Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Surges 240 Points; Aprea Therapeutics Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.79% to 30,441 while the NASDAQ rose 0.69% to 12,893.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.82% to 3,733.61.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 19,136,580 cases with around 333,140 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,207,870 confirmed cases and 147,900 deaths, while Brazil reported over 7,484,280 COVID-19 cases with 191,130 deaths. In total, there were at least 80,852,620 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,766,330 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares climbed 1.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Fluent, Inc. FLNT, up 16%, and Yelp Inc. YELP, up 13%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

President Donald Trump has signed the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, which was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate with an overwhelming majority last week.

On Monday, the House will vote to increase payments to individuals from $600 to $2,000 — a family of four would receive $5,200 under the proposal.

 

Equities Trading UP

AeroCentury Corp. ACY shares shot up 1314% to $38.04 after the company reported that the NYSE accepted its plan for continued listing.

Shares of Aqua Metals, Inc. AQMS got a boost, shooting 44% to $3.3613 after the company completed its V1.25L electrolyzer program on time and under budget.

Peabody Energy Corporation BTU shares were also up, gaining 44% to $2.48 after declining over 7% on Thursday. The company, late Thursday, reported a deal with certain creditors on financial covenant relief and debt maturity extension.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. APRE shares tumbled 39% to $14.70 after the company's phase 3 trial of Eprenetapopt missed its primary endpoint.

Shares of Air T, Inc. AIRT were down 49% to $19.53. Air T shares jumped 294% on Thursday after the company announced plans to form a new aircraft equity vehicle.

Addex Therapeutics Ltd ADXN was down, falling 39% to $14.70 after the stock surged as much as 182% on Thursday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $48.11, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,885.20.

Silver traded up 2.8% Monday to $26.635 while copper rose 0.4% to $3.5775.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today driven by news of Britain and the European Union signing the long-awaited Brexit deal. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.67%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.62% and German DAX 30 gained 1.52%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 1.32% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.67%.

London's FTSE 100 is closed today for the Boxing Day holiday. Spain's retail sales fell 4.3% year-over-year in November.

 

Economics

The Dallas Fed's general activity index declined to 9.7 in December versus a reading of 12 in November.

The Treasury will auction 3-month bills and 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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