Mid-afternoon market update: Nasdaq dips 250 points, Taiwan Semiconductor shares gain

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.03% to 36,301.73 while the NASDAQ fell 1.67% to 14,934.36. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.77% to 4,689.96.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 64,359,400 cases with around 866,890 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 36,317,920 cases and 485,030 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,718,600 COVID-19 cases with 620,410 deaths. In total, there were at least 317,843,630 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,532,990 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 0.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Pure Cycle Corporation PCYO +2.72% (Get Free Alerts for PCYO), up 3% and Unitil Corporation UTL +2.96% (Get Free Alerts for UTL) up 3%.

In trading on Thursday, information technology shares fell by 1.5%.

Top Headline

Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL +3.5% reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Delta Air Lines posted quarterly earnings of $0.22 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.13 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $9.47 billion, versus expectations of $9.14 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited TSM +6.94% shares shot up 7% to $141.60 after the company released results for its fourth quarter on Thursday. The world’s largest chipmaker said its profit surged 16.4% to $5.98 billion, helped by rising demand for semiconductors.

Shares of BTCS Inc. BTCS +0.22% got a boost, shooting 15% to $7.69. BTCS added Algorand to its blockchain infrastructure operations. The company announced on January 5 its dividend would be payable in Bitcoin.

KB Home KBH +15.97% shares were also up, gaining 14% to $48.17 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings results and issued FY22 housing revenue guidance.

Equities Trading DOWN

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. SPCE -17.34% shares tumbled 18% to $10.14 after the company announced a proposed convertible senior notes offering. Virgin Galactic intends to offer $425 million of convertible senior notes due 2027 in a private offering to institutional investors.

Shares of E2open Parent Holdings, Inc. ETWO -12.16% were down 12% to $8.54. E2open reported an adjusted gross profit of $103.4 million for the third quarter, up from $89.6 million in the year-ago period. Its non-GAAP revenue also climbed to $147.4 million from $129.5 million. E2open raised its FY22 adjusted sales guidance to $474 million to $476 million.

Denali Therapeutics Inc. DNLI -12.26% was down, falling 13% to $33.54. The FDA issued a clinical hold on Denali Therapeutics’ Investigational New Drug (IND) application for DNL919 (ATV:TREM2).

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $82.62, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,819.40.

Silver traded down 0.1% Thursday to $23.195 while copper fell 0.9% to $4.5345.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.03%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.16%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.53%. The German DAX gained 0.13%, French CAC 40 fell 0.50% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.47%.

Italy’s industrial production rose 1.9% from a month ago in November following a revised 0.5% decline in the prior month.

Economics

US initial jobless claims rose by 23 thousand from the previous week to 230 thousand in the recent week.

The Producer Price Index rose 0.2% for December following a revised 1% rise in the previous month.

US natural-gas supplies dropped 179 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.