Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; American Woodmark Profit Beats Expectations

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.86 percent to 26,011.13 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.79 percent to 8,009.04. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.67 percent to 2,894.00.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the materials shares rose 1.3 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Loop Industries, Inc. LOOP up 6 percent, and Universal Stainless & Alloy Products, Inc. USAP up 5 percent.

In trading on Monday, utilities shares fell 0.34 percent.

Top Headline

American Woodmark Corporation AMWD reported better-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter.

American Woodmark posted quarterly earnings of $2.04 per share on revenue of $429 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.92 per share on revenue of $429 million.

Equities Trading UP

Tilray, Inc. TLRY shares shot up 19 percent to $52.1665. The Canada-based cannabis company said its fully owned subsidiary was selected by the province of Nova Scotia to supply cannabis products for sale to the public ahead of the recreational legalization of cannabis in October.

Shares of Cronos Group Inc. CRON got a boost, shooting up 19 percent to $11.82 after surging 16.39 percent on Friday.

Nano Dimension Ltd. NNDM shares were also up, gaining 8 percent to $2.06 after the company disclosed that it has sold two DragonFly Pro 3D Printers to the United States Armed Forces.

Equities Trading DOWN

Eidos Therapeutics, Inc. EIDX shares dropped 33 percent to $13.66. The decline is being attributed to rival company Pfizer's positive clinical data from its trial of tafamidis.

Shares of Select Bancorp, Inc. SLCT were down 10 percent to $11.85 after the company reported commencement of common stock offering.

Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. FFHL was down, falling around 13 percent to $2.03.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.17 percent to $68.84 while gold traded down 0.06 percent to $1,212.60.

Silver traded down 0.14 percent Monday to $14.88, while copper rose 0.29 to $2.731.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.30 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.34 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.48 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.56 percent, and the French CAC 40 climbed 0.48 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.19 percent.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index dropped to a reading of +0.13 in July, compared to +0.48 in June.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for August will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.

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

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