Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 370 Points; Kansas City Southern Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.09% to 33,706 while the NASDAQ fell 1.30% to 13,733.94. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.97% to 4,122.80.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 31,738,700 cases with around 567,720 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 15,320,970 cases and 180,530 deaths, while Brazil reported over 13,973,690 COVID-19 cases with 374,680 deaths. In total, there were at least 142,142,960 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,031,230 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 1.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais CIG, up 5%, and Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure plc AY, up 3%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 2.7%.

Top Headline

The Procter & Gamble Company PG reported stronger-than-expected results for its third quarter.

P&G reported quarterly earnings of $1.26 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.19 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $18.10 billion, versus expectations of $17.92 billion.

P&G maintained its FY21 core EPS guidance of $5.12, versus analysts’ estimates of $5.67.

Equities Trading UP

CRISPR Therapeutics AG CRSP shares shot up 6% to $122.19 after the company amended its agreement with Vertex Pharmaceuticals for the collaboration, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of its CT001 in sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.

Shares of Nano Dimension Ltd. NNDM got a boost, shooting 11% to $7.39 after the company agreed to acquire DeepCube Ltd, a world leader in Machine Learning/Deep Learning (ML/DL) technology..

Kansas City Southern KSU shares were also up, gaining 16% to $298.48 after Canadian National confirmed its proposal to acquire the company for $325 per share.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNDX shares tumbled 28% to $13.99. Syndax announced updated positive data from the Phase 1 dose-escalation portion of the Phase 1/2 study of SNDX-5613 in patients with genetically-defined leukemia.

Shares of Troika Media Group, Inc. TRKA were down 21% to $3.2701 after the company priced its IPO at $4.15 per share.

Futu Holdings Limited FUTU was down, falling 22% to $137.99 after the company announced a 9.5 million ADS offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.4% to $62.50, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,778.40.

Silver traded up 0.1% Tuesday to $25.845 while copper fell 0.6% to $4.2110.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.9%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.89% and the German DAX 30 dropped 1.55%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 2.09% London’s FTSE 100 fell 2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 2.44%.

Germany's producer prices rose 3.7% year-over-year in March. The UK’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.9% in the three months to February.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 13.4% year-over-year during the first two weeks of April.

Check out the full economic calendar here