.2500 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 NantHealth, Inc. NH were down 18 percent to $0.9179 in a potential selloff after the stock gained over 100 percent on Friday.

Children's Place, Inc. PLCE was down, falling around 12 percent to $82.86 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results and issued weak guidance. The company also announced plans to acquire IP assets of Gymboree and Crazy 8 for $76 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1 percent to $56.40 while gold traded down 0.8 percent to $1,288.40.

Silver traded down 0.8 percent Monday to $15.13, while copper fell 0.8 percent to $2.91.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.23 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.09 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.11 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.08 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.41 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.39 percent.

Economics

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