Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 50 Points; Revance Therapeutics Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.05% to 35,275.96 while the NASDAQ rose 0.34% to 14,948.46. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 4,479.71.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 45,792,530 cases with around 744,540 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,081,310 cases and 452,320 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,644,460 COVID-19 cases with 603,320 deaths. In total, there were at least 241,556,670 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,915,950 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained by 0.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Advance Auto Parts, Inc. AAP, up 3% and PlayAGS, Inc. AGS up 1%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Albertsons Companies, Inc. ACI reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Monday.

Albertsons reported quarterly earnings of $0.64 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.45 per share. The company reported quarterly revenue of $16.50 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $15.81 billion.

Albertsons also increased its quarterly dividend by 20% to $0.12 per share. The next quarterly dividend will be paid on November 12, 2021, to stockholders of record on October 29, 2021. Albertsons raised FY21 EPS guidance to $2.50 - $2.60 (previously $2.20 - $2.30) versus the consensus of $2.28. The company also raised adjusted EBITDA to $3.95 billion - $4.05 billion (prior view $3.7 billion - $3.8 billion).

 

Equities Trading UP

Valneva SE VALN shares shot up 30% to $36.35 after the company reported VLA2001 met both co-primary endpoints in the Phase 3 pivotal trial Cov-Compare.

Shares of Evolving Systems, Inc EVOL got a boost, shooting 21% to $2.7099 after the company announced it will sell its activation and marketing businesses to PartnerOne Capital for $40 million.

Peabody Energy Corporation BTU shares were also up, gaining 17% to $18.64. Peabody said it sees preliminary Q3 sales of $670 million to $690 million.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Revance Therapeutics, Inc. RVNC shares tumbled 42% to $13.28. The FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) regarding Revance Therapeutics’ marketing application for DaxibotulinumtoxinA for Injection for moderate to severe glabellar (frown) lines.

Shares of Omeros Corporation OMER were down 25% to $5.83 after the company announced it received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA for the Biologics License Application for narsoplimab in the treatment of HSCT-TMA.

MannKind Corporation MNKD was down, falling 18% to $4.16 after the company announced the FDA issued a complete response to United Therapeutics regarding the New Drug Application for Tyvaso DPI.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.3% to $82.54, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,769.20.

Silver traded down 0.4% Monday to $23.255 while copper fell 0.7% to $4.6975.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.52%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.78% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.68%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.42%, French CAC 40 dipped 0.83% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.91%.

Economics

Industrial production dropped 1.3% in September, following a revised 0.1% drop in August.

The NAHB housing market index increased 4 points to a reading of 80 in October.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will speak at 2:15 p.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital report for August will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here