Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges Over 600 Points; Moleculin Biotech Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 2.73% to 23,272.17 while the NASDAQ rose 2.04% to 8,048.18. The S&P also rose, gaining 2.76% to 2,732.88.

The U.S. is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases around the world. U.S. reported a total of 399,900 coronavirus cases with around 12,900 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 146,600 coronavirus cases with 14,500 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 135,500 confirmed cases and 17,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 1,446,500 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 83,100 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 5.6% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Global Medical REIT Inc. GMRE, up 18%, and Outfront Media Inc. OUT, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, communication services shares rose by just 0.8%.

Top Headline

RPM International Inc. RPM reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views.

RPM International reported quarterly earnings of $0.23 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.21 per share. The company’s sales came in at $1.17 billion, missing the consensus view of $1.17 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Moleculin Biotech, Inc. MBRX shares shot up 126% to $1.27 after the company said that independent research found 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) to reduce replication of coronavirus by 100% in the Vitro Testing. The company also noted the 2-DG is an active compound in its WP1122 drug.

Shares of Ellington Financial Inc. EFC got a boost, shooting 70% to $8.87 after the company issued business updates. Ellington Financial declared a dividend of $0.08 per common share. As of March 31, 2020, Ellington had unrestricted cash of around $130 million.

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. NYMT shares were also up, gaining 49% to $1.99 after the company announced it will cut its outstanding repurchase agreement financing related to mortgage-backed securities to $150 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Youngevity International, Inc. YGYI shares tumbled 29% to $1.9250 after surging 275% on Tuesday.

Shares of Zomedica Pharmaceuticals Corp. ZOM were down 19% to $0.1364 after the company reported the pricing of $4 million public offering.

HEXO Corp. HEXO was down, falling 26% to $0.5098 after the company disclosed a common stock and warrants shelf offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $23.98, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,682.80.

Silver traded down 2% Wednesday to $15.185, while copper fell 0.4% to $2.2635.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.02%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.72%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.18%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.23%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.10% while UK shares fell 0.47%.

Economics

U.S. crude production dropped by 600,000 barrels to 12.4 million barrels per day for the week ended April 3, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 8.4 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 10.5 million barrels, while distillate supplies surged 476,000 barrels last week.

The Federal Open Market Committee released minutes of its latest meeting.