Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 50 Points; Heat Biologics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.16% to 31,436 while the NASDAQ rose 0.28% to 14,026.29. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04% to 3,917.21.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 27,097,880 cases with around 465,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,847,300 confirmed cases and 155,150 deaths, while Brazil reported over 9,524,640 COVID-19 cases with 231,530 deaths. In total, there were at least 106,548,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,327,480 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose 0.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Glu Mobile Inc. GLUU, up 35%, and Globalstar, Inc. GSAT, up 49%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed the $46,000 mark minutes after it broke $45,000.

The leading cryptocurrency has had a record-breaking day, surpassing the $44,000 levels earlier today, rising to $45,000 and then to $46,000 in a matter of minutes, according to a data platform CoinMarketCap (CMC).

The current BTC price spike follows the news about Tesla buying $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, according to its SEC filing.

Equities Trading UP

Applied UV, Inc. AUVI shares shot up 465% to $29.27. The company earlier announced closing on acquisition of Akida Holdings for 1.375 million shares and $901,274.96 in cash.

Shares of Heat Biologics Inc HTBX got a boost, shooting 39% to $11.62 on the heels of encouraging interim data from the Phase 2 trial evaluating HS-110, in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo (nivolumab) in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Inc. KALV shares were also up, gaining 142% to $37.80 as the company announced positive topline data from a Phase 2 clinical trial demonstrating statistically and clinically significant efficacy of KVD900 as an oral on-demand treatment for hereditary angioedema attacks.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Coty Inc. COTY shares tumbled 16% to $6.66 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q2 sales.

Shares of Ocugen Inc OCGN were down 19% to $12.83 after Chardan Capital downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral.

Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. EKSO was down, falling 22% to $10.20 after the company increased the size of the previously announced public offering to 3.9 million common shares at $10.25 per share, raising around $40 million in gross proceeds from the previous offer of 975,610 shares for $10 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $58.34, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,837.20.

Silver traded down 0.7% Tuesday to $27.375 while copper rose 1.5% to $3.7190.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.09%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.44% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.34%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.10%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.12% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.54%.

Germany’s trade surplus slipped to €14.8 billion in December from €15.1 billion a year ago, while current account surplus increased to EUR 28.2 billion from EUR 25.3 billion.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined to 95 in January from 95.9 in December.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 2.5% during the first week of February versus January.

The number of job openings increased by 74,000 from the earlier month to 6.646 million in December, the Labor Department reported.

Check out the full economic calendar here