Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower After Trump Bans Travel From Europe

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 8.22% to 21616.47 while the NASDAQ fell 6.93% to 7400.58. The S&P also fell, dropping 7.40% to 2538.54. South Korea confirmed a total of 7,869 coronavirus cases, while Italy reported a total of at least 12,000 confirmed cases and 827 deaths. Mainland China reported 15 additional confirmed cases with 11 new deaths. In total, there are at least 127,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 4,700 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 5.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. INO, up 19%, and Tiziana Life Sciences PLC TLSA, up 8%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares tumbled 8.9%.

Top Headline

President Donald Trump announced suspension of travel from Europe for 30 days.

President Donald Trump, in an address to the nation on Wednesday evening, called for “strong but necessary action" to prevent further spread of the virus to the U.S. The president announced the suspension of all travel from Europe from Friday. Britain is not included in the travel ban.

Equities Trading UP

Predictive Oncology Inc. POAI shares shot up 58% to $3.30 after the company highlighted launch of new AI platform for vaccine and drug development targeting coronavirus, MERS and SARS.

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. INO got a boost, shooting 20% to $10.04. The recent catalyst is an update from the company regarding a new $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the testing and scale up of Cellectra 3PSP proprietary smart device for intradermal delivery of INO-4800.

Everspin Technologies, Inc. MRAM shares were also up, gaining 21% to $2.71. Everspin Technologies disclosed an amendment of its Spin-transfer Torque (STT-MRAM) joint development agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

Equities Trading DOWN

Minerva Neurosciences, Inc. NERV shares tumbled 65% to $2.20.

Shares of ZAGG Inc ZAGG were down 48% to $2.7643 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results and suspended review of strategic alternatives.

Eldorado Resorts, Inc. ERI was down, falling 35% to $16.19.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 6.2% to $30.94, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,639.80.

Silver traded down 1.2% Thursday to $16.57, while copper fell 2.6% to $2.436.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 6% the Spanish Ibex Index fell 6%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 5.1% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 6.1%, and the French CAC 40 fell 6.1% while UK shares fell 5.7%.

Economics

Initial jobless claims fell 4,000 to 211,000 for the latest week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 218,000.

The Producer Price Index fell 0.6% for February, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.1% decline.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.