Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Jumps Over 300 Points; Entera Bio Shares Gain

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.95% to 32,602.94 while the NASDAQ rose 2.66% to 13,416.62. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.41% to 3,953.95.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 29,154,660 cases with around 529,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 11,285,560 confirmed cases and 158,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 11,202,300 COVID-19 cases with 270,650 deaths. In total, there were at least 118,119,330 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,621,980 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 2.4% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CooTek (Cayman) Inc. CTK, up 22%, and Innodata Inc.. INOD, up 24%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the first week of March from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.

 

Equities Trading UP

Entera Bio Ltd. ENTX shares shot up 211% to $4.9750 in reaction to positive topline data from the Phase 2 trial of EB613 in postmenopausal female subjects with osteoporosis (low bone mineral density).

Shares of Vir Biotechnology, Inc. VIR got a boost, shooting 38% to $64.60 after the company, and GlaxoSmithKline, announced VIR-7831 reduced hospitalization and risk of death in early treatment of adults with COVID-19.

PDS Biotechnology Corporation PDSB shares were also up, gaining 55% to $5.87 after the company announced its COVID-19 vaccine consortium received a commitment from the MCTI to fund clinical development and commercialization of a Versamune-based COVID-19 vaccine with an award of up to $60 million.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Celsius Holdings, Inc. CELH shares tumbled 22% to $47.24 after the company reported Q4 results

Shares of Just Energy Group Inc. JE were down 24% to $1.97. The company announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange have commenced delisting proceedings.

Fossil Group, Inc. FOSL was down, falling 16% to $15.10 after the company reported Q4 results and named Sunil Doshi as CFO.

 

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $65.79, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,723.50.

Silver traded up 0.3% Thursday to $26.205 while copper rose 2.8% to $4.1460.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.49%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.2%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.72%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.17% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.82%.

Economics

US initial jobless claims declined to 712,000 for the latest week from a revised reading of 754,000 in the previous week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 725,000.

The number of job openings increased by 165,000 from the previous month to 6.917 million in January.

Check out the full economic calendar here