Mid-Day Market Update: Vince Holding Declines After CEO Resignation; Natural Health Trends Shares Surge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.31 percent to 18,033.71 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.69 percent to 5,106.71. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.41 percent to 2,108.14.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Healthcare shares jumped by 0.83 percent on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Simulations Plus, Inc. SLP, up 9 percent, and Cytokinetics, Inc. CYTK, up 9 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, basic materials shares slipped by 0.09 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Gerdau SA (ADR) GGB, down 6 percent, and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (ADR) SHI, off 4 percent.

Top Headline

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Tuesday.

The New York-based bank reported a quarterly profit of $6.29 billion, or $1.54 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $5.98 billion, or $1.46 per share.

Its net revenue slipped 3 percent year-over-year to $24.5 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.44 per share on revenue of $24.49 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Micron Technology, Inc. MU shares shot up 12 percent to $19.77 following news Monday night that Tsinghua Unigroup, China's largest government owned chip design company, is looking to acquire Micron for $21 per share, according to both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

Natural Health Trends Corp. NHTC shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $38.11 after the company reported Q2 sales guidance of $69.7 million.

Shares of Celyad SA (ADR) CYAD got a boost, shooting up 10 percent to $60.15. Piper Jaffray initiated coverage on Celyad with a Overweight rating and a $95.00 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

Vince Holding Corp VNCE shares tumbled 17 percent to $9.86 after the company announced the resignation of its CEO Jill Granoff. William Blair downgraded Vince Holding from Outperform to Market Perform.

Shares of Navient Corp NAVI were down 10 percent to $16.58 after the company issued a weak earnings forecast for its second quarter and lowered its guidance for the year.

Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. TNXP was down, falling 8 percent to $7.57 after the company priced its 2.325 million underwritten public offering at $7.50 per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.02 percent to $52.19, while gold traded down 0.05 percent to $1,154.80.

Silver traded down 0.79 percent Tuesday to $15.34, while copper fell 0.63 percent to $2.53.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.42 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index gained 0.20 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.38 percent. Meanwhile, the German DAX rose 0.18 percent, and the French CAC 40 jumped 0.53 percent while UK shares gained 0.15 percent.

Economics

U.S. retail sales slipped 0.3 percent in June, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.2 percent growth.

Import prices declined 0.1 percent in June, while export prices slipped 0.2 percent in June.

U..S business inventories rose 0.30 percent in May, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.30 percent growth.