Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Surges 1.5%; Aclaris Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.42% to 30,944.82 while the NASDAQ rose 1.50% to 13,193.24. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.85% to 3,800.32.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 24,079,200 cases with around 399,000 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,581,820 confirmed cases and 152,550 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,511,770 COVID-19 cases with 210,290 deaths. In total, there were at least 95,642,050 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,043,020 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gevo, Inc. GEVO, up 71%, and Tellurian Inc. TELL, up 19%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.7%.

Top Headline

Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs reported quarterly earnings of $12.08 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $7.47 per share. The company posted managed revenue of $11.74 billion, versus estimates of $9.99 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. ACRS shares shot up 209% to $18.14 after the company announced preliminary topline results from a 12-week Phase 2a trial of oral ATI-450 in moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, which showed durable clinical activity over 12 weeks.

Shares of Gevo, Inc. GEVO got a boost, shooting 71% to $10.95 after the company co-founder, Frances Arnold, a Nobel-Prize recipient was appointed to President-Elect Joe Biden’s Science Team.

TransEnterix, Inc.. TRXC shares were also up, gaining 88% to $3.89 after the company announced it has received CE Mark approval for the Intelligent Surgical Unit that enables machine vision capabilities on the Senhance Surgical System.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

ProPhase Labs, Inc. PRPH shares tumbled 26% to $11.79 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 3,000,000 shares of common stock at $12.50 per share.

Shares of Technical Communications Corporation TCCO were down 17% to $4.55 after the company informed Nasdaq it would be unable to provide a plan to regain Nasdaq listing compliance.

NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NRBO was down, falling 14% to $5.20 after the company reported a $10 million private placement.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $52.93, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,837.40.

Silver traded up 1.3% Tuesday to $25.20 while copper rose 0.6% to $3.6235.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.19%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.67% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.24%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.33%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.11% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.25%.

Eurozone construction output declined 1.3% year-over-year in November, while ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment increased by 3.9 points to 58.3 in January. The Eurozone current account surplus also increased to EUR 26.8 billion in November versus EUR 23.5 billion in the year-ago month. UK’s labor productivity increased 5.6% on quarter during the third quarter, while German consumer dropped 0.3% year-over-year in December.

Economics

The Treasury International Capital data for November will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here