Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Turns Positive; Renewable Energy Group Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks pared some of its losses with the Nasdaq turning positive midway through trading on Monday, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has led to increased US sanctions on Russia.

The Dow traded down 0.41% to 33,920.57 while the NASDAQ rose 0.73% to 13,794.09. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.02% to 4,383.71.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 2% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Renewable Energy Group, Inc. REGI, up 39% and Nordic American Tankers Limited NAT up 23%.

In trading on Friday, consumer staples shares fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

Dentsply Sirona Inc XRAY reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Dentsply Sirona’s Q4 FY21 sales increased 0.6% Y/Y to $1.09 billion, missing the consensus of $1.13 billion. Adjusted EPS decreased to $0.76 from $0.87 a year ago and below the consensus of $0.79.

The company said it expects adjusted EPS of $3.05 - $3.25, up 6% -13% Y/Y, compared to the consensus of $3.19.

Equities Trading UP

Renewable Energy Group, Inc. REGI shares shot up 39% to $60.89 after Chevron Corp CVX announced an agreement to acquire the company.

Shares of IntriCon Corporation IIN got a boost, shooting 37% to $23.93 after the company agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of Altaris Capital Partners for $241 million. IntriCon also posted Q4 EPS of $0.23.

Mullen Automotive, Inc. MULN shares were also up, gaining 83% to $1.26 after the company announced progress on its solid-state polymer battery pack development.

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Equities Trading DOWN

VEON Ltd. VEON shares tumbled 30% to $0.5601 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

Shares of Esports Entertainment Group, Inc. GMBL were down 32% to $0.7874 after the company announced pricing of a $15 million public offering of common stock and warrants.

EPAM Systems, Inc. EPAM was down, falling 32% to $261.15 after the company announced it withdrew Q1 and FY22 guidance due to uncertainties related to the events in Ukraine.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.6% to $94.86, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,905.30.

Silver traded up 1.7% Monday to $24.415 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.4840.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.28%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.58%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.14%. The German DAX declined 0.97%, French CAC 40 dipped 1.51% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 1.57%.

Spain’s current account balance swung to a deficit of EUR 1.31 billion in December versus a year-ago surplus of EUR 0.92 billion. Spain's annual inflation rate increased to 7.4% in February from 6.1% in January.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit increased to an all-time high of $ 107.63 billion in January from a revised level of $100.47 billion in the prior month.

Wholesale inventories increased 0.8% month-over-month to $798.2 billion in January.

The Chicago PMI dropped to 56.3 points in February from 65.2 points in January.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index climbed to 14.00 for February versus prior reading of 2.00.

Data on farm prices for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,567,750 cases with around 973,110 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,924,130 cases and 513,840 deaths, while Brazil reported over 28,768,100 COVID-19 cases with 649,190 deaths. In total, there were at least 436,400,520 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,970,270 deaths.