Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Up 135 Points; Recro Pharma Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.51 percent to 26,353.10 while the NASDAQ declined 0.15 percent to 7,884. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.09 percent to 2,875.91.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Thursday afternoon, the energy shares rose 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. XOG 12.97% up 12 percent, and Penn Virginia Corporation PVAC 6.31% up 8 percent.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 0.8 percent.

Top Headline

Constellation Brands STZ 7.1% reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Thursday.

Constellation Brands reported quarterly earnings of $1.84 per share on sales of $1.797 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.72 per share on sales of $1.73 billion.

Constellation Brands said it expects FY20 comparable earnings of $8.50 to $8.80 per share. The company agreed to sell around 30 of its brands from its wine and spirits portfolio to E. & J. Gallo Winery for $1.7 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Shineco Inc TYHT 31.19% shares got a boost, shooting up 29 percent to $1.41 after the company entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Xingshan People's Government for the construction of an industrial hemp planting base.

Shares of Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp TNXP 20.6% shot up 24 percent to $2.8912. Tonix, a biopharma company developing treatments for serious neuropsychiatric and central nervous system conditions, said it plans to expand its TNX-102 SL 5.6 mg program beyond post-traumatic stress disorder. TNX-102 SL, or Tonmya, a non-opioid, centrally acting analgesic, is the company's lead late-stage assetbeing evaluated for PTSD in a Phase 3 trial.

Recro Pharma, Inc. REPH 27.92% shares were also up, gaining 26 percent to $8.20 after the company announced a reorganization plan in its acute care segment and raised FY19 sales guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

InspireMD Inc NSPR 40.44% shares dropped 44 percent to $4.01 after the company priced its 487,000 share offering at $5 per share.

Shares of Ocean Power Technologies Inc OPTT 59.41% were down 60 percent to $3.1071 after surging 55.20 percent on Wednesday. Ocean Power Technologies announced a $15 million offering priced at $3.50 per share.

eMagin Corporation EMAN 26.85% was down, falling around 28 percent to $0.5601 after the company announced a $20 million offering, comprised of common stock and warrants, priced at $0.70 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3 percent to $62.66 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,295.20.

Silver traded down 0.1 percent Thursday to $15.095, while copper fell 1.1 percent to $2.9155.

Eurozone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.27 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.49 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.23 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.28 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.09 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.22 percent.

Economics

Jobless claims dropped 10,000 to 202,000 in the latest week. However, economists were expecting a reading of 216,000.

Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 23 billion cubic feet for the week ended March 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Analysts projected a gained of 10 billion cubic feet.

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