Mid-Afternoon Market Update: R. R. Donnelley & Sons surges, Columbia Banking System shares slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.13% to 34,450.01 while the NASDAQ rose 0.01% to 14,486.37. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10% to 4,356.92.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 45,313,350 cases with around 734,610 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 33,985,920 confirmed cases and 450,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,582,730 COVID-19 cases with 601,260 deaths. In total, there were at least 239,108,950 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 4,874,680 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares surged 1.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included eXp World Holdings, Inc. EXPI +4.47% (Get Free Alerts for EXPI), up 5%, and Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN +5.92% (Get Free Alerts for OPEN), adding 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares tumbled 1.2%.

Top Headline

Fastenal Company FAST +3.07% reported in-line earnings for its third quarter on Tuesday.

Fastenal reported quarterly earnings of $0.42 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.42 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.55 billion, versus expectations of $1.54 billion.

Equities Trading UP

ESS Tech Inc GWH +127.06% shares shot up 141% to $25.16. ESS Inc, the Bill Gates-backed battery maker went public on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after completing a slated business combination with special purpose acquisition company Acon S2 Investment Corp.

Shares of R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company RRD +36.31% got a boost, shooting 39% to $6.85 after Chatham Asset Management submitted an offer to acquire all common stock of RRD not already owned by Chatham for $7.50 per share in cash.

Nutriband Inc.. NTRB +38.92% shares were also up, gaining 54% to $11.40 after the company announced it signed an exclusive manufacturing agreement for Diocheck visual COVID-19 antibody indicator patch.

Equities Trading DOWN

Organogenesis Holdings Inc. ORGO +18.46% shares tumbled 18% to $9.88. The company is expected to report Q3 earnings on Tuesday, November 9th.

Shares of Columbia Banking System, Inc. COLB +14.82% were down 14% to $33.76. Columbia Banking System and Umpqua Holdings Corporation reported a business combination.

Sphere 3D Corp. ANY +15.1% was down, falling 15% to $7.04.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $80.65, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,759.80.

Silver traded down 0.5% Tuesday to $22.545 while copper fell 0.9% to $4.3270.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.07%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.41%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.23%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 0.34%, French CAC 40 fell 0.34% and London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.23%.

The UK’s unemployment rate fell to 4.5% during the three months to August, while average weekly earnings including bonuses rose 7.2% year-over-year. Wholesale prices in Germany surged 13.2% annually in September.

Economics

The number of job openings fell to 10.439 million in August versus an all-time high of 11.098 million in the previous month.