Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Rise; Caterpillar Profit Beats Expectations

Following the market opening Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.53% to 35,678.96 while the NASDAQ rose 0.95% to 15,380.23. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.76% to 4,586.39.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 46,597,000 cases with around 761,850 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,231,800 cases and 456,410 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,766,160 COVID-19 cases with 606,720 deaths. In total, there were at least 245,904,790 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,990,070 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.


Leading and Lagging Sectors


Health care shares gained by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included HCW Biologics Inc. HCWB, up 92% and InflaRx N.V. IFRX up 37%.


In trading on Thursday, communication services shares rose by just 0.01%.


Top Headline


Caterpillar Inc. CAT reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Caterpillar reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $2.66 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $2.20 per share. The company’s sales came in at $12.40 billion, versus expectations of $12.48 billion.


Equities Trading UP


HCW Biologics Inc. HCWB shares shot up 98% to $5.80 after the company announced that it has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to proceed to evaluate its lead drug candidate, HCW9218, in a first-in-human Phase 1b clinical trial in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.


Shares of Digital Brands Group, Inc. DBGI got a boost, shooting 49% to $4.5050 after the company announced it launched on Amazon Prime and also launched an affiliate program.


Inspira Technologies Oxy B.H.N. Ltd. IINN shares were also up, gaining 54% to $6.22 after dipping over 58% on Wednesday.

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN

Rafael Holdings, Inc. RFL shares tumbled 80% to $6.11 after the company said Phase 3 clinical trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer did not meet its primary endpoint of improved overall survival.


Shares of Siyata Mobile Inc. SYTA were down 23% to $4.0800 after jumping over 83% on Wednesday.


IronNet, Inc.. IRNT was down, falling 21% to $12.85. The company recently announced it joined the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association.


Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.6% to $81.37, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,799.00.


Silver traded down 0.3% Thursday to $24.13 while copper rose 1.1% to $4.4380.


Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.1%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2%, French CAC 40 rose 0.3% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.2%.

Manufacturing confidence in Italy rose to 114.9 in October from a revised 113.2 in September, while consumer confidence fell to 118.4 from 119.6. UK car production dipped 41.5% year-over-year to 67,149 in September. Spain's annual inflation rate surged to 5.5% in October from 4.0% a month ago, while unemployment rate declined to 14.57% in the third quarter from 15.26%. The unemployment rate in Germany came in unchanged at 3.4% in September.


Economics


The US economy expanded an annualized rate of 2% on quarter in the third quarter.


US initial jobless claims dropped to a fresh 19-month low of 281,000 in the week ending October 23rd.


The pending home sales index fell 2.3% for September.


The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.


The Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for October is scheduled for release at 11:00 a.m. ET.


The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.


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

Check out the full economic calendar here

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