Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 1.5%; Nikola Shares Surge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.54% to 27699.01 while the NASDAQ fell 3.06% to 10967.25. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.06% to 3,356.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,301,450 cases with around 189,220 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 4,280,420 confirmed cases and 72,770 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,147,790 COVID-19 cases with 126,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 27,356,700 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 893,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares slipped by just 0.05% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE, up 8%, and Kenon Holdings Ltd. KEN, up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell by 3.2%.

Top Headline

Blood plasma and diagnostics company Grifols SA GRFS announced plans to completely acquire Alkahest Inc, a biopharmaceutical startup focussed on neurodegenerative and age-related diseases, for $146 million on a debt-free basis.

Grifols will buy the remaining equity in Alkahest without having to resort to additional borrowing, the company said in a statement.

Equities Trading UP

Albireo Pharma, Inc. ALBO shares shot up 44% to $39.52 after the company announced its phase 3 trial of Odevixibat met both primary endpoints.

Shares of Nikola Corporation NKLA got a boost, shooting 46% to $51.93 after the company announced a strategic partnership with General Motors. Nikola's Badger will be engineered and manufactured by GM.

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX shares were also up, gaining 39% to $11.42 after the company entered into an agreement with Arches Research to expand its coronavirus testing services.

Equities Trading DOWN

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. CRBP shares tumbled 75% to $2.2950 after the company announced topline results from its RESOLVE-1 Phase 3 study of Lenabasum which showed no significant differences in the primary and secondary endpoints.

Shares of ACM Research, Inc. ACMR were down 27% to $60.11 after Needham downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Tesla, Inc. TSLA was down, falling 18% to $344.82 potentially after the stock was not added to the S&P 500. Tesla, on September 4, completed sale of $5 billion of common stock through 'at-the-market' offering program previously disclosed on September 1.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 7.5% to $36.79, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,946.10.

Silver traded up 1.3% Tuesday to $27.07, while copper fell 1.1% to $3.028.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.78%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.81%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 1.01%, French CAC 40 fell 1.59% and London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.12%.

German exports continued to rebound for the third straight month, increasing 4.7% in July from June. The Eurozone economy contracted by 11.8% on quarter during the three months ended June, lesser than initial estimates for a 12.1% decline.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose to 100.2 in August versus a reading of 98.8 in July.

Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.