The Dow is up 150 points midday
The Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJI) is staging a bounce off yesterday's lukewarm trading, last seen up 150 points and set to snap a three-day losing streak. The Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are sporting notable gains of their own, after both hitting record intraday highs earlier in the session. Upbeat jobless claims that came in at pandemic-era lows are putting some wind at the market's back. Elsewhere, Wall Street's "fear gauge," the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) is eyeing its lowest close in nearly three weeks.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Workhorse stock is brushing off yesterday's SEC drama.
- Wall Street is responding to Five Below's mixed earnings report.
- Plus, drug stock eyes FDA warning; a soaring satellite stock; and a penny stock hitting new lows.
Options traders are piling on drug stock AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) today. So far, 11,000 calls and 6,491 puts have exchanged hands, which is three times the intraday average. The most popular is the weekly 115-strike call, followed by the September 120 call. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just issues new warnings on AbbVie's arthritis drug, along with several others including drugs from Pfizer (PFE) and Eli Lilly (LLY). SVB Leerink slashed its price target to $142 from $148 in response. ABBV is muted at midday, up 0.2% at $112.52, despite hitting a four-year peak of $121.53 during yesterday's trading.
One of the best performing stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today is Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE:GSAT). The equity was last seen up 16.4% at $2.20 amid news the satellite services company received an advanced payment of $37.5 million from a customer. The stock enjoyed an incredible 64.3% jump on Monday after a major satellite update from Apple (AAPL). GSAT is up 570% in 2021.
Assembly Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:ASMB) is one of the worst performing stocks on the Nasdaq today, last seen down 16.5% at $3.25. Weighing on the equity is news that the company scrapped the development of its experimental hepatitis B treatment, ABI-H2158, citing liver toxicity issues. ASMB touched a fresh record low of $3.09 right out of the gate, breaching its 10-day moving average after earlier this week getting rejected by its longer-term 120-day moving average.
