Nasdaq Tumbles 2%; Pliant Therapeutics Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading following the release of jobs report on Friday.

The Dow traded down 0.50% to 31,180.09 while the NASDAQ fell 2.08% to 11,392.80. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.15% to 3,854.54.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. PLRX, up 113% and Nyxoah S.A. NYXH up 11%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares dipped by 2.3%.

Top Headline

AZZ Inc AZZ reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Monday.

AZZ reported first-quarter FY23 sales growth of 36.8% year-over-year to $314.4 million, beating the consensus of $268.09 million. Adjusted EPS jumped 59.1% Y/Y to $1.40, beating the consensus of $1.03.

Equities Trading UP

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. PLRX shares shot up 114% to $19.00 after the company said its treatment for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis was well tolerated in a Phase 2a study.

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company LJPC got a boost, shooting 81% to $6.14 after Innoviva entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the company for $5.95 per share and an incremental $0.28 per share for additional cash proceeds, or an implied enterprise value of approximately $149 million.

Iterum Therapeutics plc ITRM shares were also up, gaining 72% to $0.4116 after the company announced that it has reached an agreement with the FDA under the special protocol assessment process on the design, endpoints and statistical analysis of a Phase 3 clinical trial for oral sulopenem etzadroxil-probenecid to begin in Q4.

Equities Trading DOWN

Fastly, Inc. FSLY shares tumbled 14% to $11.56 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight and lowered its price target from $18 to $12.

Shares of Freeline Therapeutics Holdings plc FRLN were down 20% to $0.8875. Freeline Therapeutics announced the presentation of safety and initial efficacy data from the first cohort of the Phase 1/2 B-LIEVE trial for FLT180a for hemophilia B.

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. DOCN was down, falling 14% to $39.84 after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded their rating of the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.1% to $103.60, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,736.60.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $19.145 on Monday while copper fell 2.8% to $3.4220.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.55%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.14% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.43%. The German DAX declined 1.42%, French CAC 40 fell 0.72% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.87%.

Economics

The Treasury will also auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 2:00 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 90,065,160 cases with around 1,045,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,587,300 cases and 525,340 deaths, while Brazil reported over 32,761,040 COVID-19 cases with 673,120 deaths. In total, there were at least 558,810,440 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,369,440 deaths.