Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Falls 150 Points; Cognyte Software Shares Drop

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 150 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.45% to 34,764.86 while the NASDAQ fell 1.86% to 14,261.78. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.84% to 4,543.94.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP, up 19% and Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. ASPS up 4%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 1.8%.

Top Headline

The ISM services PMI rose to 58.3 in March from 56.5 in the previous month. Analysts were also expecting a reading of 58.3.

 

Equities Trading UP

Sunshine Biopharma, Inc. SBFM shares shot up 142% to $5.48 after the company announced that two of its designed mRNA molecules are effective at destroying cancer cells grown in culture.

Shares of System1, Inc. SST got a boost, shooting 29% to $21.28. The company on Monday reported Q4 and FY22 financials results.

Recon Technology, Ltd. RCON shares were also up, gaining 11% to $1.19 after the company's Co-Founder, Shenping Yin, raised his stake in the company to 50%.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cognyte Software Ltd. CGNT shares tumbled 31% to $8.09 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Shares of BRC Inc. BRCC were down 15% to $24.15 after Raymond James downgraded the stock from Outperform to Market Perform.

IMARA Inc. IMRA was down, falling 32% to $1.1042 after interim analyses of its Ardent Phase 2b trial of tovinontrine (IMR-687) in sickle cell disease (SCD) and Forte Phase 2b trial in beta-thalassemia.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $102.56, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,925.00.

Silver traded down 0.7% Tuesday to $24.43 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.7760.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.19%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.72%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.2%. The German DAX declined 0.65%, French CAC 40 fell 1.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.86%.

The S&P Global Eurozone Composite PMI increased to 54.9 in March from a preliminary reading of 54.5, while services PMI was revised higher to 55.6 in March from a preliminary estimate of 54.8.

The S&P Global France composite PMI climbed to 56.3 in March from 55.5 in February, while UK services PMI was revised higher to 62.6 in March from a preliminary of 61. German services PMI was revised higher to 56.1 in March from a preliminary of 55. France's industrial production dropped 0.9% from a month ago in February.

Economics

 

The trade deficit narrowed slightly to $89.18 billion in February from $89.22 billion in January. Exports from the US increased by 1.8%, while imports rose 1.3% during the month.

The S&P Global services PMI rose to 58.0 in March from 56.5 in February, but came in lower than the flash reading of 58.9.

The ISM services PMI rose to 58.3 in March from 56.5 in the previous month.

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,867,960 cases with around 1,008,670 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,029,830 cases and 521,440 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,012,790 COVID-19 cases with 660,380 deaths. In total, there were at least 492,986,230 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,180,110 deaths.