Why U.S. Stocks Are Trading Lower; AZZ Earnings And More

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning as investors digested the recent jobs report for the month of June.

The Dow traded down 0.38% to 31,220.54 while the NASDAQ fell 1.67% to 11,441.36. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.93% to 3,862.94.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. PLRX, up 117% and Nyxoah S.A. NYXH up 14%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares dipped by 2%.

Top Headline

AZZ Inc AZZ reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Monday.

AZZ reported first-quarter FY23 sales growth of 36.8% year-over-year to $314.4 million, beating the consensus of $268.09 million. Adjusted EPS jumped 59.1% Y/Y to $1.40, beating the consensus of $1.03.

Equities Trading UP

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. PLRX shares shot up 117% to $19.25 after the company said its treatment for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis was well tolerated in a Phase 2a study.

Shares of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company LJPC got a boost, shooting 81% to $6.14 after Innoviva entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the company for $5.95 per share and an incremental $0.28 per share for additional cash proceeds, or an implied enterprise value of approximately $149 million.

ToughBuilt Industries, Inc. TBLT shares were also up, gaining 23% to $2.4750 after the company announced its Q2 gross sales through Amazon were $3.56 million, representing a 20% year-over-year increase.

Equities Trading DOWN

Fastly, Inc. FSLY shares tumbled 14% to $11.60 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight and lowered its price target from $18 to $12.

Shares of Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. LYEL were down 14% to $5.81.

DigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. DOCN was down, falling 13% to $40.41 after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded their rating of the stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.7% to $102.98, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,737.70.

Silver traded down 0.5% to $19.15 on Monday while copper fell 3% to $3.4155.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.6%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. The German DAX declined 1.3%, French CAC 40 fell 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.7%.

Italy’s industrial production fell 1.1% from a month ago in May versus a revised 1.4% growth in the April. France recorded a current account deficit of EUR 3.9 billion in May versus a revised EUR 2.7 billion gap in the prior month, while trade deficit increased to EUR 13 billion in May from a revised EUR 12.7 billion in the previous month.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will also auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Check out this: U.S. Jobs Growth Might Slow To This Level In June, Here's The Major Macro Issues For Friday

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 90,065,160 cases with around 1,045,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,587,300 cases and 525,340 deaths, while Brazil reported over 32,761,040 COVID-19 cases with 673,120 deaths. In total, there were at least 558,810,440 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,369,440 deaths.