Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NASDAQ Down 1.5%; Acer Therapeutics Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.71% to 26,536.70 while the NASDAQ fell 1.5% to 7,884.88. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.87% to 2,919.76.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares rose 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included New Gold Inc. NGD, up 8%, and Neenah, Inc. NP, up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Lennar Corporation LEN announced better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Lennar reported second-quarter earnings of $1.30 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.14. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.6 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $5.1 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Pyxus International, Inc. PYX shares shot up 23% to $16.52 after Imperial Capital initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and announced a $71 price target.

Shares of Allergan plc AGN got a boost, shooting up 27% to $164.14. AbbVie Inc ABBV reached a deal to acquire Allergan for $63 billion. Allergan shareholders will receive 0.8660 AbbVie shares and $120.30 in cash for each Allergan share, for a total of $188.24 per Allergan share.

Xencor, Inc. XNCR shares were also up, gaining 13% to $38.30 after it was announced the company would replace HFF Inc in the S&P SmallCap 600..

Equities Trading DOWN

Acer Therapeutics Inc. ACER shares tumbled 79% to $3.9701 after the FDA rejected its New Drug Application for EDSIVO.

Shares of Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. CNAT were down 66% to $0.3165 after the company announced its ENCORE-LF trial of Emricasan did not meet its primary endpoint. The company will discontinue treatment, reduce its workforce and pursue strategic alternatives.

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA was down, falling 26% to $5.30. Gamida Cell announced the launch of a proposed follow-on public offering of about $30 million worth of its shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $58.01, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,427.20.

Silver traded down 0.1% Tuesday to $15.37, while copper rose 0.8% to $2.7265.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.36%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.73%. Meanwhile, the German DAX slipped 0.38%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.13% while UK shares rose 0.08%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 2.5% during the first three weeks of June versus May.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index increased 2.5% year-over-year in April, versus a revised 2.6 percent rise in the prior month.

The FHFA's house price index rose 0.4% in April, compared to a 0.1% increase in the prior month.

New home sales fell 7.8% for May to an annual rate of 626,000 in May.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index fell to 121.5 for June, versus a revised reading of 131.3.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index fell to 3 for June, versus prior reading of 5.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard will speak in St. Louis, Missouri at 6:30 p.m. ET.