Benzinga | Dec 14, 2020 12:08PM EST

Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 1.1%; Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.21% to 30,110.45 while the NASDAQ rose 1.11% to 12,515.36. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.37% to 3,676.92.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 16,257,360 cases with around 299,190 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 9,884,100 confirmed cases and 143,350 deaths, while Brazil reported over 6,901,950 COVID-19 cases with 181,400 deaths. In total, there were at least 72,336,160 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,613,740 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose 1.5% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Liquidity Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:LQDT), up 10%, and Groupon Inc (NASDAQ:GRPN), up 5%.

In trading on Monday, energy shares slipped 2.6%.

Top Headline

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the emergency use of BNT162b2, the mRNA vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and its German partner BioNTech SE -- ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX), for use in individuals aged 16 years and older, the companies said in a statement late Friday.

The U.S. has become the fifth nation behind the U.K., Bahrain, Canada and Saudi Arabia to approve a coronavirus vaccine candidate for emergency use.



Equities Trading UP

Arvinas, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARVN) shares shot up 97% to $58.84 after the company reported interim clinical data for its cancer treatment. The company said ARV-471 showed evidence of anti-tumor activity.

Shares of AnPac Bio-Medical Science Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:ANPC) got a boost, shooting 67% to $7.05 after the company said it made significant progress in detecting pre-cancer diseases.

Veru Inc. (NASDAQ:VERU) shares were also up, gaining 45% to $9.24. Veru reported Phase 2 trial results for enobosarm for endocrine resistant metastatic breast cancer.

Equities Trading DOWN

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARPO) shares tumbled 47% to $1.20 after the company disclosed results from its phase 2 trial of Razuprotafib glaucoma. HC Wainwright & Co. maintained Aerpio Pharmaceuticals with a Neutral and lowered the price target from $2 to $1.5.

Shares of Destination XL Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DXLG) were down 24% to $0.2392 after the company announced it would delist from the Nasdaq.

Gamida Cell Ltd (NASDAQ:GMDA) was down, falling 17% to $8.22 after the company pushed back its timeline to submit a biologics license application from 2020 to 2H 2021 due to additional data requests from the Food and Drug Administration.



Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $46.45, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,831.70.

Silver traded up 0.5% Monday to $24.21 while copper fell 0.3% to $3.5160.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 rose 0.86%, the Spanish Ibex Index climbed 1.63%, while Italy's FTSE MIB Index gained 0.98%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1.28%, French CAC 40 rose 0.94% and London's FTSE 100 rose 0.27%.

Eurozone industrial production increased 2.1% in October. German wholesale prices declined 1.7% year-over-year in November but rose 0.1% month-over-month.

Economics

On the economics calendar Monday, there is no important data due out.