Nasdaq Rises Over 50 Points; Greenhill Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded mixed midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining over 50 points on Monday.

The Dow traded down 0.20% to 33,359.71 while the NASDAQ rose 0.47% to 12,717.37. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.15% to 4,198.44.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 1.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included AST SpaceMobile, Inc. ASTS, up 7%, and Zhihu Inc. ZH, up 7%.
• In trading on Monday, consumer staples shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Nordic American Tankers Limited NAT reported better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Nordic American Tankers reported a first-quarter FY23 revenue increase of 461.1% year-over-year to $87.09 million, beating the consensus of $80.03 million. EPS for the quarter improved to $0.22 from a loss per share of $(0.14) in 1Q22, beating the consensus of $0.20,

Equities Trading UP

• Microbot Medical Inc. MBOT shares shot up 85% to $2.27 after the company announced it achieved a 100% success rate for the LIBERTY system in an extensive pre-clinical animal study performed by leading European physicians.
• Shares of AVROBIO, Inc. AVRO got a boost, shooting 78% to $1.38 after the company announced it would sell its gene therapy program to Novartis for $87.5 million.
• Greenhill & Co., Inc. GHL shares were also up, gaining 118% to $14.75 after Mizuho announced it would acquire the company for $15 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Rain Oncology Inc. RAIN shares dropped 87% to $1.25 after the company’s Phase 3 MANTRA trial of milademetan in dedifferentiated liposarcoma, did not meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival, compared to the standard of care, trabectedin.
• Shares of Volcon, Inc. VLCN were down 36% to $0.7002 as the company reported $9 million in securities offerings and pricing of previously announced public offering.
• Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ICPT was down, falling 29% to $9.61. FDA's Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 12 to 2—with two abstentions—that the benefits of Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva 25 mg, also known as Obeticholic acid (OCA), don't outweigh the risks in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients with stage 2 or 3 fibrosis.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $71.85 while gold traded down 0.4% at $1,974.60.

Silver traded down 1% to $23.83 on Monday while copper fell 1.3% to $3.6840.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.04%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.17% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.55% The German DAX declined 0.3%, French CAC 40 fell 0.32% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.88%.

Construction output in the Eurozone dropped by 1.5% year-over-year in March versus a revised growth of 2.1% in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.90%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.17% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.39%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.3%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong increased to 2.1% in April from 1.7% in the prior two months. The People's Bank of China kept its key lending rates unchanged at the May fixing. Japan's core machinery orders slipped 3.9% month-over-month in March.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.

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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 107,042,460 cases with around 1,164,340 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,986,930 cases and 531,830 deaths, while France reported over 40,054,860 COVID-19 cases with 167,050 deaths. In total, there were at least 689,013,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,880,500 deaths.