Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Halliburton Beats Q4 Estimates

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.16% to 29302.38 while the NASDAQ fell 0.10% to 9,379.95. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.23% to 3,322.07.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Novavax, Inc. NVAX, up 46%, and Owens & Minor, Inc. OMI, up 16%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

Halliburton Company HAL reported better-than-expected Q4 results.

Halliburton reported fourth-quarter earnings of $0.32 per share, beating the Street estimate of $0.29 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $5.191 billion, beating the Street estimate of $5.11 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Genprex Inc GNPX shares shot up 280% to $1.37 after the company announced that it has received FDA fast track designation for its Oncoprex Immunogene Therapy that targets lung cancer.

Shares of CSS Industries Inc CSS got a boost, shooting up 99% to $9.34 after the company announced it will be acquired by IG Design Group for $9.40 per share in cash.

NanoViricides, Inc. NNVC shares were also up, gaining 76% to $5.92.

Equities Trading DOWN

Trip.com Group Limited TCOM shares tumbled 12% to $34.17 following the outbreak of a coronavirus in the country. News of the virus has especially impacted airline and travel stocks.

Shares of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc ADAP were down 16% to $3.8101.

Advaxis, Inc. ADXS was down, falling 13% to $1.05. Advaxis priced its 10 million share registered direct offering at $1.05 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 1.4% to $57.74, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,556.80.

Silver traded down 0.4% Tuesday to $18.005, while copper fell 1.5% to $2.803.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 declined 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.6%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.1% Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.2%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.7% while UK shares fell 0.8%.

Economics

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.