Mid-afternoon market update: Dow rises 50 points; Vinco Ventures shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.16% to 31,238.60 while the NASDAQ rose 0.63% to 13,541.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.20% to 3,859.69.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 24,438,930 cases with around 406,160 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,610,880 confirmed cases and 152,860 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,638,240 COVID-19 cases with 212,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 96,938,720 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 2,077,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares gained by 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included CooTek (Cayman) Inc. CTK 24.34%, up 21%, and SunPower Corporation SPWR 14.72%, up 16%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 3.9%.

Top Headline

Union Pacific Corporation UNP 3.71% reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Union Pacific reported quarterly earnings of $2.36 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.29 per share. The company posted managed revenue of $5.14 billion, versus estimates of $5.09 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Celsion Corporation CLSN 35.68% shares shot up 43% to $1.82 after the company terminated a stock sale agreement. Celsion revealed in SEC filing it has notified Lincoln Park Capital Fund regarding termination of the stock purchase agreement signed between both parties on Sept. 8. Celsion was vested with the right to sell to Lincoln Park Capital up to $26 million of shares of the company over the 36-month term, according to the 2020 agreement.

Shares of ADiTx Therapeutics, Inc. ADTX 58.05% got a boost, shooting 56% to $4.0591 after the company reported the operational launch of its AditxtScore Immune Monitoring Platform is February 1st, 2021.

Vinco Ventures Inc BBIG 208.44% shares were also up, gaining 232% to $5.12 after the company, along with its subsidiary, Vinco Acquisition Corporation, entered into an agreement to complete a Plan of Merger agreement with ZASH Global Media and Entertainment.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

CytomX Therapeutics Inc CTMX 16.8% shares tumbled 16% to $6.84 after the company reported pricing of $100 million public offering of common stock.

Shares of Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. DYN 22.96% were down 23% to $22.11 as the company priced 6 million share public offering of common stock at $28 per share.

Alcoa Corporation AA 11.53% was down, falling 12% to $20.17. Alcoa reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter. However, the company said it projects aluminum segment shipping 2.7 million to 2.8 million metric tons this year, down from the 3 million tons it shipped in 2020.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $53.07, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,865.30.

Silver traded up 0.3% Thursday to $25.84 while copper rose 0.2% to $3.6470.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.11%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.67%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.37% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.98%.

French industry climate indicator rose 4 points to a reading of 98.0 in January, while Italy's industrial new orders fell 1.3% in November.

Economics

Housing starts rose 5.8% to an annualized rate of 1669 thousand in December, while building permits rose 4.5% to an annual rate of 1.709 million in December.

US initial jobless claims dropped to 900,000 in the week ended January 16, versus previous reading 926,000.

The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index climbed to 26.5 in January versus a revised reading of 9.1 in December.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.