Mid-afternoon market update: Dow tumbles over 200 points, BELLUS Health shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.67% to 35,728.62 while the NASDAQ fell 0.92% to 15,487.41. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.58% to 4,684.47.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 50,801,450 cases with around 817,950 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,697,860 cases and 475,630 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,189,860 COVID-19 cases with 616,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 270,510,600 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,324,320 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Condor Hospitality Trust, Inc. CDOR +8.17% (Get Free Alerts for CDOR), up 8% and Nam Tai Property Inc. NTP +7.13% (Get Free Alerts for NTP) up 6%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 2.5%.

Top Headline

Pfizer Inc PFE +4.62% agreed to acquire Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc ARNA +80.38%, a clinical-stage company developing therapies to treat several immuno-inflammatory diseases.

Under the agreement terms, Pfizer will acquire Arena for $100 per share in an all-cash transaction for a total equity value of approximately $6.7 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ARNA +80.38% shares shot up 80% to $89.80. Pfizer agreed to acquire Arena Pharmaceuticals for $100 per share in an all-cash transaction.

Shares of BELLUS Health Inc. BLU +48.21% got a boost, shooting 52% to $8.49 after the company announced topline data from its Phase 2b SOOTHE trial of BLU-5937 in Refractory Chronic Cough. The data showed that the 50 mg and 200 mg BID doses of BLU-5937 achieved statistical significance on the primary endpoint with a 34% placebo-adjusted reduction in 24-hour cough frequency observed at day 28. 

Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. FHTX +54.96% shares were also up, gaining 34% to $16.05. Loxo Oncology, an R&D group of Eli Lilly And Co LLY +1.87%, and Foghorn Therapeutics collaborated to create oncology medicines by applying Foghorn's Gene Traffic Control platform.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nisun International Enterprise Development Group Co., Ltd NISN -60.29% shares tumbled 60% to $4.42 after the company priced its $77 million underwritten public offering of common shares and pre-funded warrants to purchase common shares.

Shares of IGM Biosciences, Inc. IGMS -41.31% were down 46% to $26.88 after reporting Phase 1 trial data in advanced B-Cell malignancies. RBC Capital downgraded IGM Biosciences to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $51, down from $90.

Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. BDR -30.8% was down, falling 31% to $0.60 after the NYSE American said it will commence delisting proceedings against Blonder Tongue Laboratories.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $71.64, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,789.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% Monday to $22.325 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.2870.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.43%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.45% and the German DAX 30 slipped 0.01%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.83%, French CAC 40 fell 0.70% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.64%.

Wholesale prices in Germany surged 16.6% year-over-year in November following a 15.2% increase a month ago.

Economics

There were no major US economic releases Monday.