Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Avaya Tops Q4 Views

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.77% to 35,876.58 while the NASDAQ rose 0.91% to 16,203.01. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.91% to 4,740.94.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 48,592,810 cases with around 793,650 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,518,900 cases and 465,910 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,017,270 COVID-19 cases with 612,720 deaths. In total, there were at least 257,960,480 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,170,620 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 1.8% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI, up 22% and Amplify Energy Corp. AMPY up 10%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Avaya Holdings Corp AVYA reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Monday.

Avaya reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue of $760 million, up 0.7% year-on-year, beating the consensus of $738.5 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.77 beat the consensus of $0.72.

Equities Trading UP

iSpecimen Inc. ISPC shares shot up 125% to $11.07 after the company announced it has been contracted to support new advanced research on COVID-19 seeking insights on its transmissibility, variants, outcomes, and testing validity among multiple population segments.

Shares of Astra Space, Inc. ASTR got a boost, shooting 31% to $12.53 after the company completed its first commercial orbital launch for the United States Space Force.

Vonage Holdings Corp. VG shares were also up, gaining 25% to $20.47 after the company announced it would be acquired by Ericsson in a $6.2 billion acquisition.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. GRCL shares tumbled 28% to $6.32. Gracell Biotechnologies, on Friday, said it was granted FDA orphan drug designation for its FastCAR-enabled dual-targeting CAR-T cell therapy candidate GC012F for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Shares of Snow Lake Resources Ltd. LITM were down 28% to $9.36. Snow Lake Resources gained more than 73% on Friday after the company priced its IPO at $7.50 per share.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. AUPH was down, falling 28% to $20.53.
Biotech reporter Adam Feuerstein tweets '$AUPH didn't just file a mixed shelf on Friday, it also entered into a $250M ATM stock sale agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald. The buyout speculation looks well past its expiration date.'

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $76.13, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,841.30.

Silver traded up 0.1% Monday to $24.795 while copper fell 0.8% to $4.374.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.7% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.1%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.3%, French CAC 40 rose 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.01%.

Spain's trade deficit widened to EUR 2.4 billion in September from EUR 1.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a three-month high of +0.76 in October from -0.18 in the previous month.

Existing home sales in the US rose 0.8% to an annualized 6.34 million in October.

The Treasury is set to auction 6-month bills and 2-year notes at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 3-month bills and 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here