Benzinga Market Wrap For Tuesday, August 20: Markets Regain Some Losses

Ending four days of losses, markets rallied Tuesday afternoon to close higher. Despite taking back some losses, investors are still cautious after losses in Asia last night.

News was light on the economics front, but several retail companies reporting second quarter earnings led the way for higher volume than we have been seeing over the past few trading sessions.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.91 points, or 0.04 percent, to 15,004.83.

The S&P 500 gained around 6.44 points, or 0.39 percent, to 1,652.42.

The Nasdaq picked up a little better than 24.5 points, or 0.68 percent, to finish at 3,613.59.

Mexican GDP

Mexico’s GDP grew less than expected this quarter at 1.5 percent. Economists were looking for 2.32 percent growth, but the rate was faster than the previous quarter's 0.8 percent.

Commodities

Crude oil futures traded down on Tuesday, likely because delivery date is approaching and NYMEX traders are rolling contracts over to the next month. WTI was down two percent heading into the close to $104.96 while brent was up 0.2 percent to $110.12. Natural gas is down almost one percent to $3.44.

After rallying last week, gold prices continued upward Tuesday. At last check gold was up 0.55 percent to $1,373.20. Silver futures were down for the day at $23.13. Platinum was other big metal mover today, up nearly one percent to $1,521.10 per ounce.

Cotton took a beating today, down more than four percent with ICE Cotton futures trading at $88.86 nearing the close. Grains were also down with corn and wheat trading down 2.06 percent and 1.15 percent, respectively.

Bonds

Long-term Treasuries trended lower today. Near the equities close, the 30 year note was down 1.26 percent.

Treasury yields were as follows in afternoon trade on Tuesday: The 5-Year Note was yielding 1.543 percent and the 10-Year Note yield was sitting at 2.184 percent. The 10-Year Note and 30-Year Bond was yielding 3.583 percent.

Currencies

Heading into the closing bell, the U.S. Dollar was slightly lower. At last check, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the United States Dollar versus a basket of foreign currencies, was down 0.46 percent to $21.87.

The closely watched EUR/USD pair was up 0.64 percent to $1.3421. Other movers included the USD/CHF, which fell 0.75 percent and the EUR/GBP, which added 0.49 percent on the day.

Stock Movers

Best Buy Co BBY shot up 12.43 percent to $34.55 on strong second quarter earnings. Shares of Urban Outfitters URBN moved up 8.42 percent to $43.29 after the company reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. Analysts at Wedbush upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform.
Goodrich Petroleum GDP traded up, gaining 11.08 percent to $23.16, as shares rallied on strong technicals in the face of an oil downturn.
JC Penney JCP was extremely volatile today and was up 5.94 percent nearing the close at $14.01.
Shares of Dick's Sporting Goods DKS fell after missing earnings. At last check it was trading at $46.65, down 7.67 percent.
Barnes & Noble BKS shares tumbled 12.63 percent to $14.57 after the company reported a wider fiscal first-quarter loss.
Zillow Z was down, falling 4.47 percent to $80.95 after the company priced an offering of 5,023,486 shares of its Class A common stock at $82.00 per share.S