Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Electric Misses Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.61 percent to 24,592.88 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.11 percent to 7,058.19. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.4 percent to 2,651.72.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the real estate shares rose 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Tower Corp AMT up 5 percent, and NexPoint Residential Trust Inc NXRT up 6 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares rose by just 0.4 percent.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter.

General Electric will pay shareholders 1 cent per share per quarter in dividends after announcing a major reduction in conjunction with its third-quarter earnings report.

GE said it earned 14 cents per share in the third quarter on revenue of $29.573 billion, which fell short of the 22 cents per share and $28.85 billion Wall Street analysts expected. The company also announced a $22 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $22 billion related to GE Power and will split the power unit in two divisions.

Equities Trading UP

Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. ESIO shares shot up 86 percent to $27.78 after MKS Instruments announced plans to buy the company at $30 per share.

Shares of Under Armour, Inc. UAA got a boost, shooting up 23 percent to $22.44 after reporting upbeat Q3 results.

Veracyte, Inc. VCYT shares were also up, gaining 21 percent to $11.40 after the company posted upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Elevate Credit, Inc. ELVT shares dropped 32 percent to $4.345 after reporting a third-quarter earnings miss.

Shares of ACCO Brands Corporation ACCO were down 24 percent to $7.61 after the company posted downbeat Q3 results.

Evoqua Water Technologies Corp. AQUA was down, falling around 32 percent to $9.42 after the company lowered its Q4 sales guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.98 percent to $65.71 while gold traded down 0.11 percent to $1,226.30.

Silver traded up 0.23 percent Tuesday to $14.475, while copper fell 2.15 to $2.6815.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.07 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.01 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 0.06 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX dropped 0.22 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.38 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.39 percent.

Economics

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index increased 5.5 percent year-over-year for August.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index climbed to 137.9 in October, versus a revised reading of 135.3 in September.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 8-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Data on farm prices for September will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.