Mid-Day Market Update: Command Center Surges Following Merger Deal With Hire Quest; Hollysys Automation Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.5 percent to 26,209.58 while the NASDAQ declined 0.12 percent to 7,944.23. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.33 percent to 2,886.29.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the communication services shares rose 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Fang Holdings Ltd SFUN up 6 percent, and DHI Group Inc DHX up 5 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares fell 1.2 percent.

Top Headline

PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc PHAS said the FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for its PB2452, a novel reversal agent for AstraZeneca plc AZN's antiplatelet drug ticagrelor.

The BTD was accorded based on the Phase 1 data, which showed PB2452 achieved immediate and sustained reversal of ticagrelor's antiplatelet effects.

Equities Trading UP

Command Center, Inc. CCNI shares got a boost, shooting up 35 percent to $5.28 following news the company will merger in an all-stock deal with Hire Quest.

Shares of PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PHAS shot up 22 percent to $15.39 after the company received FDA breakthrough therapy designation for PB2452 for the reversal of antiplatelet activity of ticagrelor.

Precipio, Inc. PRPO shares were also up, gaining 41 percent to $0.3450 following news the company is in talks with a manufacturer to produce its IV-cell media.

Equities Trading DOWN

Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd. HOLI shares dropped 25 percent to $17.56 following news of a 7.8 million common stock offering. The stock was downgraded by JP Morgan.

Shares of Vaxart, Inc. VXRT were down 36 percent to $0.96 after the company announced pricing of its public offering of common stock at $1.10 per share.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling around 24 percent to $3.83 after the company announced and priced a $17.5 million common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6 percent to $64.04 while gold traded up 0.6 percent to $1,310.00.

Silver traded up 0.3 percent Tuesday to $15.265, while copper rose 0.1 percent to $2.9345.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.47 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.32 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.46 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.94 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.65 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.35 percent.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose 0.1 points to a seasonally adjusted 101.8 for March.

U.S. job openings declined to 7.09 million in February, versus prior reading of 7.62 million, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.