Mid-Day Market Update: NASDAQ Turns Higher; Soleno Therapeutics Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.93% to 27317.05 while the NASDAQ rose 0.17% to 9941.68. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.77% to 3207.61.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,961,180 cases with around 111,000 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 707,410 COVID-19 cases with 37,130 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 484,630 confirmed cases and 6,130 deaths. In total, there were at least 7,138,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 406,910 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. LTRPB, up 110%, and Lizhi Inc. LIZI, up 22%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares tumbled 3.6%.

Top Headline

Tiffany & Co. TIF reported a wider-than-expected loss for its fiscal first quarter.

Tiffany posted Q1 loss of $0.53 per share, versus year-ago net income of $1.03 a share and missing analysts’ estimates for a profit of $0.03 per share. The company posted sales of $556.00 million, versus analysts’ estimates of $700.79M million.

Equities Trading UP

Immuron Limited IMRN shares shot up 411% to $11.24 n the back of financing deal for one of its pipeline assets. Immuron said it has reached a funding agreement with the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center, or NMRC, to develop a combined Campylobacter and enterotoxigenic E. coli-specific anti-microbial preventative for clinical evaluation.

Shares of Exela Technologies, Inc. XELA got a boost, shooting 51% to $0.6480 after the company reported upbeat Q4 sales.

Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX shares were also up, gaining 68% to $1.04 after the company reported it sold $33 million worth of vehicles out of the Mobile Energy Global Expo Center in May.

Equities Trading DOWN

Soleno Therapeutics, Inc. SLNO shares tumbled 44% to $1.81 after the company said its Phase 3 trialevaluating once-daily Diazoxide Choline Controlled Release, or DCCR, tablets for patients with Prader-Willi Syndrome did not meet its primary endpoint of change from baseline in hyperphagia.

Shares of Adial Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ADIL were down 23% to $1.57. Adial Pharmaceuticals reported the pricing of $5.2 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market.

Conn's, Inc. CONN was down, falling 18% to $9.28 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 earnings.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $38.10, while gold traded up 1.1% to $1,723.20.

Silver traded down 0.3% Tuesday to $17.845, while copper rose 1.3% to $2.5985.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.13%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.78%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 1.44%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 slipped 1.3%, French CAC 40 fell 1.45% and UK shares fell 2.02%.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today.

The NFIB small business optimism index rose to 94.4 in May versus a reading of 90.9 for April.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 3.2% during the first week of June versus May.

The number of job openings dropped by 965,000 to 5.046 million in April, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.

U.S. wholesale inventories increased 0.3% in April, versus a preliminary estimate of a 0.4% rise.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.