Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Silver Jumps Over 7%; Immuron Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.01% to 26949.66 while the NASDAQ fell 0.04% to 10,770.41. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.66% to 3,273.14.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 3,773,260 cases with around 140,530 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,098,380 COVID-19 cases with 79,480 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,118,200 confirmed cases and 27,490 deaths. In total, there were at least 14,508,890 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 606,200 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Nabors Industries Ltd. NBR, up 28%, and Tellurian Inc. TELL, up 37%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Coca-Cola Co KO reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter.

Coca-Cola posted quarterly earnings of $0.42 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.40 per share. The company reported sales of $7.20 billion, also exceeding expectations of $7.18 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Immuron Limited IMRN shares shot up 39% to $14.42 after the company said its IMM-124E — used to manufacture its flagship commercially available and over-the-counter gastrointestinal and digestive health immune supplements Travelan and Protectyn — has demonstrated neutralizing activity against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Shares of Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI got a boost, shooting 74% to $13.85 after the company announced preliminary results for the second quarter. Owens & Minor sees preliminary Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.18-$0.20.

Midatech Pharma plc MTP shares were also up, gaining 188% to $4.90 after the company announced a research collaboration for the Q-Sphera platform with a European pharmaceutical company.

Equities Trading DOWN

BIO-key International, Inc. BKYI shares tumbled 28% to $0.6225 after the company reported pricing of $21.6 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. ACAD were down 19% to $45.06 after the company announced negative top-line results from its 298 patient Phase 3 CLARITY study, which combined two identical, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies evaluating the efficacy, safety and tolerability of pimavanserin as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder. The company said the study did not meet the primary endpoint with statistical significance.

Cytosorbents Corporation CTSO was down, falling 14% to $9.88 after the company announced a proposed $40 million common stock offering. Cytosorbents announced preliminary second-quarter revenues of $9.8 million, a 61% year-over-year increase.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.9% to $42.01, while gold traded up 1.5% to $1,844.20.

Silver traded up 7.2% Tuesday to $21.65, while copper rose 1.9% to $2.9705.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.32%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.22%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.49%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.96%, French CAC 40 rose 0.22% and UK shares rose 0.13%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index climbed to 4.11 in June versus a revised reading of 3.5 in May.