US Stocks Mixed; Nordic American Tankers Posts Upbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded mixed this morning, with the Dow Jones trading slightly lower on Monday.

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded down 0.01% to 33,422.94 while the NASDAQ rose 0.09% to 12,669.27. The S&P 500, also rose, gaining, 0.08% to 4,195.41.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Communication services shares rose by 1.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Grindr Inc. GRND, up 5%, and Vimeo, Inc. VMEO, up 5%.
• In trading on Monday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Nordic American Tankers Limited NAT reported better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Nordic American Tankers reported a first-quarter FY23 revenue increase of 461.1% year-over-year to $87.09 million, beating the consensus of $80.03 million. EPS for the quarter improved to $0.22 from a loss per share of $(0.14) in 1Q22, beating the consensus of $0.20.

Equities Trading UP

• Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. HEPA shares shot up 54% to $13.66 after the company announced results of its phase 2 study to treat liver function.
• Shares of VectivBio Holding AG VECT got a boost, shooting 39% to $16.28 after Ironwood Pharmaceuticals announced it would acquire the company for $17 per share.
• Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AVIR shares were also up, gaining 30% to $4.8115. Tang Capital Partners, Concentra sent acquisition proposal to Atea Pharmaceuticals with terms to acquire all of its outstanding common stock.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Rain Oncology Inc. RAIN shares dropped 84% to $1.6300 after the company’s Phase 3 MANTRA trial of milademetan in dedifferentiated liposarcoma, did not meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival, compared to the standard of care, trabectedin.
• Shares of Mallinckrodt plc MNK were down 35% to $4.09.
• Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ICPT was down, falling 18% to $11.19. FDA's Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee voted 12 to 2—with two abstentions—that the benefits of Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ Ocaliva 25 mg, also known as Obeticholic acid (OCA), don't outweigh the risks in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients with stage 2 or 3 fibrosis.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $71.37 while gold traded down 0.2% at $1,976.80.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $23.895 on Monday while copper fell 1.1% to $3.6905.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.5% The German DAX declined 0.4%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1%.

Construction output in the Eurozone dropped by 1.5% year-over-year in March versus a revised growth of 2.1% in the prior month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.90%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.17% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.39%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.3%.

The annual inflation rate in Hong Kong increased to 2.1% in April from 1.7% in the prior two months. The People's Bank of China kept its key lending rates unchanged at the May fixing. Japan's core machinery orders slipped 3.9% month-over-month in March.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.

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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 107,042,460 cases with around 1,164,340 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,986,930 cases and 531,830 deaths, while France reported over 40,054,860 COVID-19 cases with 167,050 deaths. In total, there were at least 689,013,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,880,500 deaths.