Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow falls 75 points, Red Cat Holdings shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.21% to 34,921.09 while the NASDAQ fell 0.11% to 14,717.26. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.15% to 4,378.11.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,854,110 cases with around 607,150 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,874,370 cases and 408,760 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,089,940 COVID-19 cases with 533,480 deaths. In total, there were at least 186,846,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,032,630 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 0.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Exela Technologies, Inc. XELA 26.35%, up 28%, and Nokia Corporation NOK 9.22%, up 10%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM 1.33% reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase reported quarterly earnings of $3.78 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $3.20 per share. The company’s managed revenue came in at $31.39 billion, versus expectations of $29.96 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Orbsat Corp. OSAT 40.18% shares shot up 42% to $9.45 after the company announced its Global Telesat Communications unit has entered into an agreement with Alibaba.com. GTC will be a Gold-Supplier on the e-commerce website.

Shares of Red Cat Holdings Inc RCAT 52.69% got a boost, shooting 43% to $4.26. Red Cat Holdings agreed to acquire Teal Drones, an automated aerial vehicle technology firm.

Howard Bancorp, Inc. HBMD 27.02% shares were also up, gaining 28% to $19.97. F.N.B. Corporation announced plans to acquire Howard Bancorp for $21.96 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc. ARDS 15.96% shares tumbled 17% to $5.98. Aridis Pharmaceuticals announced that its COVID-19 mAb cocktail AR-712 binds and neutralizes the Delta variant of COVID-19 at a highly effective level (~20ng/mL).

Shares of Meridian Bioscience, Inc. VIVO 23.07% were down 21% to $17.77 after the company reported weak preliminary revenue for the third quarter.

Gatos Silver, Inc. GATO 21.01% was down, falling 20% to $15.43 after the company announced a 6.5 million share common stock offering with 1.82 million shares offered via selling shareholders

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $75.31, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,807.10.

Silver traded down 0.6% Tuesday to $26.07 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.2935.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.03%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.38% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.01%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.01%, French CAC 40 declined 0.01% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.50%.

The annual inflation rate in France increased to 1.5% in June from 1.4% in the prior month, while annual inflation rate in Germany was confirmed at 2.3%.

Economics

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose to 102.5 in June from 99.6 in May.

Annual inflation rate rose to 5.4% in June from 5% in May.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 11.1% year-over-year during the first week of July

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren will speak at 2:50 p.m. ET.