Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Drops 150 Points; Capricor Therapeutics Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks traded mixed toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones dropping around 150 points on Monday.

The Dow traded down 0.43% to 34,709.71 while the NASDAQ rose 0.42% to 14,228.48. The S&P also rose, gainng, 0.06% to 4,545.93.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 1.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Kaixin Auto Holdings KXIN, up 31% and Newegg Commerce, Inc. NEGG up 41%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 2.8%.

Top Headline

Science Applications International Corp SAIC reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

SAIC reported fourth-quarter FY22 revenue growth of 4% year-over-year to $1.78 billion and +1.4% organic, beating the consensus of $1.77 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.50 beat the consensus of $1.23.

SAIC sees revenue of $7.35 billion-$7.55 billion, lower than the consensus of $7.61 billion.
It expects an Adjusted EPS of $6.80 -$7.10 versus the consensus of $6.84.

Equities Trading UP

Plantronics, Inc. POLY shares shot up 51% to $39.43 after HP announced it will acquire the company.

Shares of Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation HYMC got a boost, shooting 68% to $2.15 following reports regarding potential future investments from AMC CEO, Adam Aron.

Immunome, Inc. IMNM shares were also up, gaining 23% to $5.95 after reporting results for the fourth quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Capricor Therapeutics, Inc. CAPR shares tumbled 32% to $3.88 after the company reported topline results from its Phase 2 exploratory INSPIRE trial in severe hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Shares of NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corporation NMTC were down 48% to $1.16. Craig-Hallum downgraded NeuroOne Medical Tech from Buy to Hold.

Clever Leaves Holdings Inc. CLVR was down, falling 41% to $2.2780. Cowen & Co. maintained Clever Leaves Holdings with a Market Perform and lowered the price target from $6 to $4.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 6.6% to $106.36, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,939.40.

Silver traded down 1.6% Monday to $25.215 while copper rose 0.7% to $4.7320.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.14%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.14%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.42%. The German DAX gained 0.78%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.54% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.63%.

Economics

The US goods trade deficit shrank to $106.59 billion in February from a revised all-time high of $107.57 billion in the prior month.

Wholesale inventories increased 2.1% month-over-month to $814.8 billion in February.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' general business activity index for manufacturing in Texas fell to 8.7 in March from 14 in February.

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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 81,621,880 cases with around 1,003,460 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,020,720 cases and 521,060 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,842,410 COVID-19 cases with 658,920 deaths. In total, there were at least 482,187,020 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,148,510 deaths.