Benzinga | Sep 8, 2020 12:00PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Tumbles Over 300 Points; Co-Diagnostics Shares Spike Higher

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.79% to 27629.96 while the NASDAQ fell 2.85% to 10990.74. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.13% to 3,353.82.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 6,301,450 cases with around 189,220 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 4,280,420 confirmed cases and 72,770 deaths, while Brazil reported over 4,147,790 COVID-19 cases with 126,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 27,356,700 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 893,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares slipped by just 1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. (NASDAQ:ASPS), up 11%, and Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (NYSE:UBP), up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 3.8%.

Top Headline

Blood plasma and diagnostics company Grifols SA (NASDAQ:GRFS) announced plans to completely acquire Alkahest Inc, a biopharmaceutical startup focussed on neurodegenerative and age-related diseases, for $146 million on a debt-free basis.

Grifols will buy the remaining equity in Alkahest without having to resort to additional borrowing, the company said in a statement.

Equities Trading UP

Albireo Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALBO) shares shot up 41% to $38.50 after the company announced its phase 3 trial of Odevixibat met both primary endpoints.

Shares of Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA) got a boost, shooting 37% to $48.79 after the company announced a strategic partnership with General Motors. Nikola's Badger will be engineered and manufactured by GM.

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CODX) shares were also up, gaining 36% to $11.22 after the company entered into an agreement with Arches Research to expand its coronavirus testing services.

Equities Trading DOWN

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRBP) shares tumbled 76% to $2.1750 after the company announced topline results from its RESOLVE-1 Phase 3 study of Lenabasum which showed no significant differences in the primary and secondary endpoints.

Shares of ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACMR) were down 25% to $61.88 after Needham downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold.

Napco Security Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSSC) was down, falling 18% to $19.10 after the company reported downbeat Q4 results.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 8.8% to $36.27, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,934.60.

Silver traded down 0.5% Tuesday to $26.585, while copper fell 1.7% to $3.01.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 fell 1.14%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.67%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index slipped 1.81%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 dropped 1.01%, French CAC 40 fell 1.59% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.18%.

German exports continued to rebound for the third straight month, increasing 4.7% in July from June. The Eurozone economy contracted by 11.8% on quarter during the three months ended June, lesser than initial estimates for a 12.1% decline.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index rose to 100.2 in August versus a reading of 98.8 in July.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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