Mid-afternoon market update: Dow surges 250 points; Owens & Minor shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.95% to 27,016.52 while the NASDAQ rose 1.12% to 10,751.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.97% to 3,268.43.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,935,410 cases with around 201,920 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 5,732,510 confirmed cases and 91,140 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,591,360 COVID-19 cases with 138,100 deaths. In total, there were at least 31,914,770 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 977,100 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 1.5% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Central Puerto S.A. CEPU 6.5%, up 7%, and Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima EDN 7.07%, up 7%.

In trading on Thursday, health care shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Accenture Plc ACN 7.27% reported weaker-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Accenture reported quarterly earnings of $1.70 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.73 per share. The company reported sales of $10.84 billion, surpassing expectations of $10.91 billion.

Accenture said it expects Q1 sales of $11.15 billion to $11.55 billion, versus analysts’ estimates of $11.52 billion. The company projects FY21 revenue growth of 2%-5% and earnings of $7.80-$8.10 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Sunworks, Inc. SUNW 240.52% shares shot up 243% to $3.9750. The strength is potentially related to recent volatility in solar and EV names following momentum in SPI Energy as well as heavy sector speculation.

Shares of Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI 51.02% got a boost, shooting 54% to $21.24 after the company raised its FY20 guidance.

Net Element, Inc. NETE 30.6% shares were also up, gaining 37% to $8.85 after Mullen Technologies, its M&A target, announced it will begin construction of an electric vehicle pilot facility and is accepting pre-orders for its MX-05 fully electric SUV starting Oct 1st.

Equities Trading DOWN

Kubient, Inc. KBNT 26.73% shares tumbled 24% to $2.9599 after the company reported wider Q2 loss.

Shares of MediciNova, Inc. MNOV 22.12% were down 22% to $4.6950 after the company announced clinical findings regarding MN-166 published in Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology. Only 2 patients in the study had improved symptoms.

Crexendo, Inc. CXDO 14.05% was down, falling 11% to $5.50. Crexendo announced pricing of public offering of common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $40.28, while gold traded up 0.6% to $ 1,879.30.

Silver traded up 1.1% Thursday to $23.360 while copper fell 0.6% to $2.9750.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 1.02%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.16%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.12%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.29%, French CAC 40 fell 0.83% and London’s FTSE 100 slipped 1.3%.

France reported further improvement in its business confidence, with the country’s manufacturing industry climate indicator rising for the fifth month to 96 points in September versus a revised reading of 92 in August.

Economics

U.S. initial jobless claims increased by 4,000 to 870,000 in the week ended September 19.

US new home sales rose 4.8% to an annual rate of 1,011 thousand in August.

US natural-gas supplies rose 66 million cubic feet for the latest week, the Energy Information Administration reported.

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