Mid-Afternoon Market Update: DarioHealth Jumps On Walmart Distribution Deal; Cara Therapeutics Shares Plummet

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.29% to 27424.88 while the NASDAQ fell 0.98% to 8,483.74. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.98% to 3,083.44.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 0.8% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Industrial Logistics Properties Trust ILPT, up 5%, and Safehold Inc SAFE, up 5%.

In trading on Tuesday, financial shares fell 1.6%.

Top Headline

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc CLF announced plans to acquire AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS for $1.1 billion, or $3.36 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. BOLD shares shot up 105% to $58.78 after the company agreed to be acquired by Astellas Pharma for $60 per share in cash.

Shares of DarioHealth Corp. DRIO got a boost, shooting up 56% to $7.82. DarioHealth said its Dario-powered digital diabetes app has been launched on Walmart’s online store. The company said the app is among the most downloaded and highest rated health care apps in the Apple app store.

ViewRay, Inc. VRAY shares were also up, gaining 30% to $4.43 after the company announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration with Elekta AB and Medtronic. The company also announced a $75 million common stock offering.

Equities Trading DOWN

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited ASLN shares tumbled 47% to $2.7662 after the company priced a 5.2 million ADS offering at $2.50 per ADS.

Shares of Cara Therapeutics, Inc. CARA were down 32% to $17.72 after the company reported mixed results from its Phase 2 trial of Oral Korsuva in chronic kidney disease patients with moderate-to-severe pruritus. The company announced the Phase 2 trial of oral KORSUVA achieved the primary endpoint but did not achieve statistical significance in the secondary endpoint.

CBL & Associates Properties, Inc CBL was down, falling 25% to $1.0150 after the company announced the suspension of common and preferred dividends. The company says it sees a decline in net operating income as a result of ‘heightened retailer bankruptcies, restructurings and store closings in 2019.’

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $56.26, while gold traded up 1% to $1,484.00.

Silver traded up 1.8% Tuesday to $17.265, while copper fell 1% to $2.624.

Euro zone


European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.63%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.22%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.03%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.19%, and the French CAC 40 fell 1.03% while UK shares fell 1.75%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.4% during the first four weeks of November versus October.