Dow Dips Around 90 Points; La Jolla Pharmaceutical Shares Surge

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading as investors digested the recent jobs report for the month of June.

The Dow traded down 0.30% to 31,242.86 while the NASDAQ fell 1.85% to 11,419.99. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.92% to 3,863.48.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose by 0.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Enel Chile SA - ADR ENIC, up 3% and UGI Corp UGI up 2%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares dipped by 2.6%.

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 125% to $20.00 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 $6.15 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 63% to $0.39 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 $11.58 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 12% to $0.97. 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 $39.65 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 1.3% to $103.45, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,733.00.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $19.11 on Monday while copper fell 2.8% to $3.4245.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.01% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.43%. The German DAX declined 1.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.61% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.95%.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday

Check out this: U.S. Jobs Growth Might Slow To This Level In June, Here's The Major Macro Issues For Friday

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.