Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Jumps 150 Points; Selecta Biosciences Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.07% to 27801.83 while the NASDAQ rose 1.34% to 11,318. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.43% to 3,377.47.

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

Communication services shares jumped 1.2% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Eros STX Global Corporation ESGC, up 14%, and Lizhi Inc. LIZI, up 14%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell by 3%.

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 107% to $4.20 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 AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. AMAG got a boost, shooting 45% to $13.60 following a report suggesting Apollo's Covis said they are in talks to buy the company..

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company AEL shares were also up, gaining 41% to $31.09 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 31% to $1.7150. 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 31% to $6.25 after the company reported the pricing of its 7 million share common stock offering at $6 per share.

Zosano Pharma Corporation ZSAN was down, falling 56% to $0.713 after the company announced it has received a discipline review letter from the FDA for the Qtrypta new drug application.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 4.4% to $38.46, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,912.00.

Silver traded up 1.9% Thursday to $23.940 while copper fell 5.7% to $2.8595.

Euro zone

European shares closed 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.