Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 300 Points; Communications Systems Shares Climb

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.87% to 34,565.88 while the NASDAQ fell 0.46% to 15,035.39. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.60% to 4,441.76.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 41,223,890 cases with around 662,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,289,570 cases and 443,210 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,006,420 COVID-19 cases with 587,060 deaths. In total, there were at least 225,389,500 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,642,050 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BELLUS Health Inc. BLU, up 17% and Adagio Therapeutics, Inc. ADGI up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, financials shares dipped by 1.5%.

Top Headline

The annual inflation rate eased to 5.3% in August compared to a 13-year high level of 5.4% in June. The monthly rate eased to 0.3% versus 0.5% a month ago.

Equities Trading UP

Communications Systems, Inc. JCS shares shot up 35% to $9.12 as the company declared a special dividend of $3.50 per share.

Shares of FuelCell Energy, Inc. FCEL got a boost, shooting 13% to $6.34 after the company reported better-than-expected Q3 results.

BELLUS Health Inc. BLU shares were also up, gaining 17% to $5.58. The company on Monday announced interim analysis from the Phase 2b SOOTHE trial of BLU-5937 in refractor chronic cough. HC Wainwright on Tuesday raised its price target on the stock.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Virpax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. VRPX shares tumbled 38% to $6.08 after the company priced a 6.67 million share common stock offering at $6 per share.

Shares of RedHill Biopharma Ltd. RDHL were down 33% to $4.9550 after the company announced preliminary top-line data from the Phase 2/3 study with opaganib showed that the study did not meet its primary endpoint.

Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. HLF was down, falling 21% to $42.76 after the company revised its guidance for the third quarter and full year 2021. The company said it sees Q3 adjusted earnings of $1.00 to $1.20 per share. Herbalife updated its full year adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $4.55 to $4.95 per share, while adjusted EBITDA is being lowered to a range of $860 million to $910 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $70.43, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,805.60.

Silver traded up 0.3% Tuesday to $23.875 while copper fell 1.3% to $4.3105.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.41% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.14%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.36%, French CAC 40 fell 0.36% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.39%.

Spanish consumer prices increased 3.3% year-over-year in August following a 2.9% increase in the previous month. The UK unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% in the three months to July.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose to 100.1 points in August from 99.7 points in the previous month.

The annual inflation rate eased to 5.3% in August compared to a 13-year high level of 5.4% in June. The monthly rate eased to 0.3% versus 0.5% a month ago.

Check out the full economic calendar here