Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 1%; Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Shares Jump

Midway through trading Friday, the Dow traded up 0.02% to 28962.81 while the NASDAQ rose 0.25% to 9,226.30. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 3,279.97.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.5% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SYNNEX Corporation SNX, up 13%, and GTT Communications Inc GTT, up 7%.

In trading on Friday, financial shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

Eli Lilly And Co LLY announced Friday it will acquire Dermira Inc DERM for $18.75 per share, around $1.1 billion, in an all-cash transaction..

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first-quarter of 2020. The purchase price represents a premium of 86% to the 60-day volume-weighted average trading price of Dermira's stock ending on Jan 9., the last trading day before the announcement of the transaction.

Equities Trading UP

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PHAS shares shot up 21% to $6.84 after the company announced a financing and co-development collaboration with SFJ Pharmaceuticals for PB2452. PhaseBio to receive $120 million in development funding.

Shares of Sorrento Therapeutics Inc SRNE got a boost, shooting up 41% to $4.8150 following news it received an unsolicited acquisition offer from private equity at $7 per share.

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. RARE shares were also up, gaining 29% to $56.46. Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical announced topline positive safety and efficacy data from Cohort 3 and longer-term data from Cohort 2 of the Phase 1/2 study of DTX301, an investigational AAV gene therapy for the treatment of ornithine transcarbamylase, or OTC, deficiency.

Equities Trading DOWN

Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PTLA shares tumbled 43% to $13.99 after the company reported preliminary FY19 Andexxa global net revenues of $111 million.

Shares of Six Flags Entertainment Corporation SIX were down 19% to $35.64 after the company disclosed that development of co-branded parks in China has encountered continued challenges. Wells Fargo downgraded the stock from Overweight to Equal-Weight and lowered the price target from $49 to $42 per share.

RumbleON, Inc. RMBL was down, falling 25% to $0.6050 after the company issued Q4 and FY19 sales guidance below analyst estimates, and reported a common stock offering of no disclosed size.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $58.91, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,556.90.

Silver traded up 0.9% Friday to $18.105, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.813.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.29%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.34%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.28%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.1% while UK shares rose 0.1%.

Economics

The U.S. economy created 145,000 jobs for December. However, economists were expecting a gain of 164,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 3.5% in December.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.