Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 100 Points; BeyondSpring Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.45% to 29,650.53 while the NASDAQ fell 0.24% to 11,870.69. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.49% to 3,591.72.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 11,360,120 cases with around 248,700 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 8,912,900 confirmed cases and 130,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 5,911,750 COVID-19 cases with 166,690 deaths. In total, there were at least 55,714,640 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,339,820 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares rose 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL, up 31%, and Nikola Corporation NKLA, up 16%.

In trading on Wednesday, health care shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

Target Corporation TGT reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Target posted quarterly earnings of $2.79 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.60 per share. The company posted quarterly sales of $22.60 billion, surpassing expectations of $20.93 billion.

Target’s comparable sales climbed 20.7% during the quarter, while digital comparable sales jumped 155%.

Equities Trading UP

Phoenix Tree Holdings Limited DNK shares shot up 73% to $4.16 after jumping around 75% on Tuesday.

Shares of Socket Mobile, Inc. SCKT got a boost, shooting 21% to $2.8450 as the company disclosed that the SocketScan S550 Contactless Membership Card Reader has achieved the Google Wallet Certification.

VAALCO Energy, Inc. EGY shares were also up, gaining 28% to $1.31 as the company reported transformational acquisition of additional working interest at Etame Marin Block Offshore Gabon from Sasol for $50 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

PaySign, Inc. PAYS shares tumbled 32% to $4.1450 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 earnings. DA Davidson downgraded PaySign from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $9 to $6.

Shares of Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. ONCT were down 28% to $2.99 after the company announced an increase in its previously announced bought deal offering to 7.25 million shares at $3.10 per share.

BeyondSpring Inc. BYSI was down, falling 14% to $12.20 after announcing a common stock offering of $75 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $42.07, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,871.10.

Silver traded down 1.1% Wednesday to $24.385 while copper rose 0.1% to $3.2005.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.44%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.59%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.87%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.52%, French CAC 40 rose 0.52% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.31%.

Annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 0.7% in October from 0.5% in September, while producer prices fell 1.4% year-over-year in October.

Economics

Housing starts rose 4.9% to an annual rate of 1.53 million units in October, while building permits were unchanged at 1.545 million.

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 7:00 p.m. ET.