Mid-day market update: Crude oil down 2%, Arcturus Therapeutics shares spike higher

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 34,878.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.37% to 14,626.97. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01% to 4,386.68.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 35,004,590 cases with around 613,220 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 31,695,950 cases and 424,770 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,938,350 COVID-19 cases with 556,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 198,392,550 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,225,600 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares climbed 0.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE 3.44%, up 4% and Otter Tail Corporation OTTR 4.09% up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 1.1%.

Top Headline

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA 2.26% reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed estimates.

Alibaba reported quarterly earnings of $2.57 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.24 per share. The company’s adjusted net revenue came in at $31.86 billion, versus analysts’ expectations of $32.54 billion. Alibaba also added $5 billion to its buyback program.

Equities Trading UP

Wilhelmina International, Inc. WHLM 91.99% shares shot up 97% to $8.56 after a Form 4 filing from the company showed 10% shareholder Retail Ecommerce Ventures purchased 237,500 shares of Wilhelmina.

Shares of Lixte Biotechnology Holdings, Inc. LIXT 8.2% got a boost, shooting 24% to $3.4999 as the company said its LB-100 elicits anti-tumor activity in small lung cancer models.

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. ARCT 30.7% shares were also up, gaining 35% to $46.76 after the company announced that the it has received approval for a Clinical Trial Application from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to enable the advancement of two STARR mRNA vaccine candidates into the clinic.

Equities Trading DOWN

ABVC Biopharma, Inc. NASDAQABVC shares tumbled 53% to $2.91 after the company reported the pricing of $6.875 million firm commitment offering.

Shares of Neuronetics, Inc. STIM 41.21% were down 39% to $7.93 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results and issued weak sales forecast for the third quarter.

ECMOHO Limited MOHO 37.86% was down, falling 37% to $0.8271. ECMOHO priced 10 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at $0.90 per ADS to raise $9 million in a secondary offering. Each ADS represents four shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $69.87, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,813.80.

Silver traded down 0.1% Tuesday to $25.565 while copper fell 1.4% to $4.3710.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.14%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.11% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.18%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.26%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.64% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.14%.

Producer prices in the Eurozone increased 1.4% in June. Spanish number of people registered as unemployed declined by 197,841 to 3.42 million in July

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 15.5% year-over-year during the first four weeks of July.

US factory orders rose 1.5% for June.

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman is set to speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.