Mid-day market update: United Natural Foods falls on sales miss, Aethlon Medical shares jump

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.09% to 34,631.35 while the NASDAQ rose 0.29% to 13,964.96. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.15% to 4,233.76.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,393,800 cases with around 598,330 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,089,060 cases and 353,520 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,037,120 COVID-19 cases with 476,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 174,041,980 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,748,860 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Aeterna Zentaris Inc. AEZS 16.43%, up 17%, and Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. CKPT 26.13%, up 25%.

In trading on Wednesday, industrials shares fell 0.8%.

Top Headline

Campbell Soup Company THO 1.23% reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter.

Campbell Soup reported quarterly earnings of $0.57 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $0.66 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.98 billion, versus expectations of $2.00 billion.

Campbell Soup lowered its FY21 EPS guidance from $3.03-$3.11 to $2.90-$2.93. The company expects FY21 net sales to decrease 3%-3.5%. The company also reported a $250 million buyback plan.

Equities Trading UP

Aethlon Medical, Inc. AEMD 428.51% shares shot up 417% to $11.44 in reaction to Zacks Article 'AEMD: First Ever In Vivo Removal Of COVID Virus From Bloodstream Of An Infected Patient.' The company recently announced the positive results from using its Hemopurifier in treating two critically ill COVID-19 patients, which is available under the FDA emergency use authorization (EUA).

Shares of The GEO Group, Inc. GEO 57.63% got a boost, shooting 47% to $9.35 amid continued retail investor interest in high-short interest stocks.

Checkpoint Therapeutics, Inc. CKPT 26.13% shares were also up, gaining 25% to $3.33 after B. Riley Securities initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a $18 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

United Natural Foods, Inc. UNFI 14.28% shares tumbled 18% to $33.33 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales and issued FY21 EPS guidance with a midpoint below consensus estimates.

Shares of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. CMTL 14.26% were down 13% to $22.49 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results.

Lordstown Motors Corp. RIDE 0.49% was down, falling 16% to $9.45 after the company's amended annual filing mentioned going concerns that current cash levels are not enough to begin commercial production.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $70.30, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,893.30.

Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $27.93 while copper fell 0.8% to $4.52.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.02%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.34% and the German DAX 30 fell 0.51%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.09%, French CAC 40 rose 0.15% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.22%.

German trade surplus surged to EUR 15.5 billion in April from EUR 3.5 billion in the year-ago period, while current account surplus widened to EUR 21.3 billion from EUR 10.0 billion.

Economics

US wholesale inventories rose 0.8% to $698.0 billion in April.

US crude oil inventories dropped 5.2 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.