Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Down 2%; Xenon Pharmaceuticals Shares Jump

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.02% to 33,976.93 while the NASDAQ fell 2.14% to 14,255.08. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.23% to 4,303.43.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 43,683,760 cases with around 701,170 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,834,700 cases and 448,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,468,120 COVID-19 cases with 597,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 234,977,030 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,803,140 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped 1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE, up 8% and Antero Resources Corporation AR up 10%.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 2.5%.

Top Headline

US factory orders increased 1.2% over a previous month in August, following a revised 0.7% growth in July. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 1% rise.

 

Equities Trading UP

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. XENE shares shot up 70% to $26.57 after the company announced its phase 2 study of XEN1101 for the treatment of epilepsy met all primary and secondary endpoints.

Shares of Elmira Savings Bank ESBK got a boost, shooting 67% to $22.54 after the company announced it would be acquired by Community Bank System.

OpGen, Inc. OPGN shares were also up, gaining 13% to $3.10 after the company announced it received FDA clearance for Acuitas AMR gene panel. The company also provided a business update and announced preliminary unaudited revenue and cash position for Q3.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Amplify Energy Corp. AMPY shares tumbled 39% to $3.50 following a southern California ocean oil spill from a rig operated by Amplify Energy.

Shares of Offerpad Solutions Inc. OPAD were down 15% to $7.22 after the company, on Friday, announced a mixed shelf offering.

Omeros Corporation OMER was down, falling 14% to $7.38. Maxim Group downgraded Omeros from Buy to Hold.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2.5% to $77.78, while gold traded up 0.2% to 1,749.60.

Silver traded up 0.1% Monday to $22.36 while copper rose 1.8% to $4.2620.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.36% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.26%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.37%, French CAC 40 rose 0.03% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.08%.

The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain fell by 76,113 to 3.3 million in September.

Economics

US factory orders increased 1.2% over a previous month in August, following a revised 0.7% growth in July. Analysts, meanwhile, were expecting for a 1% rise.

Check out the full economic calendar here