Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Slides 500 Points; Vaxart Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 2.1% to 23,150 while the NASDAQ fell 2.44% to 8,351.77. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.44% to 2,754.16.

The U.S. is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 787,960 coronavirus cases with around 42,360 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 204,170 coronavirus cases with 21,280 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 181,220 confirmed cases and 24,110 deaths. In total, there were at least 2,494,910 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 171,240 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares fell by just 1.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Uniti Group Inc. UNIT, up 13%, and Colony Capital, Inc. CLNY, up 5%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares tumbled 3.2%.

Top Headline

Coca-Cola Co KO reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Coca-Cola posted quarterly earnings of $0.51 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.44 per share. Its sales came in at $8.6 billion, versus expectations of $8.28 billion.

Equities Trading UP

The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. PECK shares shot up 54% to $4.1004.

Shares of Vaxart, Inc. VXRT got a boost, shooting 38% to $3.2650 after the company reported pre-clinical data for its oral coronavirus vaccine program.

TriState Capital Holdings, Inc. TSC shares were also up, gaining 26% to $13.09 after the company disclosed upbeat Q1 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CYCC shares tumbled 51% to $4.20 after the company reported the pricing of $20 million public offering. Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals jumped 35% on Monday following the announcement of a partnership to study two of its drugs to treat complications arising from COVID-19.

Shares of Summit Wireless Technologies, Inc. WISA were down 43% to $2.40. Summit Wireless priced its 2 million share offering at $3.26 per share.

Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR was down, falling 19% to $0.2211. Nabors reported a 1-for-50 reverse stock split.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 121.1% to $7.97, while gold traded down 1.6% to $1,684.50.

Silver traded down 5.2% Tuesday to $14.81, while copper fell 4% to $2.2265.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 3.39%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.88%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 3.59%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 3.99%, and the French CAC 40 fell 3.77% while UK shares fell 2.96%.

Economics

Sales of existing houses in the US dropped 8.5% to an annual rate of 5.27 million units in March.