Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Drops 2%; Pliant Therapeutics Shares Jump

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.76% to 35,098.84 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 15,376.87. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.33% to 4,520.38.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 40,019,200 cases with around 649,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,058,840 cases and 441,040 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,899,930 COVID-19 cases with 583,810 deaths. In total, there were at least 221,163,250 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,576,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained 0.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Onion Global Limited OG, up 19% and Kaival Brands Innovations Group, Inc. KAVL up 13%.

In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares fell by 1.5%.

Top Headline

Avantor Inc AVTR announced plans to buy Masterflex from privately held Antylia Scientific in an all-cash deal valued at $2.9 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. PLRX shares shot up 15% to $22.27 in reaction to interim results from a Phase 2a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging-based trial of PLN-74809 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

Shares of Surrozen, Inc. SRZN got a boost, shooting 15% to $8.43. Stifel initiated coverage on Surrozen with a Buy rating and announced a price target of $19.

RenovoRx, Inc. RNXT shares were also up, gaining 24% to $9.76 after the company announced it received new 510(k) clearance for its RenovoCath delivery system designed for targeted treatment of solid tumors.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

CorMedix Inc. CRMD shares tumbled 23% to $4.9701 after updating its resubmission timeline for the DefenCath marketing application. CorMedix has encountered delays at its third-party contract manufacturer. The Company was informed by the CMO that there are issues that are unrelated to DefenCath manufacturing activities.

Shares of Jaguar Health, Inc. JAGX were down 19% to $0.9407. Jaguar Health reported a 1-for-3 reverse stock split.

Forward Pharma A/S FWP was down, falling 17% to $6.56 as investors responded negatively to the Technical Board of Appeal (TBA) of the European Patent Office (EPO), dismissing Forward’s appeal to revoke the EP2801355 patent (355 patent) following the oral hearing. The TBA had made its decision after considering Forward’s appeal against the decision of the Opposition Division and third-party submissions from several opponents.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.4% to $68.35, while gold traded down 2.1% to $1,795.60.

Silver traded down 2.4% Tuesday to $24.215 while copper fell 1.3% to $4.2790.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.05% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.6%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.26% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.77%.

The Eurozone quarterly economic growth accelerated to 2.2% in the second quarter, while ZEW Indicator of economic sentiment for the Eurozone fell by 11.6 points to 31.1 in September. The number of employed persons in the region increased 0.7% on quarter in the second quarter.

The Halifax House Price Index in the UK climbed 7.1% year-over-year to £262,954 in August, while industrial production in Germany rose 1% in July.

Economics

No major economic data is due out today.

Check out the full economic calendar here