Dow Rises 50 Points; Harmony Biosciences Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 50 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 0.16% to 32,484.24 while the NASDAQ fell 0.75% to 11,681.12. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.19% to 3,969.86.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Energy shares jumped by 1.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Granite Ridge Resources, Inc. GRNT, up 6%, and Excelerate Energy, Inc. EE, up 8%.
• In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

Wholesale inventories in the US rose 0.2% month-over-month in February versus a revised 0.5% decline in the previous month.

Equities Trading UP

• Oscar Health, Inc. OSCR shares shot up 65% to $5.91 after the company announced the appointment of healthcare veteran Mark Bertolini as CEO effective April 3, 2023.
• Shares of Biomea Fusion, Inc. BMEA got a boost, shooting 77% to $27.32 after the company announced data from the initial cohorts of the ongoing Phase II study of BMF-219 in patients with type 2 diabetes; 100mg cohort 3 demonstrated an 89% response rate and 1% median reduction in HbA1c at day 28.
• Viking Therapeutics, Inc. VKTX shares were also up, gaining 56% to $14.27 after the company reported results from its Phase 1 trial of VK2735 for the potential treatment of various metabolic disorders.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc. HRMY shares dropped 22% to $32.44 after Scorpion Capital issued a short report on the company.
• Shares of Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. VORB were down 25% to $0.3992. Virgin Orbit is extending its pause in operation to pursue investment, CNBC reported, citing a company-wide mail by CEO Dan Hart.
• Monopar Therapeutics Inc. MNPR was down, falling 51% to $1.45 after the company announced it will be discontinuing its Validive Phase 2b/3 VOICE trial along with the active development of Validive after the company was informed the trial didn't meet the pre-defined threshold for efficacy.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $73.20 while gold traded up 0.4% at $1,962.00.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $23.17 on Tuesday while copper rose 0.3% to $4.0905.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.12%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.33%. The German DAX gained 0.04%, French CAC 40 rose 0.04% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.19%.

Consumer confidence in Italy climbed to 105.1 in March, recording the highest level since February 2022, while manufacturing confidence climbed to 104.2 in March. The manufacturing climate indicator in France declined to 104 in March from 105 a month ago.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.15%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 1.11% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.19%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.1%.

Retail sales in Australia increased by 0.2% from a month ago to AUD 35.14 billion in February, versus a revised 1.8% rise in the prior month.

Economics

• The US trade deficit in goods increased to $91.63 billion in February versus a revised $91.09 billion in the prior month.
• Wholesale inventories in the US rose 0.2% month-over-month in February versus a revised 0.5% decline in the previous month.
• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 2.5% year-over-year in January, recording the smallest rise since November 2019.
• The FHFA house price index rose 0.2% from a month ago in January.
• The Manufacturing Activity Index in the Richmond area climbed to -5 in March from -16 in the prior month.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 106,109,140 cases with around 1,153,810 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,707,520 cases and 530,840 deaths, while France reported over 39,758,770 COVID-19 cases with 165,530 deaths. In total, there were at least 683,403,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,827,620 deaths.