Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Down 5.5%; Solid Biosciences Shares Jump

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.39% to 27889.07 while the NASDAQ rose 0.95% to 11,273.94. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.51% to 3,380.26.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,234,320 cases with around 206,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,312,580 confirmed cases and 98,670 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,810,930 COVID-19 cases with 143,950 deaths. In total, there were at least 34,018,140 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,014,990 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped 1.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, up 33%, and The Container Store Group, Inc. TCS, up 17%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 2.9%.

Top Headline

PepsiCo, Inc. PEP reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

PepsiCo reported quarterly earnings of $1.66 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.49 per share. The company reported sales of $18.09 billion, surpassing expectations of $17.23 billion.

Pepsi Co said it sees FY20 organic revenue growth roughly at 4%, and FY20 EPS of $5.50 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP

Solid Biosciences Inc. SLDB shares shot up 114% to $4.34 after the company announced the FDA has lifted the clinical hold placed on the Company's IGNITE DMD Phase I/II clinical trial.

Shares of Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd. ENLV got a boost, shooting 45% to $8.63 after the company announced positive top-line results of an investigator-initiated clinical trial of Allocetra in COVID-19 patients in severe/critical condition.

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company AEL shares were also up, gaining 40% to $30.75 after the company said it received an unsolicited non-binding proposal from Athene to acquire all outstanding shares of its common stock at $36 per shares in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Selecta Biosciences, Inc. SELB shares tumbled 32% to $1.6750. Selecta Biosciences and licensing partner Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB announced negative results for the Phase 2 COMPARE trial comparing the efficacy of SEL-212 to Horizon Therapeutics’ Krystexxa, the currently approved uricase in the U.S. for the treatment of chronic refractory gout..

Shares of LogicBio Therapeutics, Inc. LOGC were down 32% to $6.16 after the company reported the pricing of its 7 million share common stock offering at $6 per share.

ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. CNET was down, falling 28% to $1.45 after rising 53% on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 5.5% to $38.03, while gold traded up 1.1% to $1,915.60.

Silver traded up 2.8% Thursday to $24.160 while copper fell 5.4% to $2.8695.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.21%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.24%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.23%, French CAC 40 rose 0.43% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.23%.

 

Economics

US initial jobless claims dropped to 837,000 in the week ended September 26, from revised reading of 873,000 in the previous week.

US personal income declined 2.7% in August, while personal consumption expenditure gained 1%.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI declined to 53.2 in September versus a preliminary reading of 53.51.

The ISM manufacturing PMI declined to 55.4 in September versus 56 in August.

US construction spending rose 1.4% for August.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman is set to speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.