Mid-afternoon market update: Dow falls 140 points; EXFO shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.40% to 34,616 while the NASDAQ rose 0.49% to 13,882.39. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10% to 4,225.78.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,363,340 cases with around 597,630 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 28,909,970 cases and 349,180 deaths, while Brazil reported over 16,947,060 COVID-19 cases with 473,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 173,337,740 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,730,060 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included QTS Realty Trust, Inc. QTS 21.1%, up 21%, and Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP 16.43%, up 19%.

In trading on Monday, materials shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. GIII 9.26% reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

G-III Apparel reported quarterly earnings of $0.53 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.15 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $519.90 million, versus expectations of $462.03 million.

G-III Apparel said it expects Q2 earnings of $0.03 to $0.13 per share on sales of $470 million. The company also sees FY22 adjusted earnings of $2.60 to $2.78 per share on sales of $2.53 billion.

Equities Trading UP

U.S. Concrete, Inc. USCR 29.2% shares shot up 29% to $73.72. Vulcan announced plans to acquire U.S. Concrete for $74 per share in cash.

Shares of EXFO Inc. EXFO 60.27% got a boost, shooting 61% to $5.95 after the company announced a going-private transaction by its found and majority shareholder, Germain Lamonde.

Liminal BioSciences Inc. LMNL 27.36% shares were also up, gaining 29% to $5.20. Liminal BioSciences reported the FDA approval for its Biologics License Application for Ryplazim.

Equities Trading DOWN

MoSys, Inc. MOSY 20.76% shares tumbled 19% to $7.36 after the company announced a $13 million registered direct offering priced at $7.15 per share.

Shares of Newtek Business Services Corp. NEWT 8.31% were down 9% to $35.16. Compass Point downgraded Newtek Business Services from Buy to Neutral and raised the price target from $33 to $38.

Fuel Tech, Inc. FTEK 14.33% was down, falling 14% to $2.5127 after surging over 36% on Friday. The company, last month, reported quarterly results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $69.23, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,901.80.

Silver traded up 0.6% Monday to $28.065 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.5175.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.22%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.83% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.10%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.12%, French CAC 40 rose 0.43% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.99%.

UK’s Halifax house price index increased 9.5% year-over-year in May. Spain's industrial production surged 48.2% year-over-year in April. Factory orders in Germany declined 0.2% in April.

Economics

US consumer credit rose by $18.61 billion in April versus a revised $18.6 billion increase in the prior month.