Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 100 Points; GeoVax Labs Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.33% to 30,996.80 while the NASDAQ fell 1% to 13,070.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.59% to 3,802.20.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 22,410,060 cases with around 374,340 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,466,590 confirmed cases and 151,160 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,105,790 COVID-19 cases with 203,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 90,353,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,936,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 1.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE, up 21%, and Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. TRCH, up 17%.

In trading on Monday, real estate shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

AZZ Inc AZZ reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views.

AZZ reported quarterly earnings of $0.80 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $0.66 per share. The company posted sales of $226.62 million, missing estimates of $234.44 million. The company also announced a $100 million buyback program.

Equities Trading UP

GeoVax Labs, Inc. GOVX shares shot up 76% to $5.81 after the company announced it was awarded an NIH grant to advance its COVID-19 vaccine development.

Shares of Mesoblast Limited MESO got a boost, shooting 37% to $11.90 after the company said its rexlemestrocel-L reduced heart attacks, strokes and cardiac deaths.

Impinj, Inc. PI shares were also up, gaining 21% to $52.10 after the company issued strong preliminary sales guidance for the fourth quarter.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN shares tumbled 23% to $9.02 after the company priced its 1.81 million shares common stock offering at $8.30 per share. However, HC Wainwright & Co. maintained Applied DNA Sciences with a Buy and raised the price target from $12 to $18.

Shares of Medigus Ltd. MDGS were down 15% to $2.21 as the company priced $8.4 million offering of ADSs at $2.3 per ADS.

Bit Digital, Inc. BTBT was down, falling 25% to $18.80 following a sharp decline in Bitcoin prices.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $52.31, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,848.60.

Silver traded up 2.1% Monday to $25.15 while copper fell 3.1% to $3.5580.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.67%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.8%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.78%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 1.09% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.32%. Spain's industrial production dropped 3.8% year-over-year in November.

Economics

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.