Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls Over 400 Points; NovaBay Pharmaceuticals Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.79% to 23807.82 while the NASDAQ fell 0.49% to 8607.34. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.28% to 2837.73.

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 759,780 coronavirus cases with around 40,680 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 200,210 coronavirus cases with 20,850 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 178,970 confirmed cases and 23,660 deaths. In total, there were at least 2,416,130 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 165,930 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares rose 0.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included VBI Vaccines Inc. VBIV, up 22%, and Novavax, Inc. NVAX, up 27%.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares tumbled 3%.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company HAL reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter.

Halliburton posted quarterly earnings of $0.31 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.24 per share. Its sales came in at $5.04 billion, versus expectations of $5.01 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CYCC shares shot up 55% to $9.92 after the company announced a collaboration agreement with the University of Edinburgh to study its CDK Inhibitors to reduce runaway inflammation in coronavirus disease.

Shares of NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. NBY got a boost, shooting 76% to $1.3350 after the company announced it has signed an agreement to distribute coronavirus testing kits to US healthcare professionals.

Immuron Limited IMRN shares were also up, gaining 44% to $3.3899 after the company disclosed a 95% year-over-year rise in its North American Travelan sales.

Equities Trading DOWN

Akazoo S.A. SONG shares tumbled 29% to $1.91.

Shares of Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. IVR were down 22% to $2.8858 after rising 15% on Friday.

Chaparral Energy, Inc. CHAP was down, falling 11% to $0.2426 after the company's CFO resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 147.1% to -$8.61, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,709.60.

Silver traded up 2% Monday to $15.605, while copper fell 1.2% to $2.3155.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.67%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.64%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.05%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.47%, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.65% while UK shares rose 0.45%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index declined to -4.19 in March, versus a revised reading of 0.06 in February.