Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Halliburton Earnings Beat Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 27185.42 while the NASDAQ rose 0.64% to 8198.78. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.27% to 2,984.66.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares rose 1.2% on Monday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Camtek Ltd. CAMT, up 7%, and Axcelis Technologies, Inc. ACLS, up 4%.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company HAL reported upbeat earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

Halliburton reported second quarter earnings of $0.35 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.30 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.93 billion, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $5.97 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Taronis Technologies Inc TRNX shares shot up 56% to $0.49 after the company received a $165 million purchase contract.

Shares of Condor Hospitality Trust Inc CDOR got a boost, shooting up 33% to $10.96 following an announcement that the company will be acquired by NexPoint Hospitality Trust for $318 million.

Peak Resorts Inc SKIS shares were also up, gaining 113% to $10.85 after the company agreed to be acquired by Vail Resorts, Inc. MTN for $11 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Intec Pharma Ltd. NTEC shares tumbled 84% to $0.4651 after the company announced its Phase 3 trial of Accordion Pill-Carbidopa/Levodopa in advanced parkinson's disease patients did not meet its target endpoints.

Shares of Salarius Pharmaceuticals Inc. SLRX were down 35% to $9.99. Salarius Pharmaceuticals enrolled first patient in Phase 1 clinical study of novel inhibitor targeting epigenetics in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Cadence Bancorporation CADE was down, falling 19% to $15.86 after the company reported Q2 EPS down from last year.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $56.22, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,426.40.

Silver traded up 1.3% Monday to $16.41, while copper fell 0.8% to $2.731.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.3%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.2% while UK shares rose 0.3%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index rose to a reading of -0.02 in June, versus a revised reading of -0.03 in the prior month.
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The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.