Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Francesca's Climbs After Q2 Results; Emmaus Life Sciences Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.16% to 26793.83 while the NASDAQ fell 0.55% to 8043.01. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.45% to 2,965.13.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Seadrill Limited SDRL, up 14%, and KLX Energy Services Holdings, Inc. KLXE, up 10%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 1.8%.

Top Headline

HD Supply Holdings Inc HDS reported in-line earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company issued weak forecast for the third quarter.

HD Supply Holdings reported second-quarter earnings of $1.08 per share, which met the analyst consensus estimate. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.624 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.63 billion

HD Supply Holdings said it expects Q3 adjusted EP of $0.96-$1.05, versus analysts’ estimates of $1.05. It projects sales of $1.62 billion-$1.67 billion, versus expectations of $1.69 billion. The company sees FY19 adjusted EPS of $3.45-$3.60 on sales of $6.1 billion-$6.2 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Francesca's Holdings Corporation FRAN shares shot up 85% to $9.56 after the company reported Q2 EPS results up from last year.

Shares of Mallinckrodt plc MNK got a boost, shooting up 75% to $3.6750 after the company agreed to sell its wholly owned subsidiary BioVectra Inc. to H.I.G. Capital, for $250 million.

Mesoblast Limited MESO shares were also up, gaining 18% to $5.93 after the company announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Grünentha for Europe and Latin America to develop and commercialise innovative cell therapy for the treatment of chronic back pain.

Equities Trading DOWN

Emmaus Life Sciences, Inc. EMMA shares tumbled 41% to $2.66 after the company announced it will be delisted from the Nasdaq stock market following the hearing.

Shares of Sonim Technologies, Inc. SONM were down 45% to $3.89. Sonim Technologies’ management has lowered its financial guidance for this fiscal year ending Dec. 31. The company says net revenues are expected to be flat or slightly below 2018 net revenues of $135.7 million reported in fiscal 2018.

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. YTEN was down, falling 17% to $0.6484 after the company announced a common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $57.33, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,498.70.

Silver traded up 0.2% Tuesday to $18.20, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.621.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.75%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.55%. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.35% and the French CAC 40 gained 0.08% while UK shares rose 0.44%.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined 1.6 points to a reading of 103.1 in August.

The number of job openings declined to 7.217 million in July, versus a revised 7.248 million in the prior month, according to the Labor Department.