Mid-afternoon market update: Dow tumbles 250 points, Enochian Biosciences shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.74% to 34,225.89 while the NASDAQ rose 0.45% to 14,132.55. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.27% to 4,236.03.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,462,280 cases with around 599,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,510,410 cases and 374,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,412,760 COVID-19 cases with 487,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 176,001,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,805,010 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Canaan Inc. CAN 17.55%, up 21%, and Corsair Gaming, Inc. CRSR 12.79%, up 26%.

In trading on Monday, materials shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

Accenture PLC ACN 0.09% agreed to acquire Aachen, Germany's engineering consulting and services firm, umlaut.

The financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed

Equities Trading UP

Enochian Biosciences, Inc. ENOB 60.66% shares shot up 100% to $8.81. The FDA has accepted Enochian BioSciences Inc's pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) request for a potential functional cure or treatment of HIV.

Shares of RAPT Therapeutics, Inc. RAPT 119.2% got a boost, shooting 116% to $40.16 as the company announced topline results from its Phase 1b trial of RPT193 as monotherapy for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD).

iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. ITOS 37.24% shares were also up, gaining 37% to $27.47. iTeos Therapeutics and GlaxoSmithKline plc have agreed to co-develop and co-commercialize EOS-448, an anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody.

Equities Trading DOWN

Washington Prime Group Inc. WPG 31.2% shares tumbled 30% to $3.40 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Shares of Avenue Therapeutics, Inc. ATXI 30.63% were down 29% to $2.97 after the company received a second Complete Response Letter from the FDA regarding its marketing application seeking approval for IV tramadol.

Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. IKT 18.4% was down, falling 19% to $4.8750. Inhibikase Therapeutics filed for offering of up to 8 million shares of common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.2% to $70.74, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,865.30.

Silver traded down 0.5% Monday to $28.01 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.5245.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.18%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.83% and the German DAX 30 fell 0.13%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.18%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.24% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.16%.

Eurozone industrial production increased 0.8% in April versus a revised 0.4% rise in the previous month.

Economics

There are no major economic releases for Monday.