Nasdaq Turns Higher; SCYNEXIS Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks traded mostly higher midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite trading higher on Monday.

The Dow traded down 0.01% to 33,962.53 while the NASDAQ rose 0.26% to 13,246.15. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.22% to 4,329.75.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 1.1% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell by 0.8%.

Top Headline

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.16 in August versus a revised reading of 0.07 in July.

Equities Trading UP

TransCode Therapeutics, Inc. RNAZ shares shot up 242% to $2.27 after the company announced pre-clinical gliblastoma results with its lead candidate, TTX-MC138.

Shares of ESS Tech, Inc. GWH got a boost, shooting 17% to $1.6196. Honeywell International Inc HON entered into a strategic collaboration with ESS Tech to advance technology development and market adoption of iron flow battery (IFB) energy storage systems.

Biophytis S.A. BPTS shares were also up, gaining 67% to $1.5393 after the company and Skyepharma announced the signature of a partnership agreement for the production of regulatory batches of Sarconeos (BIO101) for severe forms of Covid-19.

Equities Trading DOWN

SCYNEXIS, Inc. SCYX shares dropped 32% to $2.2429 after the company announced it is recalling BREXAFEMME and temporarily halting clinical studies of ibrexafungerp due to the risk of cross contamination with a non-bacterial beta-lactam drug substance during the manufacturing process.

Shares of Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. BCLI were down 40% to $0.4910 after the FDA said it does not believe there is sufficient evidence to support that any of the assessed biomarkers for the company's ALS therapy is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit.

Morphic Holding, Inc. MORF was down, falling 21% to $28.82 after BTIG downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $89.35 while gold traded down 0.5% at $1,936.50.

Silver traded down 2.1% to $23.335 on Monday while copper fell 0.8% to $3.6655.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.93% London’s FTSE 100 fell 1.17% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 1.53% The German DAX fell 1.31% French CAC 40 declined 1.19%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.21%.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany fell to 85.7 in September from August's revised reading of 85.8. Producer prices in Spain fell 10% year-over-year in August versus a revised 8.6% decline in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.85%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index falling 1.82% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index declining 0.54%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, gained 0.1%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -0.16 in August versus a revised reading of 0.07 in July.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas declined to -18.1 in September from -17.2 a month ago.

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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 108,590,470 cases with around 1,176,090 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,520 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,729,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,919,340 deaths.