Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded down 0.06 percent to 19,807.38 while the NASDAQ declined 0.14 percent to
5,424.58. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12 percent to 2,246.57.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Non-cyclical consumer goods & services shares gained around 0.42 percent in trading on Friday.
In trading on Friday, utilities shares slipped by 0.14 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Genie Energy
Ltd (NYSE: GNE), down 3 percent, and Consolidated Water
Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: CWCO), down 1.5 percent.
Top Headline
Golden Meditech Holdings Limited agreed to sell its equity interest in China Cord Blood Corp (NYSE: CO) for RMB5.764 billion in cash.
Equities Trading UP
Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: MRNS) shares
shot up 22 percent to $1.02 as the company disclosed that ganaxolone has received Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of
Fragile X Syndrome.
Shares of Iconix Brand Group Inc (NASDAQ: ICON)
got a boost, shooting up 4 percent to $9.31 after the company reported an agreement to divest Sharper Image brand to ThreeSixty
Group for $100 million in cash.
Supercom Ltd (NASDAQ: SPCB) shares were also up,
gaining 7 percent to $3.09 after the company disclosed that it has been awarded a $9 Million secure web land and geographical
information system contract by a large Latin America government customer.
Equities Trading DOWN
Innocoll Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: INNL) shares
dropped 59 percent to $0.719 after the company disclosed that it has received a Refusal to File letter from the FDA related to
XARACOLL New Drug Application.
Shares of Opko Health Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK) were down
around 13 percent to $9.99 after the company reported the commencement of data analysis in Phase 3 study of hGH-CTP. The company
disclosed that there was no statistical difference on primary endpoint between hGH-CTP and placebo.
Gevo, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEVO) was down, falling around
11 percent to $0.175. Gevo reported a 1-for-20 reverse stock split.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded down 0.15 percent to $53.69 while gold traded down 0.05 percent to $1,157.50.
Silver traded up 0.04 percent Friday to $16.23, while copper rose 0.70 percent to $2.51.
Eurozone
European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.25 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.01
percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.34 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX slipped 0.19 percent, and the French CAC 40
declined 0.20 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.20 percent.
Economics
The Chicago PMI dropped 3 points to a reading of 54.6 in December.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.
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