Mid-Day Market Update: Cal-Maine Foods Falls After Q2 Results; aTyr Pharma Shares Surge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.32% to 28543.45 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 9,027.08. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10% to 3,231.56.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 0.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Perion Network Ltd PERI, up 8%, and Pinterest Inc PINS, up 5%.

In trading on Monday, financial shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Commercial Metals Company CMC reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings, while sales missed views.

Commercial Metals posted quarterly earnings of $0.73 per share on sales of $1.385 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.54 per share on sales of $ $1.43 billion.

Equities Trading UP

aTyr Pharma, Inc. LIFE shares shot up 44% to $6.13 amid news of a license deal with Kyorin Pharma. The company announced a collaboration and licensing agreement with Kyorin Pharma for the development and commercialization of its lead candidate ATYR1923 for interstitial lung diseases in Japan. The agreement provides for aTyr receiving an $8-millionupfront payment; an additional $167 million in potential development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments;as well as tiered royalties on net sales in Japan.

Shares of The Habit Restaurants, Inc. HABT got a boost, shooting up 32% to $13.91 after Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM announced plans to acquire the company for $14 per share.

SmileDirectClub, Inc. SDC shares were also up, gaining 17% to $9.79 after the company announced it has released a line of Oral care products for Walmart.

Equities Trading DOWN

Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA shares tumbled 24% to $3.0001 after reporting a $4.36 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Osmotica Pharmaceuticals plc OSMT were down 18% to $5.74 after announcing a 6 million share offering.

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM was down, falling 10% to $38.07 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $63.31, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,564.70.

Silver traded down 0.3% Monday to $18.105, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.778.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.45%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.38%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.51%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.7%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.53% while UK shares fell 0.58%.

Economics

The IHS Markit US services PMI rose to 52.8 in December, versus a preliminary estimate of 52.2, and versus final reading of 51.6 for November.