The markets are headed to a mixed start to the week. The S&P 500 and the Dow are both in the red with the NASDAQ up marginally. The subdued sentiment is a reflection of activity in the European markets. Stocks in Europe are in the red as data shows a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Essentially, this means that the world, including the U.S, is yet to fully control the pandemic.
For the markets, this means a prolonged period of uncertainty and economic weakness. The Federal Reserve has already announced that it was projecting that the COVID-19 would continue to have a negative impact on the economy in the foreseeable future. Investors are looking to a future where subdued economic activity could potentially lead to a correction.
Nonetheless, the U.S economy continues to show resilience. Even without an economic stimulus package from the government, the U.S economy continues to show signs of recovery in September. This is an indicator that the underlying fundamentals are strong and that a new stimulus package or a COVIDD-19 vaccine could reignite the economy.
In this environment of cautious optimism, there are stocks that are outperforming the market by a huge margin. In today’s session, some of the stocks showing signs of a major upside when markets open are as below:
Immutep Limited [NASDAQ: IMMP]
Immutep Limited is one of the top performers this morning and is up by close to 20%. This follows the company’s announcement of an improvement in results from stage 1 of its phase 2 TACTI-002 study. The company’s CMO Dr Fredric Triebel stated that by combining efti and pembrolizumab had shown good progress in people with HNSCC and NSCLC. The progress also attracted positive comments from external players. Commenting on it, principal investigator Dr Martin Forster of the University College London Hospital stated the results they received were encouraging.
ClearOne Inc [NASDAQ: CLRO]
This is another top performer this morning and is up by over 10%. This comes days after the company announced that it had priced $5.3 million direct offerings as per NASDAQ rule. The company announced that it would use money from the placement as working capital and other corporate purposes.
Pivotal Investment Corporation II [NYSE: PIC]
Pivotal Investment Corporation is another top performer this morning and is up by over 20% pre-market. This follows the company’s announcement that it was merging with XL Fleet, a commercial vehicle electrification company for listing on the NYSE. It is an interesting merger given XL’s growing demand and growing revenues.
