Gold Drops Below $2,000; Charles Schwab Earnings Top Views

U.S. stocks traded mostly flat midway through trading, following the release of economic data.

The Dow traded up 0.01% to 33,890.03 while the NASDAQ fell 0.18% to 12,101.34. The S&P 500, also fell, dropping, 0.11% to 4,133.25.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Real estate shares rose by 1.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Altisource Asset Management Corporation AAMC, up 7%, and Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. AHT, up 7%.
• In trading on Monday, communication services fell by 1.7%.

Top Headline

Charles Schwab Corp SCHW posted better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter on Monday.

The company reported Q1 net revenues of $5.11 billion, up 10%, versus the consensus of $5.15 billion. Adjusted EPS stood at $0.93, up 21% Y/Y, exceeding the consensus of $0.90.

Charles Schwab paused its buyback program in light of the recent events within the U.S. banking sector and the resulting regulatory uncertainty.

Equities Trading UP

• Blackboxstocks Inc. BLBX shares shot up 164% to $6.99 after the company announced it entered a letter of intent to merge with Evtec.
• Shares of Prometheus Biosciences, Inc. RXDX got a boost, shooting 69% to $193.00 after Merck announced it will acquire the company for $200 per share in cash.
• Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. STSA shares were also up, gaining 77% to $1.17 after the company announced that it entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories for $0.91 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Laser Photonics Corporation LASE shares dropped 15% to $3.49 after the company posted a loss for its fourth quarter.
• Shares of Marpai, Inc. MRAI were down 43% to $1.07 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 7,400,000 shares at $1.00 per share.
• Roblox Corporation RBLX was down, falling 13% to $39.68 after the company reported key metrics for March.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $81.78 while gold traded down 0.9% at $1,997.60.

Silver traded down 1.8% to $25.01 on Monday while copper fell !% to $4.0675.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.02%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.16% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.07%. The German DAX fell 0.03%, French CAC 40 fell 0.23% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.5%.

The annual inflation rate in Italy eased to 7.6% in March from 9.1% in the prior month, compared to the preliminary reading of 7.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 0.07%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 1.68% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 1.42%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.8%.

Indian annual wholesale price inflation rate fell for the tenth straight month to 1.34% in March from 3.85% in the previous period. Average new home prices in China fell by 0.8% year-over-year in March following a 1.2% decline in the prior month.

Economics

• The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index surged to 10.8 in April from -24.6 in the previous, beating market expectations of -18.
• The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index rose for a fourth month to a reading of 45 in April.

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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 106,465,920 cases with around 1,158,160 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,827,220 cases and 531,140 deaths, while France reported over 39,902,000 COVID-19 cases with 166,020 deaths. In total, there were at least 685,692,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,848,620 deaths.