Mid-afternoon market update: Crude Oil down 1%; Sunlink Health Systems (SSY Stock) shares spike higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.46% to 32,801.35 while the NASDAQ fell 0.26% to 13,424.29. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.31% to 3,956.63.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 29,496,140 cases with around 535,650 deaths. Brazil reported over 11,519,600 COVID-19 cases with 279,280 deaths, while India confirmed a total of at least 11,409,830 cases and 158,850 deaths. In total, there were at least 120,338,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,662,990 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose 0.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Lizhi Inc. LIZI 29.51%, up 26%, and Yalla Group Limited. YALA 15.76%, up 13%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell 2.5%.

Top Headline

Jabil Inc. JBL 2.99% reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter and raised FY21 guidance.

Jabil posted quarterly earnings of $1.27 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.95 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $6.83 billion, exceeding expectations of $6.57 billion.

Equities Trading UP

SunLink Health Systems, Inc. SSY 149.22% shares shot up 157% to $4.9505 as the company reported $2 million expansion, capital and operating improvements at Trace Regional Hospital.

Shares of Savara Inc. SVRA 12.99% got a boost, shooting 32% to $2.34 after the company's CFO disclosed an open market purchase of 13,793 shares at $1.45 per share. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Savara with an Overweight rating and announced a price target of $7.

Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF 43.32% shares were also up, gaining 45% to $2.95 after the company announced it has signed a $42.7 million out-licensing deal with Ewopharma. Can-Fite will receive $2.25 million upfront and an additional $40.45 million upon achievement of milestones.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

CleanSpark, Inc. CLSK 23.52% shares tumbled 25% to $22.11 after the company reported pricing of $200 million underwritten public offering.

Shares of Kaspien Holdings Inc. KSPN 28.59% were down 28% to $30.15 after the company reported a bought deal offering of 416,600 shares of common stock at $32.50 per share.

Solid Biosciences Inc. SLDB 32.39% was down, falling 29% to $6.77 after the company reported interim functional, biomarker data, and patient-reported outcome measures from its ongoing IGNITE Phase 1/2 trial of its lead gene therapy candidate, SGT-001 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)..

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1% to $64.74, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,728.80.

Silver traded down 1.3% Tuesday to $25.95 while copper fell 2.2% to $4.0505.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.88%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.26% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.66%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.32%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.8% and Italy’s FTSE MIB rose 0.5%.

The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for the Eurozone increased 4.4 points to 74 in March, while the German ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment increased by 5.4 points to 76.6 in March. French consumer price inflation rate was revised higher to 0.6% year-over-year in February.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee will start its two-day policy meeting today.

Retail sales dropped 3% in February versus a revised 7.6% surge in January.

Import prices rose 1.3% in February, while prices for US exports rose 1.6%.

Industrial production declined 2.2% in February, following a revised 1.1% rise in the previous month.

US business inventories rose 0.3% for January.

The NAHB housing market index dropped 2 points to 82 in March.