Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Up Over 250 Points; comScore Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.01 percent to 26,190.94 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.95 percent to 7,803.01. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.9 percent to 2,859.77.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Monday, the financial shares rose 1.9 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Golden Bull Ltd DNJR up 8 percent, and Noah Holdings Limited NOAH up 8 percent.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell 0.9 percent.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods Inc CALM reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter.

Cal-Maine reported quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share on sales of $383.992 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.43 per share on sales of $370.76 million.

 

Equities Trading UP

Pulmatrix Inc PULM shares got a boost, shooting up 100 percent to $2.5401 after the company reported that it entered into a binding term sheet with Cipla Technologies for development and commercialization of Pulmazole.

Shares of Adient plc ADNT shot up 12 percent to $14.48 after the stock was upgraded from Underperform to Neutral by Baird.

Jaguar Health Inc JAGX shares were also up, gaining 18 percent to $0.3300 after Oasis Capital, LLC disclosed a 9.99 percent holding in Jaguar Health.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

comScore, Inc. SCOR shares dropped 23 percent to $15.56 after the CEO left the company and the stock was downgraded by Loop Capital and Oppenheimer.

Shares of Qutoutiao Inc. QTT were down 7 percent to $10.73 after the company announced an 8.5 million share offering by the company and existing shareholders.

Lyft, Inc. LYFT was down, falling around 11 percent to $69.58 after the stock fell more than 10 percent on its first day of trading Friday. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Lyft with a Neutral rating.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6 percent to $61.09 while gold traded down 0.2 percent to $1,295.60.

Silver traded up 0.1 percent Monday to $15.115, while copper fell 0.3 percent to $2.9285.

 

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 1.2 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.1 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.1 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 1.35 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.03 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.52 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales fell 0.2 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent rise.

The manufacturing PMI for March is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

U.S. business inventories increased 0.8 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent gain.

The ISM manufacturing composite index rose to 55.30 in March, versus prior reading of 54.20. Economists projected a reading of 54.20.

U.S. construction spending rose 1 percent for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1 percent increase.