Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 300 Points; Omeros Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.09% to 27734 while the NASDAQ fell 0.45% to 10961.67. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.17% to 3,356.99.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,045,560 cases with around 162,930 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,035,420 COVID-19 cases with 101,040 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,215,070 confirmed cases and 44,380 deaths. In total, there were at least 19,876,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 731,570 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained 2.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Penn Penn Virginia Corporation PVAC, up 17%, and Peabody Energy Corporation BTU, up 12%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

Marriott International Inc MAR reported a wider-than-expected loss for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

Marriott International posted a Q2 loss of $0.64 per share, wider than analysts’ estimates for a loss of $0.42 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.46 billion, missing expectations of $1.68 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Seres Therapeutics, Inc. MCRB shares shot up 346% to $20.70 after the company announced the results from its SER-109 Phase 3 ECOSPOR III study in recurrent C. difficile infection met the primary endpoint.

Shares of Omeros Corporation OMER got a boost, shooting 55% to $21.87 after the biopharma announced results from a compassionate use study of its lead investigational human monoclonal antibody. Omeros said its narsoplimab, when administered to six COVID-19 patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndromewho initially required mechanical ventilation, led to recovery, survival and discharge from the hospital.

Trevena, Inc. TRVN shares were also up, gaining 27% to $3.0250 after the company disclosed that the FDA has approved its OLINVYK injection.

Equities Trading DOWN

Eastman Kodak Company KODK shares tumbled 28% to $10.67. The federal government is halting a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak for its generic drug-making foray until the company is cleared of insider trading allegations.

Shares of Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. RETA were down 33% to $105.39 following Q2 results. Reata Pharmaceuticals posted a Q2 loss of $1.23 per share on revenue of $3.07 million.

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. NAVB was down, falling 28% to $3.42 after the company signed binding framework for commercialization partnership with Jubilant Radiopharma. The company also secured $25 million of committed financing.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2.3% to $42.17, while gold traded up 0.6% to $2,041.00.

Silver traded up 6.6% Monday to $29.37, while copper rose 2.7% to $2.8685.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.49%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.69%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.10%, French CAC 40 rose 0.41% and UK shares rose 0.31%.

Economics

The number of job openings rose by 518,000 to 5.9 million in June, exceeding analysts’ estimates of 4.91 million.