Mid-day market update: Crude Oil surges 4%; Aquabounty Technologies shares plummet

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 0.19% to 30,012.81 while the NASDAQ rose 0.47% to 12,396.34. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03% to 3,671.66.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 15,392,190 cases with around 289,450 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 9,767,370 confirmed cases and 141,770 deaths, while Brazil reported over 6,728,450 COVID-19 cases with 178,990 deaths. In total, there were at least 68,970,650 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,571,370 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 3% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Peabody Energy Corporation BTU 28.26%, up 28%, and Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. TUSK 31.25%, up 30%.

In trading on Thursday, industrials shares slipped 1%.

Top Headline

Adobe Inc ADBE 1.3% reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and issued strong guidance.

Adobe reported quarterly earnings of $2.81 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.66 per share. The company’s sales came in at $3.42 billion, versus expectations of $3.36 billion.

Adobe said it expects Q1 adjusted earnings of $2.78 per share, on sales of $3.75 billion. Analysts expect EPS of $2.59 on sales $3.5 billion. The company sees FY21 adjusted EPS of $11.20 on sales of $15.15 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Immutep Limited IMMP 165.58% shares shot up 160% to $5.59 after the company said its Chinese partner, EOC Pharma will commence a new Phase 2 clinical trial of Immutep's eftilagimod alpha in up to 152 metastatic breast cancer patients in China. Immutep said the study follows encouraging data reported by it in its APIAC Phase 2b study announced at the end of March and presented at the SABCS.

Shares of Greenwich LifeSciences, Inc. GLSI 58.25% got a boost, shooting 56% to $89.00. Greenwich LifeSciences shares jumped 998% on Wednesday after the company shared the poster for the GP2 Phase 2b clinical trial final efficacy analysis that was presented Wednesday at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Neos Therapeutics, Inc. NEOS 70% shares were also up, gaining 71% to $0.9480. Aytu BioScience and Neos Therapeutics reported definitive merger agreement valued at $44.9 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. CNET 31.91% shares tumbled 32% to $1.39 after the company priced its 4.3 million share offering at $1.62 per share. ZW Data Action Technologies shares jumped 39% on Wednesday after the company announced the opening of its first live streaming platform in Guangzhou, China.

Shares of Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. ONCT 24.21% were down 25% to $4.7150 after the company increased a previously-announced bought deal offering to $75 million. Oncternal Therapeutics, earlier during the week, announced updated interim clinical data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 CIRLL clinical trial.

AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. AQB 16.84% was down, falling 17% to $7.18 after the company reported pricing of $56.7 million upsized public offering of common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 4% to $47.32, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,839.90.

Silver traded up 0.5% Thursday to $24.10 while copper rose 1.8% to $3.5780.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.44%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.64%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.25%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.33%, French CAC 40 rose 0.05% and London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.54%.

The British economy expanded 10.2% during the three months to October, while industrial production increased 1.3%in October. The country's trade balance deficit widened to £12 billion, worse-than-expected £9.6 billion.

Economics

Annual inflation rate came in unchanged at 1.2% for November.

US initial jobless claims rose to 853,000 in the week ended December 5,versus a revised reading of 716,000 in the previous week.

US natural-gas supplies dropped 91 billion cubic feet last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The U.S. Treasury budget statement for November is scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.