Mid-Day Market Update: National General Jumps Following Allstate Acquisition; VIVUS Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.04% to 25900.69 while the NASDAQ rose 0.75% to 10421.07. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.16% to 3,150.41.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,996,090 cases with around 131,480 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 1,668,580 COVID-19 cases with 66,740 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 742,410 confirmed cases and 20,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 11,846,590 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 544,530 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cheetah Mobile Inc. CMCM, up 24%, and Ideanomics, Inc. IDEX, up 13%.

In trading on Wednesday, materials shares fell 1.5%.

Top Headline

MSC Industrial Direct Co Inc MSM reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

MSC Industrial Direct reported quarterly earnings of $1.40 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.10 per share. The company reported sales of $835.00 million, exceeding expectations of $807.94 million.

Equities Trading UP

National General Holdings Corp. NGHC shares shot up 65% to $33.60 after Allstate announced plans to acquire National General Holdings for around $4 billion.

Shares of Intersect ENT, Inc. XENT got a boost, shooting 29% to $17.90 after a Bloomberg report said rival Medtronic PLC has tabled a bid for the former. The board of Intersect ENT is reportedly reviewing the offer.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CLNE shares were also up, gaining 38% to $3.07. Chevron reported a partnership with Clean Energy on Adopt-a-Port initiative to reduce emissions.

Equities Trading DOWN

MOGU Inc. MOGU shares tumbled 31% to $4.10 after jumping 105% on Tuesday.

Shares of VIVUS, Inc. VVUS were down 23% to $0.6180 after the company said it has completed the solicitation of an in-court prepackaged plan of reorganization, under which its creditor IEH Biopharma will take 100% ownership of VIVUS ahead of its July 7chapter 11 filing.

Centogene N.V. CNTG was down, falling 18% to $19.38 after the company announced a primary and secondary public offering of 3.5 million shares of the company's common stock.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $40.61, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,820.00.

Silver traded up 1.9% Wednesday to $19.05, while copper rose 0.6% to $2.814.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.67%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 1.62%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.57%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.97%, French CAC 40 slipped 1.24% and UK shares fell 0.55%.

Economics

U.S. crude inventories climbed 5.7 million barrels for the week ended July 3, the Energy Information Administration reported. However, analysts expected a drop of 3.7 million barrels. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub rose 2.2 million barrels. Gasoline supply declined 4.8 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles rose 3.1 million barrels.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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