Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Falls Over 500 Points; SCWorx Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 2.25% to 23185.53 while the NASDAQ fell 0.89% to 8,081.03. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.95% to 2,735.29.

The U.S. is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 557,500 coronavirus cases with around 22,100 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 169,400 coronavirus cases with 17,400 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 156,300 confirmed cases and 19,800 deaths. In total, there were at least 1,859,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 114,900 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 0.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GameStop Corp. GME, up 17%, and Nautilus, Inc. NLS, up 16%.

In trading on Monday, financial shares fell 3.6%.

Top Headline

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies agreed to long-awaited production cuts in a Sunday meeting.

The 9.7 million barrels per day cut (mb/d) fell below the market expectations. The meeting effectively ended a price war between oil powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Russia started in March. OPEC+ proposed a 10 mb/d in its last meeting on Thursday, but Mexico disagreed with the 400,000 mb/d it was asked to cut. Under the latest deal, the country is only required to cut 100,000 mb/d.

Equities Trading UP

SCWorx Corp. WORX shares shot up 247% to $7.94. SCWorks said it has received a committed purchase order from Rethink My Healthcare —a virtual healthcare network —for 2 million COVID-19 rapid testing units. The order also carries the provision for additional weekly orders of 2 million units for 23 weeks. The order is valued at $35 million per week, accoridng to SCWorks.

Shares of Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF got a boost, shooting 35% to $1.96 after the company announced it has received approval to initiate a pilot clinical study of its drug candidate, Piclidenoson, for the treatment of moderate-to-severe symptoms in coronavirus infected patients.

Biocept, Inc. BIOC shares were also up, gaining 53% to $0.5438 after the company said in a Thursday press release that it intends to begin accepting physician-ordered COVID-19 molecular diagnostic testing requests for processing beginning April 15.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sabre Corporation SABR shares tumbled 21% to $5.50 after the company reported offerings of senior secured notes and senior exchangeable notes.

Shares of AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. AMC were down 17% to $2.1550. AMC is in talks to hire bankruptcy law firm Weil Gotshal as theaters shutdown since mid-March due to coronavirus, the NY Post reported.

Qualstar Corporation QBAK was down, falling 21% to $1.95 after the company reported plans to delist from the NASDAQ and deregister its common stock.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.9% to $23.19, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,756.10.

Silver traded down 2.7% Monday to $15.625, while copper rose 2.7% to $2.32.

Euro zone

European markets were closed today for the Easter Monday holiday.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.