Mid-day market update: Gold drops over 1%; Humanigen (HGEN Stock) shares spike higher

Thousands of traders just like you are using Benzinga Options to learn the formula that Nic Chahine uses to earn a full-time living. Click here to see how you can learn while you earn. 

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.40% to 32,939.74 while the NASDAQ fell 1.16% to 12,985.73. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.72% to 3,946.07.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 30,262,590 cases with around 549,330 deaths. Brazil reported over 12,534,680 COVID-19 cases with 312,200 deaths, while India confirmed a total of at least 12,039,640 cases and 161,840 deaths. In total, there were at least 127,258,170 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 2,785,280 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares rose 0.6% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Kenon Holdings Ltd. KEN 4.24%, up 4%, and Vistra Corp. VST 3.97%, up 3%.

In trading on Monday, financial shares fell 1.7%.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM 2.35% reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed views.

Cal-Maine posted quarterly earnings of $0.28 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $0.07 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $359.10 million, versus expectations of $368.66 million.

Equities Trading UP

Universe Pharmaceuticals INC UPC 67.32% shares shot up 79% to $7.27. Universe Pharmaceuticals, last week, priced its IPO at $5 per share.

Shares of Humanigen, Inc. HGEN 71.19% got a boost, shooting 100% to $27.95 after the company reported topline data from Phase 3 study evaluating its lead drug candidate, lenzilumab, in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

China Pharma Holdings, Inc. CPHI 31.91% shares were also up, gaining 31% to $1.08 after the company reported a narrower FY20 loss late Friday.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Orphazyme A/S ORPH 28.28% shares tumbled 30% to $8.65 after the company's Phase 2/3 trial evaluating armioclomol for treatment of inclusion body myositis did not meet its primary and secondary endpoints.

Shares of Millendo Therapeutics, Inc. MLND 35.32% were down 34% to $1.4431. Millendo Therapeutics agreed to merge with privately-held Tempest Therapeutics Inc in an all-stock transaction.

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. CLDX 32.34% was down, falling 32% to $16.06 after the company reported interim data from the ongoing Phase 1b trial, evaluating CDX-0159 in patients with antihistamine refractory cold contact urticaria (ColdU) and symptomatic dermographism (SD), the two most common forms of chronic inducible urticaria (CIndU).

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.8% to $60.50, while gold traded down 1.4% to $1,708.90.

Silver traded down 1.8% Monday to $24.665 while copper fell 1.1% to $4.0240.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.19%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.07% and the German DAX 30 gained 0.49%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.49%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.16% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.16%.

Consumer credit in the UK dropped by GBP 1.2 billion in February following a GBP 2.3 billion decline in the earlier month, while number of mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to 87.67 thousand in February.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index rose 11.7 points from the earlier month to a reading of 28.9 in March.