Mid-afternoon market update: Dow rises 75 points; Acacia Communications shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.24% to 31,135 while the NASDAQ rose 0.27% to 13,164.28. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08% to 3,812.75.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 23,078,350 cases with around 384,780 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,512,090 confirmed cases and 151,720 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,256,530 COVID-19 cases with 205,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 92,462,190 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,981,090 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 3.8% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Centrus Energy Corp. LEU 15.04%, up 16%, and SandRidge Energy, Inc. SD 15.82%, up 15%.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL 3.96% reported a wider-than-expected loss for its fourth quarter.

Delta Air reported quarterly loss of $2.53 per share, versus analysts’ expectations for a loss of $2.51 per share. The company posted operating revenue of $3.53 billion, versus estimates of $3.6 billion.

Delta Air Lines said it expects Q1 sales to decrease by 60%-65% year over year.

Equities Trading UP

Datasea Inc. DTSS 58.79% shares shot up 67% to $3.98 after the company reported establishment of a new company to 'focus on the 5G opportunities and related value-added services.'

Shares of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. LXRX 115.43% got a boost, shooting 112% to $8.32 after the company announced it received FDA regulatory feedback that the results of its SOLOIST and SCORED Phase 3 clinical studies can support a new drug application submission.

Acacia Communications, Inc. ACIA 31.96% shares were also up, gaining 32% to $114.35 after a brief legal dispute with Cisco Systems was resolved and the two sides struck a merger agreement.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Viveve Medical, Inc. VIVE 19.75% shares tumbled 20% to $3.19 after the company priced its $24 million common stock offering.

Shares of Volt Information Sciences, Inc. VOLT 11.57% were down 14% to $2.81. Volt Information Sciences reported Q4 results and said it expects "continued improvement in profitability for 2021."

Nano Dimension Ltd. NNDM 8.08% was down, falling 9% to $10.44 after the company priced its $332.5 million registered direct offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $53.39, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,847.00.

Silver traded up 0.6% Thursday to $25.72 while copper rose 1.5% to $3.6720.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.72%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.14% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.35%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.33%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.84% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.47%.

Eurozone industrial production increased 2.5% MoM, while the German economy contracted by 5% year-over-year in 2020.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased to 965,000 in the week ended January 9, versus a revised level of 784,000 in the previous week.

U.S. import prices rose 0.9% in December, while export increased 1.1% last month.

U.S. natural-supplies declined 134 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

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