When Independence Day is in the middle of the week, it's natural for investors to extend their weekend. That made Monday's preholiday trading session a relatively quiet one, as many market participants seemed content to take the day off and prepare for Tuesday's fireworks outside the stock market. Modest gains came for the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC +1.23%), Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.63%), and S&P 500 (^GSPC +1.02%) alike, as a favorable summer sentiment among many investors continued to build momentum.
|
Index |
Percentage Change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow Jones Industrials |
+0.03% |
+11 |
|
S&P 500 |
+0.12% |
+5 |
|
Nasdaq Composite |
+0.21% |
+29 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Even on a quiet day, though, some companies experienced noteworthy moves.
- Coinbase Global (COIN +3.98%) got a big boost as institutional investors look to have the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission grant approval for some interesting new investments.
- However, AstraZeneca (AZN +0.00%) gave back ground in response to some disappointing results from a key clinical trial.
You'll find all the details below.
Coinbase looks to benefit from Bitcoin ETFs
Shares of Coinbase Global jumped 12% on Monday. The cryptocurrency exchange specialist got a vote of confidence from key players in the financial industry that hope to get the SEC to approve exchange-traded funds that directly hold Bitcoin (BTC +4.74%).
NASDAQ: COIN
Key Data Points
The move was in response to SEC comments concerning filings for approval for Bitcoin ETFs from a host of well-known financial institutions, including Fidelity, BlackRock (BLK +0.00%), WisdomTree (NYSE: WETF), ARK Invest, and VanEck.
Working through the exchanges that would list those ETFs, the SEC argued that the applications for these proposed Bitcoin ETFs needed to specify exactly what partner institutions the fund managers would work with in order to ensure proper surveillance of the markets they would create. In the past, the SEC has had grave concerns over the possibility that thin markets could lead to manipulation or other negative impacts for regular investors.
One of those exchanges, Cboe (CBOE +1.47%), said that it would work with Coinbase to ensure proper surveillance. That helped establish Coinbase's reputation in the industry, as Cboe noted that Coinbase already handles a considerable amount of the volume of Bitcoin trading in U.S. markets.
Cboe's implicit endorsement of Coinbase doesn't ensure that the SEC will approve a Bitcoin ETF. However, if the regulator does allow such Bitcoin ETFs to move forward, it could help Coinbase rebound from recent setbacks and take full advantage of Bitcoin's recent resurgence.
AstraZeneca can't meet investors' expectations
Elsewhere, shares of AstraZeneca fell 9%. The pharmaceutical company released trial data that didn't give investors the confidence they wanted to see in the effectiveness of a key candidate treatment.
AstraZeneca's Tropion-Lung01 phase 3 trial of its datopotamab deruxtecan candidate drug showed mixed results. The trial met one of its dual endpoints by establishing a statistically significant improvement in patients suffering from non-small cell lung cancer, compared to traditional chemotherapy treatment using docetaxel.
NASDAQ: AZN
Key Data Points
However, datopotamab deruxtecan failed to reach the threshold for statistical significance in demonstrating the other dual primary endpoint of overall survival rates. AstraZeneca characterized the data as "not mature" and expressed hope that ongoing assessment of overall survival as the trial continues will prove favorable. Moreover, there were deaths among patients in the study, and it wasn't clear whether the drug played a role in those deaths.
AstraZeneca has many successful cancer treatments, but investors never like unclear news about a candidate drug in a company's pipeline. Shareholders have to hope that further details from the clinical trial will more clearly support datopotamab deruxtecan's value in the long run.
