Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Down 100 Points; Organogenesis Holdings Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.19% to 28,459.00 while the NASDAQ fell 0.86% to 11,667.90. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.41% to 3,474.45.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,917,180 cases with around 216,900 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 7,307,090 confirmed cases and 111,260 deaths, while Brazil reported over 5,140,860 COVID-19 cases with 151,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 38,564,170 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,092,960 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares rose 1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included IRSA Propiedades Comerciales S.A. IRCP, up 4%, and KE Holdings Inc. BEKE, up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, communication services shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Walgreens reported quarterly earnings of $1.02 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.96 per share. The company posted sales of $34.70 billion, surpassing expectations of $34.37 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Cars.com, LLC CARS shares shot up 20% to $9.58 after the company issued strong preliminary sales guidance for the third quarter. Analysts at B. Riley FBR and Craig-Hallum upgraded the stock and raised their price targets.

Shares of SPI Energy Co., Ltd. SPI got a boost, shooting 33% to $9.56 after the company announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, EdisonFuture, entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Shaanxi Tongjia Automobile Co.

Organogenesis Holdings Inc. ORGO shares were also up, gaining 17% to $4.44 after the company announced strong preliminary Q3 and FY20 sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

Fastly, Inc. FSLY shares tumbled 27% to $90.11 after the company lowered its sales guidance for the third quarter due to lower revenue expected from its top client TikTok. Stifel and Baird also downgraded the stock.

Shares of VivoPower International PLC VVPR were down 21% to $9.04 as the company priced its underwritten public offering of 2,941,176 shares at $8.50 per share.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated VRTX was down, falling 20% to $218.51 as the company said it has decided to stop dosing in the Phase 2 proof-of-concept trial that is evaluating VX-814 in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, or AATD. The decision is based on the safety and pharmacokinetic observed to date in the trial, the company said. The company also opted to discontinue development of VX-814.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $40.68, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,909.30.

Silver traded down 0.3% Thursday to $24.325 while copper rose 1.3% to $3.0895.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.44%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.77%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 2.49%, French CAC 40 dropped 2.11% and London’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.73%.

French Consumer Price Index dropped 0.5% month-over-month in September.

Economics

Initial jobless claims rose to 898,000 in the week ended October 10 versus a revised reading of 845,000 in the previous week.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index climbed to 32.3 in October versus 15 in September.

The New York Empire State manufacturing index slipped to 10.5 in October from 17 in September.

US import prices rose 0.3% in September, while export prices increased 0.6%.

Domestic supplies of natural gas increased 46 billion cubic feet for the week ended October 9, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported.

US crude-oil inventories declined 3.8 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

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

Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak at 5:00 p.m. ET.