Benzinga | Oct 6, 2020 12:32PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises Over 3%; Miragen Therapeutics Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.28% to 28226.27 while the NASDAQ fell 0.41% to 11,286.28. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.03% to 3,407.74.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,458,980 cases with around 210,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,685,080 confirmed cases and 103,560 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,927,230 COVID-19 cases with 146,670 deaths. In total, there were at least 35,519,100 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,044,630 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped 1.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included U.S. Silica Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SLCA), up 9%, and Goodrich Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:GDP), up 8%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell by 0.9%.

Top Headline

Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Paychex reported quarterly earnings of $0.63 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.55 per share. The company posted sales of $932.20 million, surpassing expectations of $895.38 million.

Paychex said it sees FY21 adjusted EPS down 6%-8% year over year.



Equities Trading UP

Westwater Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWR) shares shot up 26% to $10.44 after jumping over 87% on Monday. The company holds minerals rights for lithium and uranium deposits and strength appears related to momentum in lithium names amid EV battery interest.

Shares of Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE:AYX) got a boost, shooting 26% to $143.69 after the company raised its sales guidance for the third quarter and announced Mark Anderson as new CEO.

TransAct Technologies Incorporated (NASDAQ:TACT) shares were also up, gaining 28% to $6.53 after the company raised its Q3 sales guidance.



Equities Trading DOWN

Miragen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGEN) shares tumbled 23% to $0.5862 after the company announced that it conducted an internal review of preliminary topline data from its Phase 2 SOLAR clinical trial of cobomarsen in patients with Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma. The press release said preliminary data in 37 patients suggest that cobomarsen lacks a compelling result for the study's primary endpoint.

Shares of Axovant Gene Therapies Ltd. (NASDAQ:AXGT) were down 21% to $4.42. Axovant reported positive six-month follow-up data from second cohort of SUNRISE-PD Phase 2 trial of AXO-Lenti-PD gene therapy.

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRBP) was down, falling 37% to $1.19 after the company announced its Phase 2b study of Lenabasum for treatment of cystic fibrosis did not meet the primary endpoint.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.4% to $40.54, while gold traded down 0.3% to $1,915.10.

Silver traded down 1.8% Tuesday to $24.120 while copper fell 0.2% to $2.9575.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today after recording gains in the previous session. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.4%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.89%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.66%, French CAC 40 rose 0.54% and London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%.

German IHS Markit construction PMI declined to 45.5 in September versus a reading of 48 in August, while French construction PMI increased to 47.3 from prior month's reading of 46.

Economics

The US trade gap widened to $67.1 billion in August versus a revised $63.4 billion in July.

US job openings fell to 6.493 million in August from prior reading of 6.618 million, the Labor Department reported.

The Treasury will auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan will speak at 6:00 p.m. ET.