Benzinga | Oct 7, 2020 12:18PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Gold Falls 1%; Sunworks Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.57% to 28209.00 while the NASDAQ rose 1.46% to 11,316.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.34% to 3,405.96.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 7,501,840 cases with around 210,900 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 6,757,130 confirmed cases and 104,550 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,969,140 COVID-19 cases with 147,490 deaths. In total, there were at least 35,849,420 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,050,500 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares jumped 2.4% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Ferroglobe PLC (NASDAQ:GSM), up 15%, and Sierra Metals Inc. (NYSE:SMTS), up 9%.

In trading on Wednesday, energy shares fell by 0.2%.

Top Headline

RPM International Inc. (NYSE:RPM) reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

RPM reported quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $1.19 per share. The company posted sales of $1.61 billion, surpassing expectations of $1.49 billion.



Equities Trading UP

The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PECK) shares shot up 93% to $14.00 in sympathy with Sunworks after the company announced it won $10 million in project wins in Q3. The company also signed a $7.256 million 5.3MW solar project in Rhode Island.

Shares of RAVE Restaurant Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:RAVE) got a boost, shooting 121% to $1.135. The company announced on Tuesday it has hired Darren Webb as director of development for RAVE and Dion Firooznia as franchise business consultant for Pizza Inn.

Sunworks, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUNW) shares were also up, gaining 49% to $4.1601 after the company announced it has signed $10 million in new commercial and agriculture projects in the third quarter.



Equities Trading DOWN

Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ:BAND) shares tumbled 8% to $170.60 after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company's stock from Equal-Weight to Underweight and announced a $140 price target.

Shares of Aytu BioScience, Inc. (NASDAQ:AYTU) were down 13% to $1.1553 following Q4 results. Aytu BioScience posted a quarterly loss of $0.03 per share.

CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSK) was down, falling 10% to $11.20 after the company reported a common stock offering of 4.44 million shares at $9 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.6% to $39.61, while gold traded down 1.1% to $1,887.70.

Silver traded up 0.1% Wednesday to $23.935 while copper rose 2.5% to $3.0360.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today after recording gains in the prior session. The eurozone's STOXX 600 slipped 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.34%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.02%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.05%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.31% and London's FTSE 100 gained 0.12%.

Spanish industrial production fell 5.7% year-over-year in August versus a revised 6.2% drop in the prior month. Industrial production in Germany also declined 0.2% in August.

Economics

U.S. crude inventories gained 500,000 barrels for the week ended October 2, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts were expecting a decline of 2 million barrels. Gasoline supply dropped 1.4 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles slipped 1 million barrels.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 1:00 p.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is set to speak at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams will speak at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Data on consumer credit for August will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak at 4:30 p.m. ET.