Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 500 Points; Bluerock Residential Growth Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.42% to 34,862.49 while the NASDAQ fell 1.38% to 14,960.51. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.34% to 4,558.87.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 51,765,710 cases with around 827,320 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,746,830 cases and 477,550 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,213,760 COVID-19 cases with 617,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 275,075,790 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,372,280 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer staples shares fell by just 0.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Local Bounti Corporation LOCL, up 10% and Benson Hill, Inc. BHIL up 7%.

In trading on Monday, financials shares tumbled 2.7%.

Top Headline

Carnival Corp CCL reported weaker-than-expected revenue for its fourth quarter.

The cruise operator's quarterly revenue rose to $1.29 billion from $34 million in the year-ago period. However, analysts were expecting revenue of $1.41 billion. Carnival posted quarterly adjusted net loss of $2 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Society Pass Incorporated SOPA shares shot up 232% to $11.00 after the company was added to the Russell 2000.

Shares of Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, Inc. BRG got a boost, shooting 71% to $26.45. Blackstone agreed to buy Bluerock Residential Growth REIT in a deal valued at $3.6 billion, extending its push into U.S. rental housing.

Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF shares were also up, gaining 64% to $2.0850 after the company announced a liver cancer patient was cleared of all cancer lesions.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Summit Therapeutics Inc. SMMT shares tumbled 49% to $2.55 after reporting topline results for Phase III Ri-CoDIFy study for C. Difficile infection. The company said Ri-CoDIFy did not meet primary endpoint.

Shares of Spruce Biosciences, Inc. SPRB were down 26% to $3.7450. Spruce Biosciences shares jumped more than 102% on Friday after Oppenheimer initiated coverage on the stock with an Outperform rating and a $15 price target.

Optical Cable Corporation OCC was down, falling 25% to $4.86 after the company reported Q4 earnings results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 5.1% to $67.22, while gold traded down 0.6% to $1,793.80.

Silver traded down 1% Monday to $22.315 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.2985.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 1.38%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.83% and the German DAX 30 dipped 1.88%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.99%, French CAC 40 fell 0.82% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dipped 1.63%.

The Eurozone current account surplus shrank to EUR 20.5 billion in October from EUR 31 billion in the year-ago period. The goods surplus, meanwhile, narrowed to EUR 17.8 billion from EUR 39 billion.

Economics

The index of leading economic indicators rose 1.1% for November, versus analysts’ expectations for a 0.8% growth.

Check out the full economic calendar here