Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges Over 1800 Points; Baudax Bio Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 9.72% to 20,398.93 while the NASDAQ rose 7.09% to 7,347.16. The S&P also rose, gaining 8.23% to 2,421.51.

US reported a total of 46,400 coronavirus cases with around 590 deaths. Italy reported a total of at least 63,900 confirmed cases and 6,000 deaths, while Spain confirmed a total of over 35,200 coronavirus cases. Mainland China reported 78 new cases on Monday. In total, there are at least 387,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 16,700 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 10.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Apergy Corporation APY, up 33%, and Oceaneering International, Inc. OII, up 30%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 3.3%.

Top Headline

IHS Markit Ltd. INFO reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday.

IHS Markit reported quarterly earnings of $0.66 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.64 per share. Revenue came in at $1.081 billion, slightly exceeding the consensus expectations of $1.08 billion.

Equities Trading UP

U.S. Gold Corp. USAU shares shot up 114% to $7.10. U.S. Gold reported updated Copper King economics showing NPV of $321.6 million and IRR of 52%.

Shares of ThermoGenesis Holdings, Inc. THMO got a boost, shooting 169% to $6.21 after the company reported year-end 2019 results and issued corporate update.

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE shares were also up, gaining 22% to $15.83 after climbing over 15% on Monday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Virgin Galactic from Equal-Weight to Overweight and lowered the price target from $30 to $24.

Equities Trading DOWN

Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. MIST shares tumbled 85% to $2.11 after the company said the Phase 3 study dubbed NODE-301 that evaluated its investigational therapy etripamil nasal spray for the treatment of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, did not achieve its primary endpoint of time to conversion of SVT to sinus rhythm compared to placebo over the five-hour period following the study drug administration. Piper Sandler downgraded Milestone Pharmaceuticals from Overweight to Neutral.

Shares of Hoth Therapeutics, Inc. HOTH were down 16% to $3.14 after surging over 35% on Monday. Hoth Therapeutics announced a proposed common stock offering.

Baudax Bio, Inc. BXRX was down, falling 47% to $2.30 after the company reported pricing of public offering of common stock and warrants.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $23.70, while gold traded up 6% to $1,661.60.

Silver traded up 7.3% Tuesday to $14.235, while copper rose 4.3% to $2.1915.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 8.40% the Spanish Ibex Index rose 7.82%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 8.93%. Meanwhile, the German DAX climbed 10.98%, and the French CAC 40 rose 8.39% while UK shares rose 9.05%.

Economics

The IHS Markit composite PMI dropped to 40.5 in March, compared to 49.6 in the prior month.

New home sales declined 4.4% to an annual rate of 765,000 in February.