Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 400 Points; DBV Technologies Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.71 percent to 22,923.29 while the NASDAQ declined 1.62 percent to 6,529.23. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.41 percent to 2,471.73.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the utilities shares climbed 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais CIG up 6 percent, and Companhia de Saneamento Bsc DEDSP SBS up 5 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer discretionary shares fell 2.3 percent.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Walgreens posted quarterly earnings of $1.46 per share on sales of $33.793 billion. Analysts were projecting earnings of $1.43 per share on revenue of $33.75 billion. Its same-store sales at U.S. pharmacies increased 2.8 percent. Walgreens Boots Alliance late Wednesday announced a collaboration with Alphabet's Verily.

Equities Trading UP

Inpixon INPX shares got a boost, shooting up 31 percent to $3.9290 after the company announced it is on track to ship record number of IPA Sensor 4000SE in Q4.

Shares of Agenus Inc. AGEN shot up 23 percent to $2.47 after the company announced a collaboration deal with Gilead to develop immuno-oncology therapies. Agenus is set to receive $150 million.

Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. AIMT shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $24.62 after the company announced it submitted its investigational new drug application for AR201 for the treatment of egg allergy. The company also announced a supply agreement with Michael Foods, Inc.

Equities Trading DOWN

DBV Technologies S.A. DBVT shares dropped 72 percent to $3.92 after the company withdrew its Biologics License Application (BLA) from the FDA due to insufficient data on manufacturing procedures and quality controls. DBV says it plans to resubmit its BLA as soon as possible.

Shares of ADMA Biologics, Inc. ADMA were down 48 percent to $2.1850 after receiving Complete Response Letter from the FDA for BIVIGAM approval supplement submission.

MannKind Corporation MNKD was down, falling around 35 percent to $1.0950 after the company announced a 26.6 million share/warrant offering at $1.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 4.34 percent to $46.08 while gold traded up 0.84 percent to $1,266.90.

Silver traded up 0.25 percent Thursday to $14.855, while copper fell 0.83 percent to $2.6935.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.45 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dipped 1.97 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.93 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 1.44 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 1.78 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.80 percent.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased 8,000 to 214,000 for the latest week. However, economists were projecting a 219,000 reading.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index dropped to 9.4 in December, versus 12.9 in November. Economists expected a reading of 15.6 reading.

The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.2 percent for November.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 141 billion cubic feet for the week ended December 14, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts expected a drop of 145 billion cubic feet.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.