Benzinga | Sep 28, 2020 12:10PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Perceptron Jumps Following Acquisition News; Inovio Pharmaceuticals Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 1.59% to 27606.52 while the NASDAQ rose 1.29% to 11,053.88. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.41% to 3,345.10.

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

Financial shares rose 2.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE:GPMT), up 15%, and Jiayin Group Inc. (NASDAQ:JFIN), up 5%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares rose by just 0.8%.

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 174% to $30.16 after the company announced it signed a sales agreement with Tesla.

Shares of Ambow Education Holding Ltd. (NYSE:AMBO) got a boost, shooting 118% to $3.95 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 67% to $6.84 after the company announced it would be acquired for $7 per share.



Equities Trading DOWN

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:AQST) shares tumbled 36% to $4.9050 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 26% to $12.46 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 15% to $8.44 after the company reported results of investigator sponsored study in outpatients with mild and uncomplicated COVID-19.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.1% to $40.27, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,874.20.

Silver traded up 1.4% Monday to $23.410 while copper rose 0.5% to $2.9865.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 surged 2.18%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.18%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 2.33%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 2.98%, French CAC 40 rose 2.26% and London's FTSE 100 gained 1.65%.

Economics

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

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.