Mid-day market update: Nasdaq dips 250 points, TherapeuticsMD shares surge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.66% to 36,827.65 while the NASDAQ fell 1.63% to 15,574.50. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.08% to 4,792.93.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 57,131,180 cases with around 848,880 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,960,260 cases and 482,010 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,305,070 COVID-19 cases with 619,240 deaths. In total, there were at least 293,085,990 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,467,810 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 3.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc. NEX +26.49% (Get Free Alerts for NEX), up 24% and Centennial Resource Development, Inc. CDEV +9.53% (Get Free Alerts for CDEV) up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 58.7 in December from 61.1 in the previous month. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 60.

Equities Trading UP

Oragenics, Inc. OGEN +16.24% shares shot up 18% to $0.5575. The company reported in Form 4 filing that Director Robert Koski bought 1 million shares at an average price of $0.47 per share.

Shares of NexTier Oilfield Solutions Inc. NEX +26.49% got a boost, shooting 24% to $4.79 after the company issued an operational update and guidance for the fourth quarter. The company said it expects Q4 revenue of $500-$510 million, reflecting a surge of more than 25% from Q3 2021.

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. TXMD +24.57% shares were also up, gaining 31% to $0.5150 after it announced that the FDA approved a low dose version of Bijuva, an oral hormone therapy to treat women with vasomotor symptoms due to menopause.

Equities Trading DOWN

AVROBIO, Inc. AVRO -32.67% shares tumbled 34% to $2.6650 after the company reported it is shifting its portfolio priorities to focus on other clinical-stage programs and extending its cash runway into the first quarter of 2024. It is deprioritizing its Fabry disease program.

Shares of iCAD, Inc. ICAD -21.79% were down 22% to $5.89 after the company issued Q4 and FY21 sales guidance below estimates.

Gritstone bio, Inc. GRTS -34.58% was down, falling 35% to $7.97 as the company shared data from the first cohort (10 µg dose) of the Phase 1 booster trial of self-amplifying mRNA (samRNA) COVID-19 vaccine.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $77.01, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,812.50.

Silver traded up 0.8% Tuesday to $22.995 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.4440.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.82%, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.63%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.39%. The German DAX gained 0.82%, French CAC 40 surged 1.39% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.81%.

The IHS Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI increased to 57.9 in December from a preliminary reading of 57.6, while consumer credit rose by GBP 1.2 billion in November. The annual inflation rate in France came in steady at 2.8% year-over-year in December.

The unemployment rate in Germany fell to 5.2% in December from 5.3% in the prior month, while retail sales in Germany rose 0.6% in November. The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain fell 76,782 from a month ago to 3.106 million in December.

Economics

The ISM manufacturing PMI dropped to 58.7 in December from 61.1 in the previous month. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 60.

US job openings dropped to 10.6 million in November, from 11.1 million in the earlier month, the Labor Department said.