Mid-afternoon market update: Nasdaq rises 100 points, Materialise shares slide

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.25% to 34,531.98 while the NASDAQ rose 0.72% to 14,011.75. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.51% to 4,241.13.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,414,110 cases with around 598,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,182,530 cases and 355,700 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,122,870 COVID-19 cases with 479,510 deaths. In total, there were at least 174,458,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,759,030 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 1.7% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Orphazyme A/S ORPH 326.77%, up 1,240%, and Galecto, Inc. GLTO 170%, up 66%.

In trading on Thursday, financial shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

US annual inflation rate increased to 5% in May from 4.2% in April, above analysts’ estimates of 4.7%. The country recorded the highest reading since August 2008.

Equities Trading UP

RH RH 16.29% shares shot up 16% to $706.31 after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter and boosted its FY21 sales forecast.

Shares of TRxADE HEALTH, Inc. MEDS 64.22% got a boost, shooting 90% to $7.76 as the company reported the launch of MedCheks Health Passport App for iOS devices.

Yiren Digital Ltd.. YRD 16.55% shares were also up, gaining 14% to $4.66 after reporting results for its first quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aethlon Medical, Inc. AEMD 38.32% shares tumbled 33% to $7.28 after the company reported a 1.38 million share offering at $9 per share.

Shares of Ocugen, Inc. OCGN 28.41% were down 26% to $6.91 after the company announced it will pursue a biologics license application path for its COVID-19 vaccine instead of emergency use authorization.

Materialise NV MTLS 18.55% was down, falling 18% to $22.98 after the company reported pricing of public offering of 4.0 million American Depositary Shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $70.22, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,897.50.

Silver traded up 0.3% Thursday to $28.085 while copper fell 0.9% to $4.4910.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.03%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.24% and the German DAX 30 fell 0.06%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.26% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.4%.

French industrial production slipped 0.1% in April following a revised 1.0% rise in March, while payroll employment in the private sector increased 0.5% to 19.51 million in the first quarter. Italy's industrial production rose 1.8% in April.

Economics

US annual inflation rate increased to 5% in May from 4.2% in April, above analysts’ estimates of 4.7%.

US initial jobless claims fell to 376 thousand for the week ending June 5.

US natural gas supplies gained 98 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The U.S. Treasury statement for May will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET.