Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down Over 3%; Agenus Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.57 percent to 23,189.82 while the NASDAQ declined 0.4 percent to 6,610.20. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.32 percent to 2,498.92.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Thursday, the utilities shares climbed 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Harmony Gold Mining Co. HMY up 8 percent, and Coeur Mining Inc CDE up 9 percent.

In trading on Thursday, consumer staples shares fell 0.8 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 71 percent to $5.12 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 42 percent to $2.85 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 15 percent to $24.92 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 69 percent to $4.4550 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 45 percent to $2.3200 after receiving Complete Response Letter from the FDA for BIVIGAM approval supplement submission.

MannKind Corporation MNKD was down, falling around 32 percent to $1.14 after the company announced a 26.6 million share/warrant offering at $1.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 3.2 percent to $46.63 while gold traded up 0.3 percent to $1,260.20.

Silver traded down 0.09 percent Thursday to $14.805, while copper fell 1.1 percent to $2.686.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.03 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dipped 1.61 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.51 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX declined 1.1 percent, and the French CAC 40 dipped 1.36 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.30 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.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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