Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc

Steel Dynamics issued weaker third-quarter earnings guidance, sending its shares down 4.1%. Xenon Pharmaceuticals announced it is temporarily pausing enrollment in its clinical studies for treatments for major and bipolar depression amid reports of side effects, and its shares plummeted 30.7%. Advanced Micro Devices rose 2.7% and Texas Instruments climbed 3.3%, both on the broader semiconductor rally.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals paused enrollment in its Phase 3 psychiatry studies for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder after higher rates of neuropsychiatric side effects, including confusion, somnolence, ataxia, and rare cases of psychosis. The company plans to adjust dosing through titration or lower doses to improve patient tolerance before resuming enrollment. Its X-NOVA2 trial for major depressive disorder had already enrolled 80% of its target 450 patients, with results still expected in Q1 2027, and Xenon will decide whether to resume the depression and bipolar trials after seeing those results. Needham cut its price target on Xenon Pharmaceuticals stock to $60 from $78 while keeping a Buy rating, removing all sales projections for major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder from its model for AZK, leaving the target to reflect only AZK's potential in epilepsy. Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold and slashed its price target from $90 to $46, citing safety concerns, while H.C. Wainwright kept its Buy rating and $74 price target, noting a pre-NDA meeting with the FDA raised no concerns about inadequate drug exposure levels. Analyst price targets now range from a low of $46 to a high of $100.

Xenon Pharmaceuticals plunged 24% in premarket trading after submitting a New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for azetukalner as a treatment for focal seizures in epilepsy while voluntarily pausing new patient enrollment in ongoing Phase 3 trials for major depressive disorder and bipolar depression. Netflix slipped 2.1% after Wells Fargo downgraded the streaming giant to Underweight from Equal Weight and cut its price target to $57 from $80, citing weakening engagement trends. Array Technologies fell 3.1% to $4.11 after UBS downgraded the solar tracking company to Neutral from Buy and cut its price target to $5 from $10, pointing to a shift from payment-in-kind to cash payments on preferred dividend obligations that UBS estimates will total roughly $162 million in cumulative cash payments through 2030. Steel Dynamics dropped 3.4% after guiding third-quarter 2026 earnings to $5.34 to $5.38 per diluted share, below the analyst consensus of $5.60. Frontline fell 6% as the tanker company went ex-dividend for a combined payout of $3.41 per share, made up of a regular second-quarter dividend of $2.61 and a special dividend of $0.80 funded by the sale of two very large crude carriers.