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

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.70% to 35,978 while the NASDAQ fell 0.93% to 14,796.51. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.72% to 4,643.29.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 61,263,030 cases with around 859,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 35,708,440 cases and 483,930 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,523,900 COVID-19 cases with 620,030 deaths. In total, there were at least 308,004,270 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,507,340 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares fell by just 0.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Olink Holding AB OLK +23.8%, up 31% and RxSight, Inc. RXST +28.21% up 38%.

In trading on Monday, consumer discretionary shares dipped by 2.6%.

Top Headline

AZZ Inc AZZ -2.89% reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter on Monday.

AZZ posted quarterly earnings of $0.85 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.82 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $231.74 million, versus expectations of $238.63 million.

AZZ reaffirmed FY22 sales guidance of $865 million to $925 million. The company said it sees FY22 EPS of $3.00 to $3.20.

Equities Trading UP

RxSight, Inc. RXST +28.21% shares shot up 37% to $12.25 after the company issued preliminary Q4 and FY21 guidance above estimates.

Shares of Zynga Inc. ZNGA +40.67% got a boost, shooting 44% to $8.65 after the company announced it will be acquired by Take-Two Interactive Software in a cash and stock transaction valued at $9.86 per Zynga share, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $12.7 billion.

Olink Holding AB OLK +23.8% shares were also up, gaining 31% to $15.31 after the company issued Q4 and FY21 sales guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Citi Trends, Inc. CTRN -16.29% shares tumbled 16% to $68.32. Citi Trends reported 2021 holiday sales results and updated long-term strategic plan.

Shares of Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. FOLD -17.18% were down 24% to $7.25 after the company issued its preliminary and unaudited 2021 revenue, and full-year 2022 outlook and revenue guidance. Amicus Therapeutics said it sees FY21 Galafold sales of $306 million.

Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc. RPID -21.23% was down, falling 21% to $7.25. Rapid Micro Biosystems said it expects Q4 total revenue of between $4.7 and $5.2 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $78.38, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,793.30.

Silver traded down 0.1% Monday to $22.38 while copper fell 1.2% to $4.3580.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 1.48%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.53%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.51%. The German DAX dropped 1.13%, French CAC 40 declined 1.44% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.96%.

The unemployment rate in Italy dropped to 9.2% in November from 9.4% in the prior month.

Economics

US wholesale inventories rose 1.3% for November, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1.2% increase.