Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over daily movements, we do like to keep an eye on market changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
Those looking only at end-of-day headlines will focus on the fact that the Dow and S&P 500 posted losses for the fourth consecutive day, as relatively strong economic data made some investors nervous about the potential for the Federal Reserve to pull back on its stimulus measures earlier rather than later. But what the closing numbers omit is that stocks were down much more dramatically earlier in the day before news came out that the economy held up relatively well during the October government shutdown. That helped cut losses, and Terra Nitrogen (NYSE: TNH), Textura (NYSE: TXTR), and Aerie Pharmaceuticals (AERI) all climbed sharply on the day.
Terra Nitrogen climbed 9% in sympathy with CF Industries (CF 0.91%), which owns the master limited partnership's general partner. CF gained more than 10% on news that it's looking at dropping more of its assets into an MLP, helping it take even further advantage of favorable tax laws governing the pass-through business entities. Cheap natural gas has allowed CF and Terra Nitrogen to look at potential expansion, and CF's decision to sell off its phosphate business to Mosaic gives it more latitude to use capital in shareholder-friendly ways. Yet CF's optimism also speaks to Terra Nitrogen's potential to deliver strong growth for years to come.
Textura gained 11% as the cloud-based construction-industry software maker finalized its acquisition of LATISTA, which helps construction-project participants collaborate on project-related tasks. By adding mobile solutions to its arsenal, Textura hopes to become the go-to solution for construction companies seeking to manage their projects more efficiently. With LATISTA having announced a new iPad-based building-information-model sharing program today, Textura investors got their first look at how the acquisition could pay off in the long run.
Aerie Pharmaceuticals jumped 13% as an analyst firm made positive comments on the stock in advance of its third-quarter results. After the bell, the developmental-stage pharma company reported a net loss of $10.9 million for the quarter. Yet with several potential glaucoma drugs in its pipeline, including its most advanced AR-13324 dual-action once-daily drug, Aerie is well positioned to begin phase 3 trials in the middle of next year in hopes of submitting an application for FDA approval by 2016.
