Mid-afternoon market update: Dow falls 25 points; Homology Medicines (FIXX Stock) shares slide

Toward the end of trading Wednesday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 33,404.98 while the NASDAQ rose 0.02% to 13,701.64. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.09% to 4,077.69.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 30,847,730 cases with around 556,520 deaths. Brazil reported over 13,100,580 COVID-19 cases with 336,940 deaths, while India confirmed a total of at least 12,801,780 cases and 166,170 deaths. In total, there were at least 132,534,870 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,875,870 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares rose 0.7% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Snap Inc. SNAP 5.69%, up 7%, and Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE 2.21%, up 4%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

RPM International Inc. RPM 4.2% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

RPM reported quarterly earnings of $0.38 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.29 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.27 billion, versus expectations of $1.21 billion.

Equities Trading UP

UTime Limited UTME 102.56% shares shot up 139% to $93.10. UTime shares jumped 875% on Tuesday after the company priced its IPO at $4 per share.

Shares of Ouster, Inc. OUST 25.29% got a boost, shooting 28% to $10.09 after Citigroup initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and announced a $17 price target.

SOS Limited SOS 26.39% shares were also up, gaining 32% to $5.93. A post on a Reddit thread late Tuesday, which has since then been deleted, called upon traders to buy the stock to initiate a short squeeze over the next five trading days.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

FibroGen, Inc. FGEN 42.06% shares tumbled 41% to $20.59 after a murky disclosure for roxadustat, the company’s anemia treatment in chronic kidney disease patients. While preparing for an advisory committee meeting ahead of potential approval of roxadustat, FibroGen said it realized it submitted altered information to the FDA about the drug’s cardiovascular safety.

Shares of The GEO Group, Inc. GEO 20.1% were down 20% to $6.26 after the company announced it is suspending its quarterly dividend to 'maximize repayment of debt while it evaluates corporate structure.'

Homology Medicines, Inc. FIXX 21.67% was down, falling 20% to $7.40 after the company priced its underwritten public offering for proceeds of approximately $50.0 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $59.60, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,740.70.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $25.245 while copper fell 1.4% to $4.0595.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.22%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.43% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.24%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.01%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.91% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.08%.

Eurozone composite PMI was revised higher to 53.2 for March versus a preliminary estimate of 52.5, while services PMI rose to 49.6 in March from a preliminary reading of 48.8.

UK services PMI was revised lower to 56.3 in March from a preliminary reading of 56.8. French composite PMI was revised higher to 50 in March versus a preliminary estimate of 49.5, while German composite PMI increased to 57.3 in March from a preliminary reading of 56.8.

Economics

The trade deficit in the US increased to $71.1 billion in February from a revised $67.8 billion in the earlier month.

The Federal Open Market Committee issued minutes of its latest meeting.