Mid-Day Market Update: Howard Bancorp jumps following Merger news, Gatos Silver shares slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.12% to 34,953.38 while the NASDAQ rose 0.44% to 14,798.27. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14% to 4,390.56.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,854,110 cases with around 607,150 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 30,874,370 cases and 408,760 deaths, while Brazil reported over 19,089,940 COVID-19 cases with 533,480 deaths. In total, there were at least 186,846,570 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,032,630 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose by 1.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Exela Technologies, Inc. XELA 48.7%, up 40%, and Verb Technology Company, Inc. VERB 8.83%, up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, financial shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM 2.56% reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter on Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase reported quarterly earnings of $3.78 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $3.20 per share. The company’s managed revenue came in at $31.39 billion, versus expectations of $29.96 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Orbsat Corp. OSAT 50.91% shares shot up 52% to $10.17 after the company announced its Global Telesat Communications unit has entered into an agreement with Alibaba.com. GTC will be a Gold-Supplier on the e-commerce website.

Shares of Red Cat Holdings Inc RCAT 80.13% got a boost, shooting 38% to $4.10. Red Cat Holdings agreed to acquire Teal Drones, an automated aerial vehicle technology firm.

Howard Bancorp, Inc. HBMD 28.23% shares were also up, gaining 28% to $19.98. F.N.B. Corporation announced plans to acquire Howard Bancorp for $21.96 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aridis Pharmaceuticals Inc. ARDS 17.4% shares tumbled 16% to $6.10. Aridis Pharmaceuticals announced that its COVID-19 mAb cocktail AR-712 binds and neutralizes the Delta variant of COVID-19 at a highly effective level (~20ng/mL).

Shares of Meridian Bioscience, Inc. VIVO 21.64% were down 18% to $18.38 after the company reported weak preliminary revenue for the third quarter.

Gatos Silver, Inc. GATO 18.79% was down, falling 19% to $15.66 after the company announced a 6.5 million share common stock offering with 1.82 million shares offered via selling shareholders

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to 74.19, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,813.70.

Silver traded down 0.1% Tuesday to 26.225 while copper fell 0.6% to 4.2920.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.57% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.16%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.12%, French CAC 40 declined 0.32% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.76%.

The annual inflation rate in France increased to 1.5% in June from 1.4% in the prior month, while annual inflation rate in Germany was confirmed at 2.3%.

Economics

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose to 102.5 in June from 99.6 in May.

Annual inflation rate rose to 5.4% in June from 5% in May.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index surged 11.1% year-over-year during the first week of July

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

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

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren will speak at 2:50 p.m. ET.