Benzinga | Oct 19, 2020 12:17PM EDT

Mid-Day Market Update: Front Yard Residential Surges Following Buyout Deal; American Equity Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded down 0.22% to 28543.59 while the NASDAQ fell 0.08% to 11662.62. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.26% to 3,474.59.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 8,155,590 cases with around 219,670 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 7,550,270 confirmed cases and 114,610 deaths, while Brazil reported over 5,224,360 COVID-19 cases with 153,670 deaths. In total, there were at least 40,076,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,113,960 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Industrials shares slipped by just 0.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Textainer Group Holdings Limited (NYSE:TGH), up 12%, and Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. (NYSE:APT), up 9%.

In trading on Monday, communication services shares tumbled 0.9%.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter, while sales missed view.

Halliburton reported quarterly earnings of $0.11 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $0.08 per share. The company posted sales of $2.98 billion, missing expectations of $3.09 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Kaixin Auto Holdings (NASDAQ:KXIN) shares shot up 450% to $11.39 after climbing over 55% on Friday. JP Morgan, last week, upgraded the company's stock from Neutral to Overweight.

Shares of BioSpecifics Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:BSTC) got a boost, shooting 44% to $88.16 after the company agreed be acquired by Endo Pharmaceuticals for $88.50 per share in cash.

Front Yard Residential Corporation (NYSE:RESI) shares were also up, gaining 35% to $13.47 after the company agreed be acquired for $13.50 per share in cash..



Equities Trading DOWN

Abraxas Petroleum Corporation (NASDAQ:AXAS) shares tumbled 21% to $2.2999 following effectiveness of 1-for-20 reverse split.

Shares of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AERI) were down 14% to $10.04 after Bank of America downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underperform and announced a price target of $9 per share.

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (NYSE:AEL) was down, falling 18% to $26.35 after the company rejected an acquisition offer from Athene Holding and instead announced Brookfield Asset Management would acquire a 20% stake in the company at $37 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $41.12, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,910.40.

Silver traded up 1.2% Monday to $24.695 while copper rose 0.9% to $3.0935.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.01%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.28%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index rose 0.16%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 slipped 0.09%, French CAC 40 surged 0.36% and London's FTSE 100 fell 0.23%.

Eurozone construction output declined the least in six months, falling just 0.9% year-over-year in August.

Economics

The NAHB housing market index rose to 85 in October versus 83 in September.