Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Darden Restaurants Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.11 percent to 23,853.86 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.83 percent to 6,809.54. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.81 percent to 2,566.44.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the industrial shares climbed 1.8 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Navistar International Corp NAV up 19 percent, and YRC Worldwide Inc YRCW up 12 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 0.2 percent.

Top Headline

Darden Restaurants, Inc. DRI reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Tuesday.

Darden Restaurants reported quarterly earnings of $0.92 per share which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.90. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.973 billion which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.98 billion.

Darden Restaurants expects FY19 earnings of $5.60 to $5.70 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Marin Software Incorporated MRIN shares got a boost, shooting up 48 percent to $4.2225 after the company announced it has entered a revenue sharing agreement with Google. The company also raised Q4 guidance.

Shares of Navistar International Corporation NAV shot up 18 percent to $28.19 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

SMART Global Holdings, Inc. SGH shares were also up, gaining 11 percent to $31.08. SMART Global will replace XO Group in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Monday, December 24.

Equities Trading DOWN

Motus GI Holdings, Inc. MOTS shares dropped 15 percent to $2.7066 after reporting a proposed 5 million share follow-on offering of common stock.

Shares of Rent-A-Center, Inc. RCII were down 15 percent to $12.31 after the company terminated its merger agreement with Vintage Capital.

OptimizeRx Corporation OPRX was down, falling around 16 percent to $9.75 after the company priced its offering of approximately 2.1 million shares at $10 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.65 percent to $48.56 while gold traded down 0.1 percent to $1,250.60.

Silver traded down 0.20 percent Tuesday to $14.73, while copper fell 1.87 percent to $2.703.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.37 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index declined 0.96 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.10 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX gained 0.28 percent, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.39 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.53 percent.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting today.

U.S. housing starts rose 3.2 percent at an annual rate of 1.256 million in November. Housing permits increased 5 percent at an annual rate of 1.328 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index declined 0.3 percent during the first two weeks of December versus November.