Mid-day market update: Gold down 2%; iSpecimen shares spike higher

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.65% to 35,832.70 while the NASDAQ rose 0.67% to 16,164.51. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.87% to 4,738.91.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 48,592,810 cases with around 793,650 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,518,900 cases and 465,910 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,017,270 COVID-19 cases with 612,720 deaths. In total, there were at least 257,960,480 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,170,620 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. CEI +19.83% (Get Free Alerts for CEI), up 21% and Calumet Specialty Products Partners, L.P. CLMT +9.6% (Get Free Alerts for CLMT) up 12%.

In trading on Monday, communications services shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

Avaya Holdings Corp AVYA +23.19% reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Monday.

Avaya reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue of $760 million, up 0.7% year-on-year, beating the consensus of $738.5 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.77 beat the consensus of $0.72.

Equities Trading UP

iSpecimen Inc. ISPC +101.02% shares shot up 120% to $10.80 after the company announced it has been contracted to support new advanced research on COVID-19 seeking insights on its transmissibility, variants, outcomes, and testing validity among multiple population segments.

Shares of Astra Space, Inc. ASTR +22.67% got a boost, shooting 37% to $13.02 after the company completed its first commercial orbital launch for the United States Space Force.

Vonage Holdings Corp. VG +25.75% shares were also up, gaining 25% to $20.54 after the company announced it would be acquired by Ericsson in a $6.2 billion acquisition.

Equities Trading DOWN

Niu Technologies NIU -16.75% shares tumbled 15% to $20.34. Niu Technologies reported third-quarter FY21 sales growth of 37.1% year-on-year, to RMB 1.23 billion ($190.3 million), missing the analyst consensus of $217.3 million.

Shares of Cerence Inc. CRNC -20.51% were down 18% to $85.83. Cerence reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 7.5% year-on-year to $98.1 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.66 beat the consensus of $0.56. Meanwhile, the company provided the first quarter and fiscal 2022 forecast below Wall Street view, amidst production challenges faced by its customers due to semiconductor shortages.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. AUPH -29.5% was down, falling 26% to $20.96.
Biotech reporter Adam Feuerstein tweets '$AUPH didn't just file a mixed shelf on Friday, it also entered into a $250M ATM stock sale agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald. The buyout speculation looks well past its expiration date.'

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.7% to $76.50, while gold traded down 2% to $1,814.70.

Silver traded down 1.2% Monday to $24.495 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.4030.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.24%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.75% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.02%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.51%, French CAC 40 rose 0.35% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.27%.

Spain's trade deficit widened to EUR 2.4 billion in September from EUR 1.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a three-month high of +0.76 in October from -0.18 in the previous month.

Existing home sales in the US rose 0.8% to an annualized 6.34 million in October.

The Treasury will auction 3-month bills and 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.