The new year started off with a bang for U.S. equities, thanks in large part to telecom stocks, which led the charge with a 1.9% surge. The S&P 500 Index climbed 0.9%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite improved by 0.9%.
That came despite a relatively quiet day of headlines. But, as we head into Wednesday, the news machine is cranking up, with a focus on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Agile Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:AGRX), among others.
Here’s what investors should be looking at heading into today’s trade:
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)
TSLA stock was off this morning after the company announced that it came up significantly shy of its 2016 vehicle sales target.
Tesla Motors sold 22,200 cars in 2016’s fourth quarter to reach a total of 76,230 cars for the year. However, its own forecast was for a range of 80,000 to 90,000 cars. Said Tesla in a press release:
“Our Q4 delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct.”
When combining Q4’s tally with the 24,500 vehicles in Q3, Tesla also fell short of its half-year expectation for 50,000 vehicle deliveries.
That said, Q4 still was an improvement over the previous year by about 5,000 cars, and its production tally for 2016 was 64% better year-over-year.
While the initial reaction in TSLA stock was much more violent, losses had pared their way down to about 1% of red ink in Wednesday’s early trade.
Agile Therapeutics Inc (AGRX)
AGRX shares were more than halved in Wednesday’s premarket trade, in addition to 12%-plus losses on Tuesday, following the release of data from a study on the company’s contraceptive patch.
Agile’s Twirla contraceptive patch actually achieved positive results, with the company’s 13-cycle trial achieving a 4.8 rating on subjects 35 years of age and under. The Pearl Index is how many times a contraceptive fails across 100 uses.
However, 51.4% of subjects had to discontinue the study prematurely, and the FDA will now have to determine how accurate the Pearl Index calculations were.
AGRX shares were down nearly 70% in Wednesday’s early action.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN)
REGN shares were dipping early Wednesday on some disappointing news of its own.
A court ruled against Sanofi SA (NYSE:SNY) and Regeneron regarding two Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN) patents relating to the latter’s cholesterol drug.
In 2014, Amgen sued Sanofi and Regeneron, saying that REGN’s Praluent cholesterol drug infringed upon Amgen’s patents relating to the blockage of a protein, PCSK9. A jury eventually ruled in favor of AMGN, so Sanofi and Regeneron sought to have the ruling overturned. But on Tuesday, that motion was denied, Reuters reports.
REGN slipped 2% on the news, while SNY shares were off fractionally.
