Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; International Speedway Posts Mixed Q1 Results

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.17 percent to 23,684.77 while the NASDAQ declined 0.41 percent to 6,841.89. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.12 percent to 2,578.91.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the consumer staples shares gained 0.46 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. CALM, up 4 percent, and Avon Products, Inc. AVP, up 2 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares fell 0.27 percent.

Top Headline

International Speedway Corporation ISCA reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter, while sales missed estimates.

International Speedway reported adjusted earnings of $0.60 per share on revenue of $148.88 million. However, analysts expected earnings of $0.57 per share on revenue of $151.05 million

For its fiscal 2018, International Speedway affirmed its revenue forecast of $680.0 million to $695.0 million.

Equities Trading UP

Cellectis S.A. CLLS shares shot up 9 percent to $33.43. Cellectis and Allogene Therapeutics intends to continue strategic cancer immunotherapy partnership which originally consisted of Pfizer and Cellectis.

Shares of UroGen Pharma Ltd. URGN got a boost, shooting up 7 percent to $51.70 after the company reported presentation of results from interim analysis of pivotal Phase 3 OLYMPUS trial of UGN-101 (MitoGel™) for non-surgical treatment of upper tract urothelial cancer.

MoneyGram International, Inc. MGI shares were also up, gaining 7 percent to $8.72. MoneyGram and Walmart reported the launch of Walmart2World, powered by MoneyGram. Both the companies have also renewed their long-term agreement to offer all MoneyGram products and services at Walmart for 2 more years.

Equities Trading DOWN

Longfin Corp. LFIN shares dropped 24 percent to $10.83 following investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shares of Enphase Energy, Inc. ENPH were down 14 percent to $3.9001 after announcing a 9.524 million share common stock offering via selling holders.

Evolving Systems, Inc. EVOL was down, falling around 12 percent to $4.25. Evolving Systems reported a Q4 loss of $0.03 per share on sales of $9.16 million.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.41 percent to $63.27 while gold traded down 0.25 percent to $1,343.50.

Silver traded down 0.61 percent Tuesday to $16.57, while copper rose 0.49 percent to $3.065.

Eurozone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.55 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index dropped 0.49 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.02 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX fell 0.85 percent, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.47 percent while U.K. shares fell 0.03 percent.

Economics

Data on motor vehicle sales for March will be released today.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.4 percent during the first four weeks of March versus February.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.