Dow Drops Over 100 Points; Verona Pharma Shares Jump

U.S. stocks traded lower toward the end of trading, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 100 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.34% to 32,720.07 while the NASDAQ fell 1.38% to 12,470.08. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.62% to 4,114.40.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Comstock Resources, Inc. CRK, up 8% and Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. PARR up 8%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1.7%.

Top Headline

U.S. non-farm labor productivity declined an annualized 4.6% in the second quarter compared to market estimates of a 4.7% decline. Unit labor costs in the US nonfarm business sector, meanwhile, jumped by 10.8% in the second quarter, following a revised 12.7% increase in the prior period and versus analysts’ estimates of a 9.5% increase.

Equities Trading UP

Verona Pharma plc VRNA shares shot up 37% to $9.51 after the company announced ensifentrine met its primary endpoint and secondary endpoints in the Phase 3 ENHANCE-2 trial for COPD. The company also reported Q2 earnings results.

Shares of BBQ Holdings, Inc. BBQ got a boost, shooting 46% to $17.12 after the company announced MTY Food Group entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company for $17.25 per share.

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. ATRA shares were also up, gaining 26% to $4.57 after reporting a profit for the second quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Quanterix Corporation QTRX shares tumbled 56% to $7.22 after the company announced Q2 results and provided an update on clinical development programs.

Shares of CorMedix Inc. CRMD were down 57% to $3.20 after the company announced it received a second Complete Response Letter from the FDA stating that the DefenCath NDA cannot be approved until certain deficiencies are resolved to the satisfaction of the FDA.

Aytu BioPharma, Inc. AYTU was down, falling 51% to $0.2842 after the company reported pricing of public offering of 12.505 million shares.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $90.71, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,810.20.

Silver traded down 0.8% to $20.445 on Tuesday while copper fell 0.2% to $3.5790.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.67%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.08% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.48%. The German DAX fell 1.12%, French CAC 40 fell 0.53% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.05%.

Retail sales in the UK climbed by 1.6% on a like-for-like basis for July from a year earlier, growing for the first time in five months.

Economics

 

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose to 89.9 in July from 89.5 in June.

U.S. non-farm labor productivity declined an annualized 4.6% in the second quarter compared to market estimates of a 4.7% decline. Unit labor costs in the US nonfarm business sector, meanwhile, jumped by 10.8% in the second quarter, following a revised 12.7% increase in the prior period and versus analysts’ estimates of a 9.5% increase.

 

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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 94,024,920 cases with around 1,059,210 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,174,650 cases and 526,770 deaths, while France reported over 34,079,650 COVID-19 cases with 152,710 deaths. In total, there were at least 590,430,150 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,439,010 deaths.