Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.11 percent to 26,055.34 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.35 percent to
7,621.99. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.27 percent to 2,811.23.
Leading and Lagging Sectors
Monday morning, the financial shares rose 0.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Jupai Holdings
Ltd (NYSE: JP) up 20 percent, and Golden Bull
Ltd (NASDAQ: DNJR) up 9 percent.
In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.3 percent.
Top Headline
Childrens Place Inc (NASDAQ: PLCE)
reported downbeat results for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance.
Childrens Place said it earned $1.10 per share in the fourth quarter on revenue of $530.6 million versus expectations of $2.12
per share and $554.16 million.
Children's Place expects FY2019 earnings of $5.25 to $5.75 per share, on sales of $1.89 billion to 1.92 billion. Analysts
project earnings of $8.99 per share on sales of $2.01 billion. The company also announced that it will acquire IP assets of
Gymboree and Crazy 8 for $76 million.
Equities Trading UP
Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ: ASND)
shares got a boost, shooting up 63 percent to $113.10 after the company disclosed that its TransCon Growth Hormone trial met its
primary endpoint.
Shares of Nightstar Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: NITE) shot up 66 percent to $25.17 after the company agreed to be acquired by
Biogen Inc (NASDAQ: BIIB) for $25.50 per
share in cash.
Bluegreen Vacations Corporation (NYSE: BXG) shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $15.93 following earlier press
release from BBX Capital highlighting intent to take the company private through short-form merger at $16 per share in cash.
Equities Trading DOWN
Evoke Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVOK)
shares dropped 59 percent to $1.26 after the company received a DR letter from the FDA on its Gimoti New Drug Application. The
letter describes concerns in three sections of the NDA.
Shares of The Children's Place, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCE) were down 11 percent to $83.93 after the company reported downbeat results
for its fourth quarter and issued weak guidance.
Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN)
was down, falling around 14 percent to $0.3200 after the company announced it will be delisted from Nasdaq by March 6th.
Commodities
In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8 percent to $56.23 while gold traded down 0.9 percent to $1,287.20.
Silver traded down 0.6 percent Monday to $15.17, while copper fell 0.9 percent to $2.9055.
Eurozone
European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while
Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.2 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.7 percent
while U.K. shares rose 0.8 percent.
Economics
Data on motor vehicle sales for February will be released today.
U.S. construction spending fell 0.6 percent for December, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent rise.
The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for February is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET.
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