Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Down 1.1%; Chembio Diagnostics Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.06% to 26304.88 while the NASDAQ rose 0.83% to 9977.58. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.29% to 3,133.79.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,137,730 cases with around 116,960 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 923,180 COVID-19 cases with 45,240 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 552,540 confirmed cases and 7,460 deaths. In total, there were at least 8,199,830 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 444,360 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.8% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX, up 66%, and Cambium Networks Corporation CMBM, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 2.3%.

Top Headline

Oracle Corporation ORCL reported weaker-than-expected sales for its fourth quarter, while profit surpassed estimates.

Oracle reported quarterly earnings of $1.20 per share on Tuesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.16. The company reported quarterly sales of $10.40 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $10.67 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Energous Corporation WATT shares shot up 30% to $2.8646 after the company announced a partnership with Grepow Battery.

Shares of Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX got a boost, shooting 66% to $1.9719 after the company reported that its Mobile Energy Global unit has secured a 400-unit order from Jiangsu Journey Network Technology Co. for electric logistic vehicles.

Miragen Therapeutics MGEN shares were also up, gaining 42% to $1.33 after the company announced new preclinical safety, and efficacy data for its MRG-229 in Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Equities Trading DOWN

Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. CEMI shares tumbled 61% to $3.8699 after the company announced the FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization for its SARS-CoV-2 antibody test.

Shares of BioCardia, Inc. BCDA were down 26% to $2.16. BioCardia priced its 4.762 million share common stock offering at $2.10 per share.

InflaRx N.V. IFRX was down, falling 26% to $5.30 after the company reported topline results from exploratory Phase II part of adaptive randomized phase II/III trial of IFX-1 in COVID-19.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $37.96, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,735.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% Wednesday to $17.755, while copper rose 1.2% to $2.5945.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.74%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.22%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 0.54%, French CAC 40 rose 0.88% and UK shares rose 0.17%.

Economics

U.S. housing starts rose 4.3% to an annualized rate of 974,000 in May, while building permits climbed 14.4% to an annual rate of 1.220 million.

U.S. crude inventories climbed 1.2 million barrels for the week ended June 12, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a drop of 3.5 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub declined around 2.6 million barrels for the week. Gasoline supply dropped 1.7 million barrels, with distillate stockpiles falling 1.4 million barrels last week.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester is set to speak at 4:00 p.m. ET.