Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 100 Points; Ascendis Pharma Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.33% to 35,288.79 while the NASDAQ fell 0.62% to 14,948.24. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.53% to 4,472.56.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 38,223,210 cases with around 632,270 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 32,558,530 cases and 436,360 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,645,530 COVID-19 cases with 576,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 213,967,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,464,240 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares slipped by just 0.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Rafael Holdings, Inc. RFL, up 7% and KE Holdings Inc. BEKE up 5%.

In trading on Thursday, energy fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

Dollar General Corporation DG reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Thursday.

Dollar General posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.69 per share, exceeding market estimates of $2.57 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $8.70 billion, versus estimates of $8.59 billion.

Dollar General said it expects FY21 sales growth of 0.5%-1.5% and EPS of $9.60-$10.20.

 

Equities Trading UP

Pure Storage, Inc. PSTG shares shot up 15% to $23.99 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results and issued strong sales guidance.

Shares of Lordstown Motors Corp. RIDE got a boost, shooting 24% to $6.85 after the company announced its board of directors has appointed Daniel A. Ninivaggi as CEO and as a member of the board. Ninivaggi is the former CEO of Icahn Enterprises L.P.

Ascendis Pharma A/S ASND shares were also up, gaining 25% to $154.42 after the company reported Q2 earnings results. Several analysts raised their price targets on the stock.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

SelectQuote, Inc. SLQT shares tumbled 45% to $7.95 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 earnings. RBC Capital downgraded SelectQuote from Outperform to Sector Perform and lowered the price target from $33 to $13.

Shares of Aditxt, Inc. ADTX were down 29% to $2.17 after the company priced its 4.58 million share offering at $2.40 per share.

RenovoRx, Inc. RNXT was down, falling 21% to $7.15 as the company priced its IPO at $9 per unit.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $67.63, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,792.40.

Silver traded down 0.7% Thursday to $23.605 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.2450.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.39%, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.75% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.48%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.29%, French CAC 40 fell 0.29% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.69%.

Loans to households in the Eurozone climbed 4.2% in July after rising 4.0% in the prior month. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator for Germany fell to -1.2 for September versus a revised reading of -0.4 a month ago.

UK factories produced 53,438 cars during the month of July, down by 37.6% from a year earlier. Italy's industrial sales increased 3.1% in June, while French manufacturing climate indicator rose to 110 in August.

Economics

The US economy grew by an annualized 6.6% on quarter in the second quarter, compared to 6.5% in the advance estimate.

US initial jobless claims rose by 4,000 to 353,000 in the week ending August 21st.

Corporate profits in the US surged 9.7% to a record high of $2.42 trillion in the second quarter.

US natural-gas supplies rose 29 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Treasury will auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium kicks off today.

Check out the full economic calendar here