Mid-afternoon market update: Nasdaq down 100 points, Clearside Biomedical shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.19% to 34,326.95 while the NASDAQ fell 0.70% to 14,074. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12% to 4,249.99.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,475,350 cases with around 599,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,570,880 cases and 377,030 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,452,610 COVID-19 cases with 488,220 deaths. In total, there were at least 176,329,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,813,670 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. TRCH 49.02%, up 45%, and BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust BPT 12.25%, up 12%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.7%.

Top Headline

US retail sales fell 1.3% in May, following a 0.9% increase in April. However, analysts were expecting for a 0.8% decline.

Equities Trading UP

Alfi, Inc. ALF 57.57% shares shot up 54% to $5.25 after the company inked an agreement with All-Niter for the fulfillment, staging, and shipment of the first 10,000 digital tablets to countrywide Uber Technologies.

Shares of Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. TRCH 49.02% got a boost, shooting 44% to $5.15. Torchlight declared a special dividend of Series A Preferred stock.

Clearside Biomedical, Inc. CLSD 39.07% shares were also up, gaining 34% to $4.06 after the company announced positive safety results from Cohort 1 (n=6) of OASIS Phase 1/2a trial of CLS-AX (axitinib injectable suspension) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

Equities Trading DOWN

Document Security Systems, Inc. DSS 37.14% shares tumbled 38% to $1.7250 after the company announced it priced a $43.5 million public offering of common stock. The public offering equates to 29,000,000 shares of the company's common stock at a price of $1.50 per share.

Shares of PDS Biotechnology Corporation PDSB 25.97% were down 26% to $9.53 after the company priced its underwritten public offering of 5,294,118 shares at $8.50 per share.

Sage Therapeutics, Inc. SAGE 17.9% was down, falling 17% to $60.17. Looking to make a comeback after a big Phase 3 flop, Sage Therapeutics revealed data from another Phase 3 evaluating zuranolone in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Though the trial achieved the primary endpoint of statistically significant improvements in depressive symptoms compared with placebo at Day 15, some results have made investors react, thus sending SAGE shares down early Tuesday.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $72.14, while gold traded down 0.4% to $1,859.00.

Silver traded down 1% Tuesday to $27.76 while copper fell 4.1% to $4.3405.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.11%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.54% and the German DAX 30 rose 0.36%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.36%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.35% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.08%.

The Eurozone trade surplus increased to EUR 10.9 billion in April from EUR 2.3 billion in the year-ago month. The UK unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% during the three months to April. Germany's consumer price inflation rate rose to 2.5% year-over-year in May.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee will start its two-day policy meeting today.

Producer prices for final demand rose 0.8% in May.

US retail sales fell 1.3% in May.

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index dropped 7 points to a reading of 17.4 in June.

Total industrial production rose 0.8% in May.

US business inventories fell 0.2% for April.

The NAHB housing market index fell to 81 in June from 83 in each of the earlier two months.

The Treasury International Capital report for April will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.