Benzinga | Sep 28, 2020 02:35PM EDT

Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Surges 500 Points; Piedmont Lithium Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.85% to 27,676.98 while the NASDAQ rose 1.51% to 11,078.09. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.71% to 3,354.84.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,116,450 cases with around 204,760 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,074,700 confirmed cases and 95,540 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,732,300 COVID-19 cases with 141,740 deaths. In total, there were at least 33,137,740 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 998,370 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped 3.3% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included WPX Energy, Inc. (NYSE:WPX), up 17%, and Centennial Resource Development, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDEV), up 14%.

In trading on Monday, health care shares rose by just 0.9%.

Top Headline

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM) reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Cal-Maine Foods reported quarterly loss of $0.40 per share, exceeding analysts' estimates for a loss of $0.53 per share. The company reported sales of $292.78 million, surpassing expectations of $284.08 million.



Equities Trading UP

Piedmont Lithium Limited (NYSE:PLL) shares shot up 324% to $46.69 after the company announced it signed a sales agreement with Tesla. Piedmont Lithium is a lithium-based company focused on the development of its Piedmont Lithium Project in North Carolina.

Shares of Ambow Education Holding Ltd. (NYSE:AMBO) got a boost, shooting 91% to $3.45 after the company announced it expanded its strategic partnership with Amazon in a digital professional education, training and certification.

Perceptron, Inc. (NASDAQ:PRCP) shares were also up, gaining 66% to $6.80 after the company announced it would be acquired for $7 per share.



Equities Trading DOWN

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:AQST) shares tumbled 31% to $5.23 after the company late Friday received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA for Libervant buccal film indicating the application cannot be approved in its current form.

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) were down 27% to $12.38 following an adverse development in its coronavirus vaccine program. The company said the FDA has imposed a partial clinical hold on the planned Phase 2/3 trial of INO-4800 -- its DNA vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The partial clinical hold also applied to the company's Cellectra 2000 delivery device to be used in the trial.

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EIGR) was down, falling 14% to $8.46 after the company reported results of investigator sponsored study in outpatients with mild and uncomplicated COVID-19.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.9% to $2.9895, while gold traded up 0.7% to $1,879.60.

Silver traded up 1.9% Monday to $23.530 while copper rose 0.6% to $2.9895.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 2.22%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.46%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 2.47%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 3.22%, French CAC 40 rose 2.40% and London's FTSE 100 gained 1.46%.

Economics

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index rose 5.6 points to a reading of 13.6 in September.