Crude Oil Falls; Nikola Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining around 1.5% on Monday.

The Dow traded down 0.16% to 34,446.91 while the NASDAQ rose 1.52% to 13,492.73. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.55% to 4,393.55.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 2% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and issued strong billings outlook for the year.

Palo Alto posted quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share, beating market estimates of $1.28 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.95 billion versus estimates of $1.96 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW shares shot up 15% to $242.11 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and issued strong billings outlook for the year.

Shares of Timber Pharmaceuticals, Inc. TMBR got a boost, shooting 99% to $2.82 as the company agreed to be acquired by LEO US Holding, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of LEO Pharma A/S, for a total transaction value of $36 million..

Moderna, Inc. MRNA shares were also up, gaining 10% to $111.46. Moderna announced that preliminary clinical trial data confirm its updated COVID-19 vaccine for the fall 2023 vaccination season showed a significant boost in neutralizing antibodies against EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 variants.

Equities Trading DOWN

Super League Gaming, Inc. SLGG shares dropped 47% to $0.1274 after the company reported pricing of $2.2 million underwritten public offering of 16,923,077 shares of common stock at $0.13 per share.

Shares of Napco Security Technologies, Inc. NSSC were down 47% to $20.36 after the company reported preliminary fourth quarter results and restatement of prior three quarters.

Nikola Corporation NKLA was down, falling 21% to $1.5450 after the company announced an agreement to sell up to $325 million in aggregate principle amount of senior convertible notes.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $80.72 while gold traded up 0.4% at $1,923.80.

Silver traded up 2.8% to $23.36 on Monday while copper rose 0.5% to $3.7230.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.05% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.06% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index slipped 0.05% The German DAX gained 0.19% French CAC 40 rose 0.47%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index jumped 0.81%.

Producer prices in Germany fell by 6.0% year-over-year in July compared to a 0.1% increase in June.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 rising 0.37%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 1.24% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.82%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.41%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong eased to 1.8% in July from 1.9% in the prior month.

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 107,805,870 cases with around 1,172,450 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,996,590 cases and 531,920 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 693,688,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,908,730 deaths.