Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; AZZ Earnings Top Views

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.43% to 30,962.91 while the NASDAQ fell 0.83% to 13,091.90. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.55% to 3,803.74.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 22,410,060 cases with around 374,340 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,466,590 confirmed cases and 151,160 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,105,790 COVID-19 cases with 203,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 90,353,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,936,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares gained by 0.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Zomedica Corp. ZOM, up 89%, and TransEnterix, Inc. TRXC, up 85%.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell 1.6%.

Top Headline

AZZ Inc AZZ reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views.

AZZ reported quarterly earnings of $0.80 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $0.66 per share. The company posted sales of $226.62 million, missing estimates of $234.44 million. The company also announced a $100 million buyback program.

Equities Trading UP

GeoVax Labs, Inc. GOVX shares shot up 78% to $5.86 after the company was awarded NIH grant to advance COVID-19 vaccine development.

Shares of Mesoblast Limited MESO got a boost, shooting 35% to $11.66 after the company said its rexlemestrocel-L reduced heart attacks, strokes and cardiac deaths.

LM Funding America, Inc. LMFA shares were also up, gaining 26% to $2.69. LM Funding shares jumped 177% on Friday after the company announced filing of SPAC registration statement.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN shares tumbled 26% to $8.64 after the company priced its 1.81 million shares common stock offering at $8.30 per share. However, HC Wainwright & Co. maintained Applied DNA Sciences with a Buy and raised the price target from $12 to $18.

Shares of ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. CNET were down 20% to $2.48 after jumping 65%on Friday. ZW Data Action Technologies, last week, announced a strategic partnership with Yujun Capital.

Diginex Limited EQOS was down, falling 18% to $16.87 after surging 29% on Friday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $51.84, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,849.20.

Silver traded up 2% Monday to $25.12 while copper fell 1.6% to $3.6160.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.2% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.6%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.6%. Spain's industrial production dropped 3.8% year-over-year in November.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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