Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Tumbles 650 Points; Alpha Pro Tech Shares Jump

Toward the end of trading Thursday, the Dow traded down 2.42% to 26304.64 while the NASDAQ fell 2.61% to 8746.60. The S&P also fell, dropping 2.29% to 3,044.91.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares slipped by just 1.6% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX, up 71%, and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. VIR, up 80%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 3.5%.

Top Headline

Best Buy Co Inc BBY reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its quarterly dividend from $0.50 to $0.55 per share.

Best Buy reported quarterly earnings of $2.9 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.75 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $15.196 billion, which exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $15.06 billion.

Best Buy said it expects Q1 enterprise sales of $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion and adjusted earnings of $1 to $1.05 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. CODX shares shot up 75% to $15.57. Co-Diagnostics reported $4.2 million registered direct offering priced at the market at $9 per share. Shares of several vaccine companies are trading higher on renewed coronavirus fears.

Shares of Alpha Pro Tech, Ltd. APT got a boost, shooting 66% to $20.51 after the company said it expects to fulfill the remainder of $14.1 million in currently-booked orders for face masks as the demand rises due to the COVID-19 virus spreading in the second-quarter.

GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. GCAP shares were also up, gaining 67% to $5.89 after the company agreed to be acquired by INTL FCStone for $6 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Whiting Petroleum Corporation WLL shares tumbled 21% to $1.7801 after the company reported a loss for its fourth quarter. Shares of several oil and gas companies are also trading lower as growing coronavirus fears continued to hamper oil demand outlook.

Shares of Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. COCP were down 35% to $1.15 after the company priced its 8.461 million share common stock offering at $1.30 per share.

Nutanix, Inc. NTNX was down, falling 27% to $23.75 after the company issued Q3 earnings guidance below estimates.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 3.2% to $47.19, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,643.70.

Silver traded down 0.9% Thursday to $17.76, while copper rose 0.3% to $2.582.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 3.75% the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 3.55%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 2.66% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 3.19%, and the French CAC 40 fell 3.32% while UK shares fell 3.49%.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders fell 0.2% in, versus a revised 2.9% rise in December.

U.S. economy expanded at an annual pace of 2.1% in the fourth quarter, versus economists’ expectations for a 2.1% rise.

Initial jobless claims rose 8,000 to 219,000 in the latest week. However, analysts were expecting a reading of 212,000.

The pending sales index increased 5.2% for January.

Domestic supplies of natural gas declined 143 billion cubic feet for the week ended February 21, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts projected a fall of 158 billion cubic feet.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.