Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps 250 Points; Avrobio Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.70% to 36,839.62 while the NASDAQ fell 1.57% to 15,583.77. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03% to 4,794.93.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 57,131,180 cases with around 848,880 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,960,260 cases and 482,010 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,305,070 COVID-19 cases with 619,240 deaths. In total, there were at least 293,085,990 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,467,810 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 3.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc. NEX, up 25% and Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. LBRT up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 58.7 in December from 61.1 in the previous month. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 60.

 

Equities Trading UP

Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. HRTG shares shot up 14% to $6.72 after the company announced a $25 million buyback.

Shares of NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc. NEX got a boost, shooting 26% to $4.8712 after the company issued an operational update and guidance for the fourth quarter. The company said it expects Q4 revenue of $500-$510 million, reflecting a surge of more than 25% from Q3 2021.

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. TXMD shares were also up, gaining 24% to $0.4875 after it announced that the FDA approved a low dose version of Bijuva, an oral hormone therapy to treat women with vasomotor symptoms due to menopause.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

AVROBIO, Inc. AVRO shares tumbled 33% to $2.70 after the company reported it is shifting its portfolio priorities to focus on other clinical-stage programs and extending its cash runway into the first quarter of 2024. It is deprioritizing its Fabry disease program.

Shares of iCAD, Inc. ICAD were down 22% to $5.84 after the company issued Q4 and FY21 sales guidance below estimates.

Gritstone bio, Inc. GRTS was down, falling 34% to $8.08 as the company shared data from the first cohort (10 µg dose) of the Phase 1 booster trial of self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) COVID-19 vaccine.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $77.14, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,813.20.

Silver traded up 1% Tuesday to $23.045 while copper rose 1.1% to $4.47.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.82%, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.63%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.39%. The German DAX gained 0.82%, French CAC 40 surged 1.39% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.81%.

The IHS Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI increased to 57.9 in December from a preliminary reading of 57.6, while consumer credit rose by GBP 1.2 billion in November. The annual inflation rate in France came in steady at 2.8% year-over-year in December.

The unemployment rate in Germany fell to 5.2% in December from 5.3% in the prior month, while retail sales in Germany rose 0.6% in November. The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain fell 76,782 from a month ago to 3.106 million in December.

Economics

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 58.7 in December from 61.1 in the previous month. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 60.

US job openings dropped to 10.6 million in November, from 11.1 million in the earlier month, the Labor Department said.

Check out the full economic calendar here