Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Down 2%; iSpecimen Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.65% to 35,832.70 while the NASDAQ rose 0.67% to 16,164.51. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.87% to 4,738.91.

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 2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI, up 21% and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. CLMT up 12%.

In trading on Monday, communications services shares fell 0.1%.

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 120% to $10.80 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 37% to $13.02 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 $20.54 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

Niu Technologies NIU shares tumbled 15% to $20.34. Niu Technologies reported third-quarter FY21 sales growth of 37.1% year-on-year, to RMB 1.23 billion ($190.3 million), missing the analyst consensus of $217.3 million.

Shares of Cerence Inc. CRNC were down 18% to $85.83. Cerence reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 7.5% year-on-year to $98.1 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.66 beat the consensus of $0.56. Meanwhile, the company provided the first quarter and fiscal 2022 forecast below Wall Street view, amidst production challenges faced by its customers due to semiconductor shortages.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. AUPH was down, falling 26% to $20.96.
Biotech reporter Adam Feuerstein tweets '$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 0.7% to $76.50, while gold traded down 2% to $1,814.70.

Silver traded down 1.2% Monday to $24.495 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.4030.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.24%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.75% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.02%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.51%, French CAC 40 rose 0.35% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.27%.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here