Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Coca-Cola Beats Q1 Views

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.01 percent to 24,445.46 while the NASDAQ declined 0.20 percent to 7,114.64. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.01 percent to 2,670.02.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Tuesday morning, the financial shares climbed 1.04 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. SC, up 15 percent, and OTC Markets Group Inc OTCM, up 8 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.60 percent.

Top Headline

The Coca-Cola Co KO reported upbeat results for its first quarter.

The company said it earned 47 cents per share in the first quarter on revenue of $7.6 billion versus expectations of 46 cents per share and $7.3 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sanmina Corporation SANM shares shot up 20 percent to $33.35 as the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Monday.

Shares of Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. HSII got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $38.65 as the company posted upbeat results for its first quarter.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. SC shares were also up, gaining 15 percent to $17.99 following upbeat quarterly earnings.

Equities Trading DOWN

Valeritas Holdings, Inc. VLRX shares dropped 29 percent to $1.80. Valeritas priced its 13.7 million share offering at $1.75 per share.

Shares of Casa Systems, Inc. CASA were down 13 percent to $26.05 after announcing a 7.35 million share common stock offering.

Epizyme, Inc. EPZM was down, falling around 12 percent to $13.40. Epizyme announced Monday after the close that the FDA issued a partial clinical hold on the U.S. enrollment of new patients in tazemetostat clinical trials.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.39 percent to $68.91 while gold traded up 0.28 percent to $1,327.70.

Silver traded up 0.22 percent Tuesday to $16.695, while copper rose 1.53 percent to $3.1795.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.18 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.26 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.31 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX rose 0.29 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.06 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.39 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.3 percent during the first two weeks in April versus March.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index gained 6.8 percent year-over-year for February.

Sales of newly-constructed homes rose 4 percent to an annual rate of 694,000 in March.

The Conference Board’s consumer sentiment index rose to 128.70 for April, versus prior reading of 127.70. Economists projected a reading of 126.00.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index declined to -3.00 in April, versus prior reading of 15.00.

The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.