Mid-day market update: Nasdaq rises over 50 points, Washington prime group shares plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.65% to 34,255.66 while the NASDAQ rose 0.41% to 14,126.79. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.23% to 4,237.53.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,462,280 cases with around 599,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,510,410 cases and 374,300 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,412,760 COVID-19 cases with 487,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 176,001,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,805,010 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Canaan Inc. CAN 21.56%, up 26%, and Bit Digital, Inc. BTBT 20.16%, up 27%.

In trading on Monday, materials shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

Accenture PLC ACN 0.6% agreed to acquire Aachen, Germany's engineering consulting and services firm, umlaut.

The financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed

Equities Trading UP

Enochian Biosciences, Inc. ENOB 105.44% shares shot up 107% to $9.11. The FDA has accepted Enochian BioSciences Inc's pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) request for a potential functional cure or treatment of HIV.

Shares of RAPT Therapeutics, Inc. RAPT 112.17% got a boost, shooting 115% to $39.95 as the company announced topline results from its Phase 1b trial of RPT193 as monotherapy for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (AD).

iTeos Therapeutics, Inc. ITOS 37.39% shares were also up, gaining 39% to $27.78. iTeos Therapeutics and GlaxoSmithKline plc have agreed to co-develop and co-commercialize EOS-448, an anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody.

Equities Trading DOWN

Washington Prime Group Inc. WPG 30.06% shares tumbled 24% to $3.67 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Shares of Avenue Therapeutics, Inc. ATXI 30.17% were down 33% to $2.8272 after the company received a second Complete Response Letter from the FDA regarding its marketing application seeking approval for IV tramadol.

Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. IKT 18.06% was down, falling 22% to $4.66. Inhibikase Therapeutics filed for offering of up to 8 million shares of common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $71.47, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,865.80.

Silver traded down 0.3% Monday to $28.075 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.5310.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.18%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.83% and the German DAX 30 fell 0.13%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.18%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.24% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.16%.

Eurozone industrial production increased 0.8% in April versus a revised 0.4% rise in the previous month.

Economics

There are no major economic released for Monday.