Mid-Afternoon Market Update: U.S. Markets Turn Higher; Habit Restaurants Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.01% to 28639.12 while the NASDAQ rose 0.32% to 9,049.74. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 3,240.11.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pacific Drilling S.A. PACD, up 33%, and McDermott International, Inc. MDR, up 29%.

In trading on Monday, industrial shares fell 0.4%.

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 48% to $6.30 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 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 25% to $10.46 after the company announced it has released a line of Oral care products for Walmart.

Equities Trading DOWN

Edesa Biotech, Inc. EDSA shares tumbled 19% to $3.19 after reporting a $4.36 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Osmotica Pharmaceuticals plc OSMT were down 21% to $5.50 after announcing a 6 million share offering.

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM was down, falling 10% to $38.45 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $63.30, while gold traded up 1% to $1,567.90.

Silver traded up 0.2% Monday to $18.18, while copper fell 0.1% to $2.787.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.41%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.47%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.51%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.70%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.51% while UK shares fell 0.62%.

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.