Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Kadmon Surges Following Acquisition News; UiPath Shares Drop

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.24% to 35,015.62 while the NASDAQ fell 0.61% to 15,280.10. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.20% to 4,510.78.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 40,280,090 cases with around 650,530 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,096,710 cases and 441,410 deaths, while Brazil reported over 20,914,230 COVID-19 cases with 584,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 221,964,340 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,586,680 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares gained 2% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Otter Tail Corporation OTTR, up 3% and CenterPoint Energy, Inc. CNP up 3%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell by 1.1%.

Top Headline

Korn Ferry KFY reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and issued strong sales forecast for the current quarter.

Korn Ferry reported quarterly earnings of $1.37 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.07 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $588.10 million, versus expectations of $540.51 million.

Korn Ferry said it sees Q2 earnings of $1.30 to $1.44 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.92 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP

Kadmon Holdings, Inc. KDMN shares shot up 73% to $9.15. Sanofi announced Wednesday it has agreed to acquire New York-based biopharma Kadmon in a $1.9 billion all-cash deal.

Shares of Candel Therapeutics, Inc. CADL got a boost, shooting 19% to $11.85 following Q2 results. Candel Therapeutics reported a Q2 loss of $1.46 per share.

ICU Medical, Inc. ICUI shares were also up, gaining 26% to $259.59. ICU Medical agreed to acquire Smiths Group plc's Medical division in a transaction that will create an IV therapy company and simplify customer workflow.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

UiPath Inc. PATH shares tumbled 9% to $56.82 after the company reported Q2 earnings results. Several analysts lowered their price targets on the stock.

Shares of Alector, Inc. ALEC were down 16% to $22.45. Alector announced that Shehnaaz Suliman and Robert Paul will be stepping down from their respective roles as President & chief operating officer and chief medical officer.

REV Group, Inc. REVG was down, falling 12% to $14.94 after the company posted downbeat Q3 sales and lowered FY21 sales forecast.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $69.28, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,795.00.

Silver traded down 1.2% Wednesday to $24.08 while copper fell 1.1% to $4.2350.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 1.06%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.63% and the German DAX 30 dropped 1.47%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.75%, French CAC 40 fell 0.85% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.75%.

France's trade deficit increased to EUR 6.96 billion in July from revised EUR 6.05 billion in the prior month, while payroll employment in the private sector increased 1.4% to 19.84 million in the second quarter. Retail sales in Italy slipped 0.4% in July.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 16.5% year-over-year during the first week of September.

The number of job openings increased by 749,000 to a new series high of 10.934 million in July, the Labor Department said.

The Federal Open Market Committee released its recent Beige Book report.

Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here