Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles Over 200 Points; BELLUS Health Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.67% to 35,728.62 while the NASDAQ fell 0.92% to 15,487.41. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.58% to 4,684.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 50,801,450 cases with around 817,950 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,697,860 cases and 475,630 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,189,860 COVID-19 cases with 616,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 270,510,600 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,324,320 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc. CDOR, up 8% and Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP up 6%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 2.5%.

Top Headline

Pfizer Inc PFE agreed to acquire Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc ARNA, a clinical-stage company developing therapies to treat several immuno-inflammatory diseases.

Under the agreement terms, Pfizer will acquire Arena for $100 per share in an all-cash transaction for a total equity value of approximately $6.7 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARNA shares shot up 80% to $89.80. Pfizer agreed to acquire Arena Pharmaceuticals for $100 per share in an all-cash transaction.

Shares of BELLUS Health Inc. BLU got a boost, shooting 52% to $8.49 after the company announced topline data from its Phase 2b SOOTHE trial of BLU-5937 in Refractory Chronic Cough. The data showed that the 50 mg and 200 mg BID doses of BLU-5937 achieved statistical significance on the primary endpoint with a 34% placebo-adjusted reduction in 24-hour cough frequency observed at day 28. 

Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. FHTX shares were also up, gaining 34% to $16.05. Loxo Oncology, an R&D group of Eli Lilly And Co LLY, and Foghorn Therapeutics collaborated to create oncology medicines by applying Foghorn's Gene Traffic Control platform.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Nisun International Enterprise Development Group Co., Ltd NISN shares tumbled 60% to $4.42 after the company priced its $77 million underwritten public offering of common shares and pre-funded warrants to purchase common shares.

Shares of IGM Biosciences, Inc. IGMS were down 46% to $26.88 after reporting Phase 1 trial data in advanced B-Cell malignancies. RBC Capital downgraded IGM Biosciences to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $51, down from $90.

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. BDR was down, falling 31% to $0.60 after the NYSE American said it will commence delisting proceedings against Blonder Tongue Laboratories.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $71.64, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,789.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% Monday to $22.325 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.2870.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.43%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.45% and the German DAX 30 slipped 0.01%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.83%, French CAC 40 fell 0.70% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.64%.

Wholesale prices in Germany surged 16.6% year-over-year in November following a 15.2% increase a month ago.

 

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.

Check out the full economic calendar here