Mid-day market update: Crude Oil down over 1%; Nikola shares plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 1.21% to 29,547.12 while the NASDAQ fell 0.50% to 12,145.24. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.76% to 3,610.60.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 13,385,490 cases with around 266,880 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 9,431,690 confirmed cases and 137,130 deaths, while Brazil reported over 6,314,740 COVID-19 cases with 172,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 62,829,640 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,460,430 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 0.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included G1 Therapeutics, Inc. GTHX 26.26%, up 23%, and AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. AQB 42.07%, up 38%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 3.3%.

Top Headline

S&P Global Inc. SPGI 1.69% confirmed early Monday it is acquiring IHS Markit Ltd. INFO 7.22% in a deal that values the latter at $44 billion, including $4.8 billion of net debt.

As part of the deal, each share of the IHS Markit common stock will be exchanged for 0.2838 shares of S&P Global common stock.

Equities Trading UP

China Automotive Systems, Inc. CAAS 73.11% shares shot up 76% to $6.75 after the company announced a significant increase in sales to Chinese electric vehicle companies.

Shares of Apollo Endosurgery, Inc. APEN 27.57% got a boost, shooting 32% to $3.5965 after Piper Sandler upgraded the stock from Neutral to Overweight and raised its price target from $2 to $5 per share.

SuperCom Ltd. SPCB 42.77% shares were also up, gaining 57% to $1.30 after the company disclosed a new electronic monitoring contract in Wisconsin.

Equities Trading DOWN

Francesca's Holdings Corporation FRAN 25.56% shares tumbled 25% to $3.04 following a media report that the company may file for bankruptcy as soon as this week.

Shares of Nikola Corporation NKLA 25.03% were down 24% to $21.36 after the company signed an MOU with General Motors that does not include the previously contemplated GM equity stake in Nikola or the development of the Nikola Badger. The Badger program was dependent on an OEM partnership.

Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. KNDI 23.14% was down, falling 20% to $10.87 after Hindenberg Research issued a negative report on the company.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.3% to $44.93, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,785.90.

Silver traded up 0.1% Monday to $22.665 while copper rose 0.6% to $3.4380.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.98%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.39%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.3%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.33%, French CAC 40 fell 1.42% and London’s FTSE 100 declined 1.59%.

Spanish national consumer price index declined 0.8% on an annual basis in November.

Economics

The Chicago PMI declined to 58.2 in November versus a reading of 61.1 in October.

The pending home sales index fell 1.1% for October, versus analysts’ expectations for a 1% rise.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index declined to 12 in November versus 19.8 in October.

Data on farm prices for October will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.