Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Amber Road Surges On Acquisition News; FutureFuel Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 2.13 percent to 25390.89 while the NASDAQ declined 2.95 percent to 7,683.69. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.09 percent to 2,821.11.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday afternoon, the utilities shares rose by 0.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pattern Energy Group Inc. PEGI up 1 percent, and Middlesex Water Company MSEX up 2 percent.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 3.2 percent.

Top Headline

Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Onex Corp in a deal valued at about C$5 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, WestJet shareholders will receive C$31 per share, representing a 67 percent premium to Friday’s closing price.

Equities Trading UP

Amber Road, Inc. AMBR shares got a boost, shooting up 26 percent to $12.96 after the company announced it would be acquired by E2open for $13.05 per share in cash.

Shares of Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. OPTT shot up 11 percent to $2.46 after the company disclosed that its PB3 PowerBuoy deployed in the Adriatic Sea has produced more than 1MWh of cumulative energy to date.

Marathon Patent Group, Inc. MARA shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $3.45.

Equities Trading DOWN

INSYS Therapeutics, Inc. INSY shares dropped 71 percent to $1.05 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results and the company warned it is at risk of bankruptcy.

Shares of Endo International plc ENDP were down 18 percent to $6.59 after JP Morgan downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underweight and announced a $9 price target.

FutureFuel Corp. FF was down, falling around 19 percent to $11.30 following Q1 results. FutureFuel posted Q1 earnings of $0.13 per share on sales of $48.5 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.2 percent to $60.94 while gold traded up 1.1 percent to $1,300.90.

Silver traded down 0.02 percent Monday to $14.79, while copper fell 1.9 percent to $2.7215.

Eurozone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.21 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.78 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.35 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 1.52 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.22 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.55 percent.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.