Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Cisco Beats Q3 Views

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded down 1.62% to 22872.05 while the NASDAQ fell 1.28% to 8750.13. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.47% to 2,778.52.

The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,390,760 coronavirus cases with around 84,130 deaths. Britain confirmed a total of over 230,980 coronavirus cases with 33,260 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 252,240 confirmed cases and 2,300 deaths. In total, there were at least 4,362,990 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 297,460 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX, up 19%, and Cellectis S.A. CLLS, up 13%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 3.2%.

Top Headline

Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO reported better-than-expected earnings and sales for its third quarter and issued strong earnings outlook for the current quarter on Wednesday.

Cisco reported third-quarter earnings of 79 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of 71 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $12 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $11.88 billion.

Cisco said it sees Q4 adjusted earnings of $0.72 to $0.74 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.71 per share. The company projects sales to decline 8.5%-11.5% year over year.

Equities Trading UP

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN shares shot up 52% to $13.52 after the company announced it has received FDA emergency use authorization for its coronavirus diagnostic assay kit.

Shares of Akers Biosciences, Inc. AKER got a boost, shooting 39% to $4.91.

AIM ImmunoTech Inc. AIM shares were also up, gaining 37% to $ 21.19 after the company received FDA approval for the first human ampligen trial in coronavirus patients with cancer. The company also reported Q1 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. CTMX shares tumbled 36% to $9.26 after the company highlighted details of presentations at the ASCO.

Shares of Comstock Resources, Inc. CRK were down 30% to $4.53 after the company reported the commencement of a 40 million share common stock offering.

Virtusa Corporation VRTU was down, falling 30% to $22.33 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 results. William Blair downgraded Virtusa from Outperform to Market Perform.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 4.2% to $26.34, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,723.40.

Silver traded up 0.6% Thursday to $15.77, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.339.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 1.8%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1.8%, and the French CAC 40 fell 2% while UK shares fell 2.4%.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims fell to 2.98 million last week, from 3.17 million in the last week of April. Economists had forecasted 2.5 million. Continuing jobless claims for the week of May 3 struck 22.83 million compared to the 25.1 million forecasted and the previous week’s 22.38 million.

U.S. import prices declined 2.6% in April, versus a revised 2.4% drop in March. Export prices in the US fell 3.3% in April versus a revised 1.7% decline in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.