The overall market is struggling to gain ground again today following increasing uncertainty in the euro zone, specifically Spain. A worse than expected outlook from FedEx also held stocks down in early trading. One bit of good news came from the housing industry today as homebuilder sentiment increased to its highest levels in more than 6 years.
Stocks in Europe are trading lower on concerns Spain will not look for assistance from the ECB.
The major stock indexes are mixed in late morning trading with the Dow up 20 points, the Nasdaq down 1.5 points and the S&P 500 down 1 point.
BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPAX) is up 15.52% today at $2.17. BPAX is up on heavy volume today with 3.03 million shares traded so far, well above its daily average of 784 thousand shares. BPAX shares have jumped more than 50% over the past week after being heavily oversold for the past few months. The company has a market cap of 47.93 million.
DARA BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:DARA) is up 16.19% today at $1.22. DARA has traded 2.9 million shares so far today, more than 10 times its average volume. DARA shares are up nearly $0.40 a share since last Wednesday. The company has a market cap of 14.43 million.
Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRX) is up 14.21% today at $1.77. CPRX has traded 1.6 million shares so far today, well above its daily average of 904 thousand shares. CPRX shares are up more than 23% over the past five days. The company has a market cap of 53.80 million.
Denison Mines Corp. (NYSE:DNN) is up 13.68% today at $1.6483. DNN has traded 7.7 million shares so far today, well above its daily average of 466 thousand shares. DNN saw a big increase in volume early this morning, but no news to explain the sudden uptick. The company has a market cap of 623.15 million.
Velti Plc (NASDAQ:VELT) is up 12.79% today at $9.70. VELT has traded 2.7 million shares this morning, more than double its typically daily volume. Velti announced this morning it has closed a 2-year, $27 million mobile ad deal with a major U.S. brand. The company has a market cap of 619.73 million.
Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE:CUR) is up 9.92% today at $1.44. CUR is up on heavy volume today with 2.7 million shares traded, 3 times its average volume. CUR shares have jumped about $0.30 a share over the past few days. The company has a market cap of 78.44 million.
About Martin Stephenson
