Mid-afternoon market update: Dow falls 200 points, Rockwell Medical shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.58% to 35,930.89 while the NASDAQ fell 0.27% to 15,930.79. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.23% to 4,690.24.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 48,161,370 cases with around 786,260 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,466,590 cases and 464,150 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,965,680 COVID-19 cases with 611,520 deaths. In total, there were at least 255,259,860 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,133,290 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares gained by 0.5% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EYPT +32.37% (Get Free Alerts for EYPT), up 23% and Affimed N.V. AFMD +10.94% (Get Free Alerts for AFMD) up 11%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW +0.62% reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter on Wednesday.

Lowe's Companies posted quarterly earnings of $2.73 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.35 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $22.90 billion, versus expectations of $21.99 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sono Group N.V. Common NASDAQSEV shares shot up 85% to $27.80 after the company priced its IPO at $15 per share.

Shares of Rockwell Medical, Inc. RMTI +12.34% got a boost, shooting 16% to $0.5580 as the company announced the publication of results in the Journal of Bioequivalence & Bioavailability from a study evaluating the co-administration of intravenous (IV) Ferric Pyrophosphate Citrate (FPC, Triferic) with unfractionated heparin (UFH) as an admixture. The study demonstrated no clinically relevant drug-drug interaction (DDI) between FPC and UFH on the effects of UFH nor on the ability of FPC to deliver bioavailable iron when these agents are co-administered as a single admixture via an HD-machine syringe pump.

EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EYPT +32.37% (Get Free Alerts for EYPT) shares were also up, gaining 24% to $17.36. EyePoint Pharmaceuticals priced an underwritten public offering of 4.03 million at $13.75 per share and pre-funded warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 3.27 million shares at $13.74 per pre-funded warrant.

Equities Trading DOWN

StoneCo Ltd. STNE -31.62% shares tumbled 33% to $21.22 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 earnings.

Shares of Cyclo Therapeutics, Inc. CYTH -22.34% were down 21% to $5.82. Cyclo Therapeutics priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 1.95 million shares at $6.00 per share, with gross proceeds of $11.7 million.

Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA -24.14% was down, falling 21% to $48.70 following reports suggesting the SEC is probing the company

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.8% to $78.50, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,867.70.

Silver traded up 0.8% Wednesday to $25.145 while copper fell 2.1% to $4.2625.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.14%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.52% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.02%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.49%, French CAC 40 rose 0.06% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.07%.

Annual inflation rate in the UK surged to 4.2% in October, recording the highest level since December 2011. The headline rate of output prices in the UK increased to 8.0% year-over-year in October.

Economics

Housing starts dropped 0.7% to an annualized rate of 1.52 million in October, while building permits climbed 4% from a month ago to an annual rate of 1.650 million.

US crude oil inventories dropped 2.101 million barrels in the week ending November 12, following a 1.001 million rise in the prior period, the Energy Information Administration said.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans will speak at 4:05 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 4:10 p.m. ET.