Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Gains 100 Points; NovoCure Shares Plunge

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.29% to 34,603 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 14,504.68. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.44% to 4,316.39.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,664,890 cases with around 604,710 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,411,630 cases and 399,470 deaths, while Brazil reported over 18,557,140 COVID-19 cases with 518,060 deaths. In total, there were at least 182,981,830 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,962,870 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 1.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. SLCA, up 17%, and Aspen Aerogels, Inc. ASPN, up 14%.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

Walgreens reported Q3 earnings of $1.38, beating the consensus estimate of $1.17. Revenue increased 12.1% Y/Y to $34.0 billion, slightly ahead of the consensus of $33.76 billion.

WBA raised FY21 guidance from mid-to-high single-digit growth to around 10% growth in constant currency-adjusted EPS from continuing operations.

Equities Trading UP

Pop Culture Group Co., Ltd CPOP shares shot up 99% to $60.15. Pop Culture Group shares jumped 405% on Wednesday after the company priced its IPO at $6 per share.

Shares of TRxADE HEALTH, Inc. MEDS got a boost, shooting 63% to $7.19 after the company's Bonum Health subsidiary signed a telemedicine service distribution deal with Big Y Pharmacy.

Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. GDYN shares were also up, gaining 23% to $18.44 after the company priced 10.1 million shares at $15.03 per share in a follow-on secondary public offering.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CTXR shares tumbled 25% to $2.61 despite the company announcing it received a positive recommendation by the Independent Data Monitoring Committee to continue the Mino-Lok Phase 2 trial as planned.

Shares of NovoCure Limited NVCR were down 15% to $187.95 after the company announced final results from its Phase 2 pilot HEPANOVA trial in liver cancer.

Aligos Therapeutics, Inc. ALGS was down, falling 15% to $17.27. Aligos Therapeutics priced a previously announced underwritten public offering of 4.4 million shares at $19 per share, representing a discount of 7% from the last close price of $20.3 on Wednesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.1% to $74.98, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,773.80.

Silver traded down 0.3% Thursday to $26.12 while copper fell 1.1% to $4.2435.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.62%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.26% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.47%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 1.25%, French CAC 40 gained 0.71% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.73%.

Italy’s manufacturing PMI edged lower to 62.2 in June from 62.3 in the previous month, while Spain’s manufacturing PMI clmbed to 60.4 in June from 59.4. Retail sales in Germany climbed 4.2% in May.

Economics

US-based companies reported 20,476 job cuts during June.

US initial jobless claims declined to 364,000 in the week ending June 26th.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI stood at 62.1 in June.

The ISM manufacturing PMI declined to 60.6 in June from 61.2 in May.

Construction spending fell 0.3% to an annual rate of $1.545 trillion in May.

Check out the full economic calendar here