U.S. markets opened higher on Wednesday morning but ran out of gas in the afternoon. A continuing decline in oil prices was one reason; crude oil was down over 3% again over concerns about too much supply and higher future inventories.
Even the unveiling of the iPhone 6S and Apple TV by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) failed to rally the indices.
Heck, it even failed to rally Apple.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average took the worst of it, finishing off 1.5%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq declined 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively.
However, there were some bright spots. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAY) and Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE) were three stocks that gave investors a glimmer on an otherwise shoddy day.
Here’s what went down Wednesday:
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)
NFLX stock rebounded today from an extended selloff, rising more than 4% after announcing plans to expand its video streaming business into South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the early part of 2016.
The move into southeast Asia is part of worldwide expansion plans that Netflix has been developing for some time now. NFLX had recently sold off from $125 to $100 a share because of investor concerns that new competition from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and other companies would cut into its U.S. market share.
Dave & Buster’s Entertainment, Inc. (PLAY)
There was no playing around with Dave & Buster’s second-quarter earnings report today. The restaurant and entertainment center reported both earnings and revenue that surpassed Wall Street analysts’ expectations, driving shares 8% higher.
Dave & Buster’s earned 40 cents per share on $217.3 million in revenues, topping estimates of 23 cents per share on $204.7 million. Those earnings also were a vast improvement over the year-ago period, when PLAY lost 42 cents per share.
Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (VTAE)
VTAE stock surged 89% higher today after announcing positive results from its Phase 1 clinical study of VTP-43742 in autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel disease and several other rarer disorders.
In the study, VTP-43742 was found to be “safe and generally well tolerated” at all dosages without serious adverse events or electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities.
VTAE is a biopharmaceutical company which is developing small-molecule drugs for more rare forms of disease in the U.S.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
