Mid-day market update: Nasdaq tumbles 250 points, Activision Blizzard shares jump

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.58% to 35,343.17 while the NASDAQ fell 1.70% to 14,640.00. The S&P also fell, dropping, 1.57% to 4,589.66.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 67,631,190 cases with around 874,320 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 37,618,270 cases and 486,780 deaths, while Brazil reported over 23,083,290 COVID-19 cases with 621,260 deaths. In total, there were at least 331,801,530 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,565,720 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose 0.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BP Prudhoe Bay Royalty Trust BPT +5.51%, up 9% and Ecopetrol S.A. EC +4.88% up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell by 2.3%.

Top Headline

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS -7.73% reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

Goldman Sachs posted quarterly earnings of $10.81 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $11.73 per share. The company’s quarterly revenue came in at $12.64 billion, versus expectations of $12.01 billion. Goldman Sachs said fourth-quarter investment banking revenue totaled $3.8 billion, representing an increase of 45% year-over-year.

Equities Trading UP

NeuroMetrix, Inc. NURO +33.75% shares shot up 38% to $6.80. The FDA has granted Breakthrough Designation to NeuroMetrix’s Quell technology for reducing moderate to severe symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) that have persisted for at least 6-months following the end of chemotherapy.

Shares of Activision Blizzard, Inc. ATVI +25.23% got a boost, shooting 29% to $84.33. Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it plans to acquire game developer and interactive entertainment content publisher Activision Blizzard for $95 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion.

Vinco Ventures, Inc. BBIG +19.64% shares were also up, gaining 30% to $5.29 following a 15% surge on Friday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. DYN -13.35% shares tumbled 17% to $7.74. The FDA placed a clinical hold on Dyne Therapeutics investigational New Drug (IND) application to initiate a clinical trial of DYNE-251 in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) amenable to skipping exon 51.

Shares of China SXT Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SXTC -59.35% were down 59% to $0.2212 after the company priced a $3.5 million underwritten public offering of ordinary shares.

Silvergate Capital Corporation SI -21.99% was down, falling 18% to $113.04 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $85.31, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,818.00.

Silver traded up 2.6% Tuesday to $23.51 while copper fell 0.1% to $4.4160.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.9%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.51%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.62%. The German DAX dropped 0.84%, French CAC 40 fell 0.74% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.74%.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for the Eurozone increased by 22.6 points to a reading of 49.4 in January, while German ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment climbed 22.6 points to 51.7 in January. Italy’s trade surplus shrank to EUR 4.163 billion in November from EUR 6.864 billion in the year-ago month.

The UK unemployment rate dropped to 4.1% in the three months to November, recording the lowest level since the three months to June 2020, while number of employed people rose by 60,000 on quarter to 32.475 million during the three months to November.

Economics

The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index declined to -0.7 in January from 31.9 in the previous month.

The NAHB housing market index declined by 1 point to a reading of 83 in January from a ten-month high level of 84 in December.

The Treasury International Capital report for November will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.