Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Toll Brothers Tops Q3 Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.28 percent to 25,830.07 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.53 percent to 7,862.26. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.32 percent to 2,866.09.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the energy shares rose 0.99 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Lilis Energy, Inc. LLEX up 10 percent, and Eclipse Resources Corporation ECR up 6 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.61 percent.

Top Headline

Toll Brothers, Inc. TOL reported upbeat results for its third quarter and raised its revenue forecast for the full year.

Toll Brothers posted quarterly earnings of $1.26 per share on revenue of $1.91 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.03 per share on revenue of $1.81 billion.

Toll now projects full-year revenue of $6.76 billion to $7.22 billion, versus prior forecast of $6.64 billion to $7.31 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Regis Corporation RGS shares shot up 12 percent to $20.23 after announcing upbeat quarterly earnings.

Shares of Premier, Inc. PINC got a boost, shooting up 13 percent to $43.185 after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.

GlobalSCAPE, Inc. GSB shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $4.00 after the company announced a plan to repurchase up to $15 million worth of its stock at $4.00-$4.50 per share.

Equities Trading DOWN

SeaChange International, Inc. SEAC shares dropped 48 percent to $1.51 after the company cut Q2 guidance and reported diminished cash balances.

Shares of J.Jill, Inc. JILL were down 11 percent to $6.83. J.Jill posted upbeat Q2 results, but issued weak Q3 forecast.

SITO Mobile, Ltd. SITO was down, falling around 23 percent to $1.55 after reporting quarterly financial results, missing estimates on sales and earnings per share.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.51 percent to $67.43 while gold traded up 0.24 percent to $1,197.50.

Silver traded up 0.48 percent Tuesday to $14.74, while copper rose 0.80 to $2.7075.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 jumped 0.41 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.04 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.28 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.63 percent, and the French CAC 40 surged 0.73 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.03 percent.

Economics

The Treasury will auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.