The S&P 500 was up 0.6% in midday trading to 2,690.04.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 24,767.81.
The Nasdaq jumped 1.3% to 6,990.12.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury bond soared 3% to 2.48%.
The price of gold climbed 0.5% to $1,316.
HEALTHCARE
Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) in Irvine was down 1%. JPMorgan downgraded the heart valve maker’s shares to “neutral” from “overweight” while retaining a $126 price target. It expects fewer earnings beats in 2018 and little revenue from Edwards’ new ventures in mitral valves and other areas until 2019.
Endologix Inc. (Nasdaq: ELGX) in Irvine was down 6% to $5.05 and a $420 million market cap. JP Morgan downgraded shares in the maker of medical devices to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms to “underweight” from “neutral” and cut its price target from $6 to $5. Morgan’s outlook on Endologix had fallen during 2017 and it said a company recovery is far in the future.
TECHNOLOGY
NetList Inc. (Nasdaq: NLST) in Irvine was up 20% to 37 cents and a $26 million market cap. Shares in the maker of modular memory subsystems for high-performance computing had by midday traded at a rate four times its 90-day average.
AGRICULTURE/MANUFACTURING
OC-based cannabis companies were up as recreational marijuana use in California became legal Jan. 1.
Terra Tech Corp. (TRTC) in Irvine was up 19% to 46 cents and a $421 million market cap.
Cannabis Science Inc. (CBIS) in Irvine was up 10% to 12 cents and a $296 million market cap.
Kush Bottles Inc. (KSHB) in Santa Ana was up 6% to $4.37 and a $262 million market cap.
GreenGro Technologies Inc. (GRNH) in Garden Grove was up 8% to 8 cents and a $32 million market cap.
Nemus Bioscience Inc. (NMUS) in Costa Mesa was up 21% to 18 cents and a $6 million market cap.
The over-the-counter traded firms make and sell cannabis-related equipment, including hydroponics and containers; develop cannabis products, including for healthcare; or, as of yesterday, dispense marijuana.
For more on legal marijuana in California, see OC Insider “More to the Story” in the Orange County Business Journal print edition of Jan. 1, 2018.
