Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 400 Points; Plus Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 2.03% to 22,076.54 while the NASDAQ rose 2.58% to 7696.19. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.23% to 2,598.10.

The U.S. is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases around the world. U.S. reported a total of 143,000 coronavirus cases with around 2,500 deaths. Italy reported a total of at least 97,600 confirmed cases and 10,700 deaths, while Spain confirmed a total of over 80,100 coronavirus cases. Mainland China reported 31 new cases on Sunday. In total, there are at least 732,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 34,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 3.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI, up 34%, and Recro Pharma, Inc. REPH, up 21%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares dipped 1.2%.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM reported upbeat results for its third quarter on Monday.

Cal-Maine reported quarterly earnings of $0.28 per share on Thursday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.17 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $345.6 million, which exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $338.1 million.

Equities Trading UP

Owens & Minor, Inc OMI shares shot up 33% to $7.32. The company's CEO appeared on CNBC on Friday and indicated the company is expanding capacity to meet personal protective equipment demand.

Shares of Plus Therapeutics, Inc. PSTV got a boost, shooting 48% to $2.13 after the company announced it has entered into an agreement to license multiple rare cancer drug product candidates from NanoTx for an upfront payment of $400,000 in cash and $300,000 in stock.

SuperCom Ltd. SPCB shares were also up, gaining 157% to $1.26 after the company announced it has shipped Coronavirus quarantine compliance technology for an immediate pilot.

Equities Trading DOWN

TEGNA Inc. TGNA shares tumbled 23% to $10.27 following media reports that Apollo is no longer pursuing acquisition of Tegna.

Shares of Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corporation WMC were down 28% to $2.9050.

U.S. Gold Corp. USAU was down, falling 25% to $5.27 after the company reported a $2 million registered direct offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 6.6% to $20.10, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,647.90.

Silver traded down 1.7% Monday to $14.29, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.1465.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.5% the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.69%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.7%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.9% while UK shares rose 0.36%.

Economics

The pending sales index increased 9.4% year-over-year in February, versus a revised 5.8% gain in January.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index declined to a reading of -70 in March, versus 1.2 in the earlier month.