Mid-afternoon market update: Dow falls 70 points, Evolving Systems shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.20% to 35,223.86 while the NASDAQ rose 0.68% to 14,998.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 4,480.05.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 45,792,530 cases with around 744,540 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,081,310 cases and 452,320 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,644,460 COVID-19 cases with 603,320 deaths. In total, there were at least 241,556,670 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,915,950 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained by 1.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Macy's, Inc. M +17.24% (Get Free Alerts for M), up 17% and Dutch Bros Inc. BROS +7.67% (Get Free Alerts for BROS) up 10%.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 1%.

Top Headline

Albertsons Companies, Inc. ACI +3.41% reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Monday.

Albertsons reported quarterly earnings of $0.64 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.45 per share. The company reported quarterly revenue of $16.50 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $15.81 billion.

Albertsons also increased its quarterly dividend by 20% to $0.12 per share. The next quarterly dividend will be paid on November 12, 2021, to stockholders of record on October 29, 2021. Albertsons raised FY21 EPS guidance to $2.50 - $2.60 (previously $2.20 - $2.30) versus the consensus of $2.28. The company also raised adjusted EBITDA to $3.95 billion - $4.05 billion (prior view $3.7 billion - $3.8 billion).

Equities Trading UP

Valneva SE VALN +34.87% shares shot up 34% to $37.67 after the company reported VLA2001 met both co-primary endpoints in the Phase 3 pivotal trial Cov-Compare.

Shares of Evolving Systems, Inc EVOL +22.33% got a boost, shooting 22% to $2.7250 after the company announced it will sell its activation and marketing businesses to PartnerOne Capital for $40 million.

Peabody Energy Corporation BTU +22.74% shares were also up, gaining 21% to $19.37. Peabody said it sees preliminary Q3 sales of $670 million to $690 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Revance Therapeutics, Inc. RVNC -39.12% shares tumbled 39% to $13.83. The FDA issued a Complete Response Letter (CRL) regarding Revance Therapeutics’ marketing application for DaxibotulinumtoxinA for Injection for moderate to severe glabellar (frown) lines.

Shares of Omeros Corporation OMER -26.91% were down 27% to $5.67 after the company announced it received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA for the Biologics License Application for narsoplimab in the treatment of HSCT-TMA.

MannKind Corporation MNKD -18.17% was down, falling 19% to $4.1050 after the company announced the FDA issued a complete response to United Therapeutics regarding the New Drug Application for Tyvaso DPI.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $82.10, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,767.00.

Silver traded down 0.3% Monday to $23.28 while copper fell 0.4% to $4.7125.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.50%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.68% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.72%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.42%, French CAC 40 dipped 0.81% and Italy’s FTSE MIB dropped 0.83%.

Economics

Industrial production dropped 1.3% in September, following a revised 0.1% drop in August.

The NAHB housing market index increased 4 points to a reading of 80 in October.

The Treasury International Capital report for August will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.