Category: Stock Market News

Stocks gave up early gains, ending broadly lower and near session lows Wednesday with losses led by the tech sector. The Dow industrials came within 20 points of the psychologically important 20,000 milestone in early trade but soon lost steam. The blue-chip gauge ended the day down 111.36 points, or 0.6%, to end at 19,833.68, according to preliminary figures. The S&P 500 declined 0.8% to 2,249.92. The Nasdaq Composite lost 48.89 points, or 0.9%, to settle at 5,438.56 a day after closing at a record.

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Gold futures rose for a third straight session to settle at two-week highs Wednesday. The February contract was up up $2.00, or 0.2%, to $1,141 an ounce. Gold is attempting to snap a streak of seven weekly declines. The ICE Dollar Index , which typically moves inversely to gold but broke from that relationship Wednesday, was up 0.4% at 103.43.

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Shares of Kate Spade & Co. surged 17% in early afternoon trade, after the Wall Street Journal said the retailer is working with an investment bank to explore a sale of the company, citing people familiar with the matter. The company has come under pressure from activist hedge fund Caerus Investors, which in November, disclosed a stake. Shares are down 4.8% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained about 11%.

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Stocks posted small gains in early action Wednesday, with the Nasdaq building on the previous session’s record close and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set to take yet another run at the 20,000 milestone. The Dow rose 27 points, or 0.1%, to 19,927, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.1% to 2,271. The Nasdaq tacked on 0.2% to 5,497.

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Galena Biopharma Inc. shares jumped 25.5% in pre-market trade Wednesday after the company said its GALE-401 drug would enter a phase 3 trial. Galena said it had a “productive” meeting with the Food and Drug Administration confirming that the drug and clinical trial were appropriate for a new drug filing with the regulator. GALE-401 is being developed to treat essential thrombocythemia, a rare blood disorder. The phase 3 trial is planned to start during the second quarter of 2017, the company said. Galena shares have dropped 93.3% year-to-date, compared with a 11.0% rise in the S&P 500 . Galena shares were valued at $1.96 as of Tuesday’s close.

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A 5.9 magnitude earthquake has struck 18 kilometers north-northeast of Daigo, Japan, the U.S. Geological Survey reported Wednesday. Daigo is located in the Kuji District, Ibaraki Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. No further details were immediately available.

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Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. lost roughly two-thirds of its market value in late trading Tuesday after the company announced that one of its drugs had come up short in a study. Anthera said that the drug Sollpura, which is meant to help a specific kind of maldisgestion in cystic fibrosis patients, “narrowly missed” the primary endpoint for the study. The company said the structure of the study may have hindered the results by not allowing some patients to increase their dosage during the testing, and plans to initiate a new experiment in the first quarter of 2017. Anthera stock closed at $2.01 Tuesday, but fell to less than 70 cents in late trading.

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U.S. stocks finished slightly higher Tuesday in sluggish trade following the Christmas holiday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.23 points, or 0.1%, to end at 19,945.04, according to preliminary figures, remaining just shy of the psychologically important 20,000 milestone. The Nasdaq Composite , however, notched a record close, finishing with a gain of 0.5% at 5,487.44. The S&P 500 notched a minor rise, up 0.2% at 2,268.88.

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Oil futures ended solidly higher Tuesday, extending a year-end rally on expectations an agreement by major oil producers to curb production will help balance a long oversupplied market in 2017. West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 88 cents, or 1.7%, to close at $53.90 a barrel. Based on the most active contract, the U.S. crude benchmark is up nearly 9% in December and is on track for a rise of more than 45% since the end of 2015.

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Shares of Endologix Inc. tumbled 15% Tuesday, as analysts weighed in on the news that the company was placing a temporary shipping hold on its AFX device because of manufacturing issues. Analysts at Leerink said the AFX Endovascular AAA System, which treats abdominal aortic aneurysms and was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011, accounts for about 63% of the company’s estimated sales for 2016. The news “is another piece of disappointing news from ELGX,” analysts wrote in a note, citing the recent CE Mark suspension for AFX in Europe and delays in approval of its Nellix device. The company said that the issue was discovered during its product testing and doesn’t relate to Nellix or its Ovation aortic treatments. Endologix shares have dropped 27.4% year-to-date, compared with a 10.9% rise in the S&P 500 . Shares were priced at $7.19 as of Friday’s close.

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