Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Drops 250 Points; Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Surge

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Nasdaq dropping 250 points on Monday. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the United States and its allies are considering a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports.

The Dow traded down 1.24% to 33,198.65 while the NASDAQ fell 1.94% to 13,054.45. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.50% to 4,263.75.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 2.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI, up 37% and Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO up 39%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares fell by 2.5%.

Top Headline

Ciena Corporation CIEN reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Ciena reported first-quarter FY22 revenue growth of 11.5% year-on-year to $844.4 million, missing the consensus of $856.85 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.47 beat the consensus of $0.45.

Equities Trading UP

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. TXMD shares shot up 43% to $0.2999 after the company announced it would sell its vitaCare business to GoodRx for $150 million.

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY got a boost, shooting 49% to $24.16 after Ryan Cohen purchased a 9.8% stake in the company.

Houston American Energy Corp. HUSA shares were also up, gaining 143% to $4.63 amid continued momentum and an increase in the price of oil.

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Equities Trading DOWN

Atreca, Inc. BCEL shares tumbled 37% to $3.2650.

Shares of Niu Technologies NIU were down 16% to $8.81 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

bluebird bio, Inc. BLUE was down, falling 13% to $4.3750 after the company reported Q4 earnings results. Barclays also downgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight and lowered its price target from $13 to $4. bluebird bio also reported the resignation of CFO Gina Consylman, effective Apr. 3.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.4% to $118.46, while gold traded up 0.8% to $1,981.30.

Silver traded down 0.2% Monday to $25.745 while copper fell 4.6% to $4.7095.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.73%, London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.15%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.62%. The German DAX dropped 1.49%, French CAC 40 dipped 0.89% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.54%.

Retail sales in Germany rose 2% from a month ago in January versus a 5.5% decline in December, while new orders for manufactured goods rose 1.8% in January. The Halifax house price index in the UK jumped 10.8% year-over-year in February.

 

Economics

Data on consumer credit for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,917,520 cases with around 984,020 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,967,310 cases and 515,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,049,010 COVID-19 cases with 652,200 deaths. In total, there were at least 446,974,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,022,330 deaths.