Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq drops dver 100 points; Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.21% to 34,310.36 while the NASDAQ fell 0.86% to 13,314.36. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.42% to 4,156.26.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,941,050 cases with around 585,970 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 24,965,460 cases and 274,390 deaths, while Brazil reported over 15,627,240 COVID-19 cases with 435,750 deaths. In total, there were at least 163,112,780 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,380,400 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 1.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Peabody Energy Corporation BTU 29.42%, up 28%, and San Juan Basin Royalty Trust SJT 14.42%, up 14%.

In trading on Monday, information technology shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

Discovery, Inc. DISCA 5.33% and AT&T Inc. T 0.85% announced they're in talks to merge their media assets.

AT&T owns CNN, HBO, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT and the Warner Bros. studio. Discovery owns networks including HGTV, Food Network, TLC and Animal Planet.

Equities Trading UP

Nuvve Holding Corp. NVVE 55.93% shares shot up 45% to $11.99 after the company announced an agreement with Evolve Transition Infrastructure and Stonepeak to purse a $750 million joint venture to be called Levo.

Shares of Aesthetic Medical International Holdings Group Limited AIH 15.59% got a boost, shooting 16% to $7.71 after the company reported a $15.1 million private placement with Lafang China.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. APLS 19.75% shares were also up, gaining 20% to $53.00 after the FDA approved the company’s Empaveli (pegcetacoplan) for the treatment of adults with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).

Equities Trading DOWN

Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. SEEL 23.12% shares tumbled 16% to $4.38 after the company announced data from Part 1, the open-label cohort, of its Proof-of-Concept study of SLS-002 for acute suicidal ideation and behavior in patients with Major Depressive Disorder.

Shares of FreightCar America, Inc. RAIL 17.55% were down 19% to $5.23 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 sales results. The company also posted a wider quarterly loss.

Americas Gold and Silver Corporation USAS 27.05% was down, falling 25% to $1.70 after the company reported a wider Q1 loss.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.4% to $66.27, while gold traded up 1.6% to $1,867.40.

Silver traded up 3.3% Monday to $28.28 while copper rose 1.1% to $4.7065.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.05%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.11% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.13%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.15%, French CAC 40 fell 0.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.39%.

Spanish trade deficit shrank to EUR 411.9 million in March, compared to EUR 2.0 billion in the year-ago month, while annual inflation rate in Italy rose to 1.1% in April from 0.8%.

Economics

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index slipped to 24.3 in May from 26.3 in April.

The NAHB housing market index stood at 83 in May.

The Treasury International Capital report for May is scheduled for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.