Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Jumps 400 Points; Sio Gene Therapies Shares Plummet

U.S. stocks extended gains toward the end of trading, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 400 points on Thursday.

The Dow traded up 2.07% to 33,992.18 while the NASDAQ rose 3.39% to 12,912.18. The S&P also rose, gaining, 2.75% to 4,299.16.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose by 4.3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Meta Platforms, Inc. FB, up 18% and iHuman Inc. IH up 15%.

In trading on Thursday, utilities shares rose by just 0.9%.

Top Headline

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.4% on quarter during the first three months of the year, following a 6.9% growth in the previous quarter. Analysts, on the other hand, were expecting for a 1.1% growth.

Equities Trading UP

T Stamp Inc. IDAI shares shot up 140% to $5.03. Trust Stamp reported the launch of its Biometric Multi-Factor Authentication (Biometric MFATM) solution.

Shares of Swvl Holdings Corp. SWVL got a boost, shooting 47% to $9.91 after the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Zeelo.

Statera Biopharma, Inc. STAB shares were also up, gaining 102% to $0.4219. Statera Biopharma entered into a non-binding term sheet with Immune Therapeutics Inc to sell its naltrexone and met-enkephalin rights.

Equities Trading DOWN

Teladoc Health, Inc. TDOC shares tumbled 40% to $33.42 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results and issued FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Shares of GeoVax Labs, Inc. GOVX were down 21% to $0.8114 after the company reported a drop in Q1 sales.

Sio Gene Therapies Inc. SIOX was down, falling 48% to $0.3151 after the company issued a corporate update. The company will terminate its licensing agreement with the University of Massachusetts to develop and commercialize gene therapy product candidates, including AXO-AAV-GM1 and AXO-AAV-GM2, for GM1 gangliosidosis and GM2 gangliosidosis, respectively. In parallel, the Company announced that it plans to explore and review a range of strategic alternatives.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.4% to $105.49, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,893.10.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $23.245 while copper fell 0.7% to $4.4420.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.62%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 1.13%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.41%. The German DAX climbed 1.35%, French CAC 40 rose 0.98% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.95%.

Spanish annual inflation rate fell to 8.4% in April from around 40-year high level of 9.8% in March, while unemployment rate rose to 13.65% in the first quarter from 13.33% in the previous three-month period. UK car production dropped 33.4% year-over-year to 76,900 units in March.

Economics

The US economy contracted an annualized 1.4% on quarter during the first three months of the year, following a 6.9% growth in the previous quarter. Analysts, on the other hand, were expecting for a 1.1% growth.

US initial jobless claims dropped by 5,000 in the week ended April 23rd, from a revised reading of 185,000 in the prior period.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 82,888,240 cases with around 1,019,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,068,790 cases and 522,690 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,399,000 COVID-19 cases with 663,160 deaths. In total, there were at least 511,620,850 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,253,660 deaths.