Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 800 Points; Cardlytics Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 3.10% to 26,720.51 while the NASDAQ rose 2.5% to 8,901.30. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.81% to 3,087.86. Coronavirus cases continued to rise outside China. South Korea confirmed 516 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, while Iran reported 586 new infections of coronavirus since Tuesday. Mainland China reported 119 new confirmed cases on March 3, down from 125 cases on March 2.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 4.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. OCUL, up 33%, and Viela Bio, Inc. VIE, up 45%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares rose by just 0.9%.

Top Headline

Dollar Tree, Inc. DLTR reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed estimates. The company also issued weak forecast for the first quarter.

Dollar Tree reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.79 per share on Wednesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.75. The company reported quarterly sales of $6.32 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $6.39 billion.

Dollar Tree sees first-quarter EPS of $1-$1.09 versus the $1.20 estimate and sales of $5.89-$5.99 billion versus the $6.03 billion estimate. The company sees fiscal year 2020 EPS of $4.80-$5.15 versus the $4.72 estimate and sales of $24.21-$24.66 billion versus the $23.68 million estimate.

Equities Trading UP

Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. APOP shares shot up 39% to $2.9093. The Israeli company said it has entered into a commercial binding Letter of Intent with medical cannabis company Cannadoc to acquire all rights to the use of Cannadoc products for the reduction of opioid use, including accumulated data as well as ongoing and pipeline of clinical trials.

Shares of AIM ImmunoTech Inc. AIM got a boost, shooting 35% to $2.47 after Joe Biden secured several key wins in Super Tuesday. Biden's more 'moderate' healthcare policies have been seen as more favorable for the sector.

Ocular Therapeutix, Inc. OCUL shares were also up, gaining 32% to $7.22. Raymond James upgraded Ocular Therapeutix from Outperform to Strong Buy and raised the price target from $7 to $15.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cardlytics, Inc. CDLX shares tumbled 37% to $54.26 after the company reported Q4 earnings results and disclosed an executive shakeup. Craig-Hallum also downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Shares of Recro Pharma, Inc. REPH were down 29% to $10.16 after the company reported results for the year ended 2019.

Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI was down, falling 17% to $5.63 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 sales. The company also issued FY20 EPS guidance below analyst estimates.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $47.00, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,638.00.

Silver traded up 0.2% Wednesday to $17.225, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.5835.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.36% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.12%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.91% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.19%, and the French CAC 40 rose 1.33% while UK shares rose 1.45%.

Economics

Private businesses hired 183,000 workers in February, versus a revised 209,000 gain in the earlier month.

The IHS Markit services PMI came in at 49.4 for February, versus a reading of 53.4 in the previous month.

The ISM non-manufacturing PMI climbed to 57.3 in February, compared to 55.5 in the prior month.

U.S. crude supplies climbed 785,000 barrels for the week ended February 28, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a gain of 3.5 million barrels.

The Federal Open Market Committee released its Beige Book report.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard is set to speak at 6:30 p.m. ET.