Mid-Afternoon Market Update: US Stocks Mostly Flat; Ekso Bionics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.04% to 25,435.34 while the NASDAQ fell 0.03% to 9,906.41. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01% to 3,050.31.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,381,360 cases with around 121,970 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 1,188,630 COVID-19 cases with 53,830 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 613,140 confirmed cases and 8,590 deaths. In total, there were at least 9,440,530 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 483,200 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 1.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BRP Group, Inc. BRP, up 16%, and FactSet Research Systems Inc. FDS, up 14%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares fell 2%.

Top Headline

Accenture Plc ACN reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Accenture posted Q3 earnings of $1.90 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.85 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $10.99 billion, surpassing expectations of $10.88 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. EKSO shares shot up 131% to $7.15 after the company received FDA clearance to market its EksoNR robotic exoskeleton.

Shares of Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. APVO got a boost, shooting 45% to $8.32 as the company said it will receive seven year quarterly royalty payment stream from Pfizer for sales of Rituximab Biosimilar.

Vaxart, Inc. VXRT shares were also up, gaining 51% to $4.81 after the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Attwill Medical Solutions Sterilflow, LP.

Equities Trading DOWN

Xeris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. XERS shares tumbled 43% to $3.02 after the company said it has commenced concurrent underwritten public offerings of $20 million in shares of its common stockand $60 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025.

Shares of Kaleyra, Inc. KLR were down 24% to $4.00 after the company reported pricing of public offering of common stock.

Magenta Therapeutics, Inc. MGTA was down, falling 17% to $8.01. Magenta Therapeutics priced its 7.5 million share public offering of common stock at $8 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.7% to $38.67, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,771.50.

Silver traded up 1.1% Thursday to $17.87, while copper rose 0.2% to $2.656.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.72%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.04%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.37%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.69%, French CAC 40 gained 0.97% and UK shares rose 0.38%.

Economics

US durable goods orders climbed 15.8% in May, versus a revised 18.1% decline in April.

The US economy shrank by an annualized rate of 5% during the first quarter.

The US goods deficit increased to $74.34 billion in May versus $70.73 billion in the earlier month. Exports dipped 34.9%, while imports declined 22.9% for May.

US initial jobless claims rose 1.48 million for the latest week, versus analysts’ estimates for a reading of 1.30 million.

Corporate profits in the US dropped 12.4% to $1,672.3 billion in the first quarter.

US wholesale inventories fell 1.2% in May versus a revised 0.2% rise in April.

Domestic supplies of natural gas gained 120 billion cubic feet for the week ended June 19, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a rise of 107 billion cubic feet.

The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index climbed to +2 in June, compared to -25 in the earlier month.

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