Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 200 Points; Niu Technologies Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Monday, the Dow traded up 0.59% to 35,811.07 while the NASDAQ fell 0.43% to 15,989.15. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.43% to 4,718.05.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 48,592,810 cases with around 793,650 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,518,900 cases and 465,910 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,017,270 COVID-19 cases with 612,720 deaths. In total, there were at least 257,960,480 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,170,620 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 2.4% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camber Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CEI), up 20% and Amplify Energy Corp. (NYSE: AMPY) up 12%.

In trading on Monday, communications services shares fell 0.7%.

Top Headline

Avaya Holdings Corp (NYSE: AVYA) reported upbeat results for its fourth quarter on Monday.

Avaya reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue of $760 million, up 0.7% year-on-year, beating the consensus of $738.5 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.77 beat the consensus of $0.72.

Equities Trading UP

iSpecimen Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPC) shares shot up 95% to $9.58 after the company announced it has been contracted to support new advanced research on COVID-19 seeking insights on its transmissibility, variants, outcomes, and testing validity among multiple population segments.

Shares of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NASDAQ: LEE) got a boost, shooting 25% to $23.09. Alden Global Capital confirmed earlier report that the company offered to acquire Lee Enterprises for $24 per share.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: VG) shares were also up, gaining 26% to $20.60 after the company announced it would be acquired by Ericsson in a $6.2 billion acquisition.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Niu Technologies (NASDAQ: NIU) shares tumbled 17% to $20.04. Niu Technologies reported third-quarter FY21 sales growth of 37.1% year-on-year, to RMB 1.23 billion ($190.3 million), missing the analyst consensus of $217.3 million.

Shares of Cerence Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC) were down 20% to $82.87. Cerence reported fourth-quarter FY21 revenue growth of 7.5% year-on-year to $98.1 million. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.66 beat the consensus of $0.56. Meanwhile, the company provided the first quarter and fiscal 2022 forecast below Wall Street view, amidst production challenges faced by its customers due to semiconductor shortages.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH) was down, falling 30% to $20.02.
Biotech reporter Adam Feuerstein tweets '$AUPH didn't just file a mixed shelf on Friday, it also entered into a $250M ATM stock sale agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald. The buyout speculation looks well past its expiration date.'

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $76.53, while gold traded down 2.4% to $1,806.50.

Silver traded down 2% Monday to $24.285 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.3950.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.13%, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.78% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.27%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.44%, French CAC 40 fell 0.10% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.17%.

Spain's trade deficit widened to EUR 2.4 billion in September from EUR 1.5 billion in the year-ago period.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a three-month high of +0.76 in October from -0.18 in the previous month.

Existing home sales in the US rose 0.8% to an annualized 6.34 million in October.

Check out the full economic calendar here