Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 800 Points; Chembio Diagnostics Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 3.66% to 21,118 while the NASDAQ fell 3.53% to 7428.25. The S&P also fell, dropping 3.84% to 2,485.38.

The U.S. is now the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases around the world. The White House officials project the country's death toll from coronavirus to range between 100,000 and 240,000. U.S. reported a total of 189,600 coronavirus cases with around 4,000 deaths. Italy reported a total of at least 105,700 confirmed cases and 12,400 deaths, while Spain confirmed a total of over 102,100 coronavirus cases. Mainland China reported 36 new cases on Tuesday. In total, there are at least 873,700 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 43,200 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares slipped by just 1.2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Landec Corporation LNDC, up 7%, and British American Tobacco p.l.c. BTI, up 4%.

In trading on Wednesday, real estate shares dipped 7.1%.

Top Headline

UniFirst Corp UNF reported upbeat results for second quarter.

UniFirst reported quarterly earnings of $1.82 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.65 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $464.6 million, which exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $457.48 million.

Equities Trading UP

InflaRx N.V. IFRX shares shot up 54% to $5.87 after the company said it has enrolled and dosed the first patient into a randomized clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of IFX-1, its monoclonal anti-C5a antibody in patients with severe COVID-19-induced pneumonia. The trial is being initiated in the Netherlands.

Shares of Chembio Diagnostics, Inc. CEMI got a boost, shooting 39% to $7.10 after the company said it has launched in the U.S. the rapid DPP COVID-19 serological point-of-care test for the detection of IgM and IgG antibodies.

Safe-T Group Ltd SFET shares were also up, gaining 100% to $3.28 after reporting Q4 results. Revenue for the three-month period ended December 31, 2019 surged 141% year-over-year to $1,114,000.

Equities Trading DOWN

VIVUS, Inc. VVUS shares tumbled 57% to $1.56. VIVUS priced its 7.22 million share common stock offering at $1.60 per share.

Shares of ProPetro Holding Corp. PUMP were down 14% to $2.1550 following Q4 results. The company’s net income declined 34% from the previous quarter to $22.7 million, while revenue dropped to $434.8 million from $541.8 million in the third quarter.

SG Blocks, Inc. SGBX was down, falling 22% to $7.23. SG Blocks priced its 440,000 share common stock offering at $4.25 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $20.30, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,593.60.

Silver traded down 1.1% Wednesday to $14.00, while copper fell 2.7% to $2.169.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 2.9% the Spanish Ibex Index fell 3.04%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.97%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 3.94%, and the French CAC 40 fell 4.3% while UK shares fell 3.83%.

Economics

The Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported that private sector employment declined by 27,000 in March, versus economists’ expectations for a drop of 180,000 jobs.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI declined to 48.5 in March, versus a preliminary reading of 49.2.

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 49.1 in March, versus a reading of 50.1 in February.

U.S. construction spending fell 1.3% in February, versus a revised 2.8% increase in January.

U.S. crude supplies climbed 13.8 million barrels for the week ended March 27, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a gain of 4.6 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose 7.5 million barrels, while distillate supplies slipped 2.2 million barrels last week.