Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Rises Over 1%; Aclaris Therapeutics Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.01% to 34,634.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.29% to 13,921.88. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.04% to 4,228.15.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,378,760 cases with around 597,980 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 28,996,470 cases and 351,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 16,984,210 COVID-19 cases with 474,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 173,668,200 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,738,410 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 0.8% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NextDecade Corporation NEXT, up 60%, and Peabody Energy Corporation BTU, up 12%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Thor Industries, Inc. THO reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Thor Industries reported quarterly earnings of $3.29 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.34 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $3.46 billion, versus expectations of $3.01 billion.

 

Equities Trading UP

NextDecade Corporation NEXT shares shot up 60% to $5.56 after Evercore ISI upgraded the stock from In-Line to Outperform and raised its price target from $3 to $9.

Shares of Clover Health Investments, Corp. CLOV got a boost, shooting 70% to $20.30 amid increased retail investor interest in the stock.

Velodyne Lidar, Inc. VLDR shares were also up, gaining 21% to $12.31 after it was announced the company will join the Russell 2000.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. HOOK shares tumbled 16% to $11.11. HOOKIPA Pharma reported positive Phase 1 data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 study of HB-200 for the treatment of advanced human papillomavirus 16-positive cancers.

Shares of Histogen Inc. HSTO were down 8% to $0.9938 after the company reported a $6.5 million registered direct offering of 5.977 million shares priced at-the-market.

Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc. ACRS was down, falling 14% to $19.17. Aclaris Therapeutics announced preliminary topline results from its Phase 2a trial evaluating ATI-1777 for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD).

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $70.05, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,894.70.

Silver traded down 1.1% Tuesday to $27.715 while copper rose 0.4% to $4.5440.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.10%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11% and the German DAX 30 slipped 0.23%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.25%, French CAC 40 rose 0.11% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.06%.

French current account deficit shrank to EUR 1.4 billion in April versus a revised EUR 2.7 billion a month ago, while trade deficit increased to EUR 6.24 billion from a revised EUR 6.14 billion. Industrial production in Germany fell 1% in April.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index fell slightly to 99.6 in May.

The US trade gap shrank to $68.9 billion in April versus a record high $75 billion gap a month ago. Imports to the US fell $3.8 billion to $273.9 billion in April, while exports rose by $2.3 billion to $205.0 billion.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index jumped 14.5% year-over-year during the week ended June 5.

The number of job openings increased around 1.0 million from the prior month to a fresh record high of 9.286 million in April.

Check out the full economic calendar here