Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Rises 125 Points; Twin Disc Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.49 percent to 26,188.53 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.98 percent to 7,973.10. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.59 percent to 2,905.83.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the consumer discretionary shares rose 1.09 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Formula One Group FWONA up 6 percent, and Kandi Technologies Group, Inc. KNDI up 7 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.51 percent.

Top Headline

AutoZone, Inc. AZO reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

AutoZone posted quarterly earnings of $18.54 per share on sales of $3.56 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $17.99 per share on sales of $3.60 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Viking Therapeutics Inc VKTX shares shot up 84 percent to $19.1302 after announcing top-line results from Phase 2 study of VK2809. The study achieved primary endpoint.

Shares of BioHiTech Global, Inc. BHTG got a boost, shooting up 17 percent to $3.6390 after the company disclosed that it has received local permit approval to build HEBioT resource recovery facility in Rensselaer New York.

ChemoCentryx, Inc. CCXI shares were also up, gaining 14 percent to $12.00. Vifor Pharma Group raised equity stake in ChemoCentryx from 6.6% to 21.2%.

Equities Trading DOWN

Twin Disc, Incorporated TWIN shares dropped 10 percent to $23.48 after reporting a $30 million common stock offering.

Shares of Workiva Inc. WK were down 7 percent to $35.40. Morgan Stanley downgraded Workiva from Equal-Weight to Underweight.

Apogee Enterprises, Inc. APOG was down, falling around 15 percent to $40.81 after the company missed Q2 earnings estimated and cut FY19 guidance.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2 percent to $69.74 while gold traded down 0.17 percent to $1,203.70.

Silver traded down 0.23 percent Tuesday to $14.19, while copper rose 2.83 to $2.726.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.05 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.37 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 0.31 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.33 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.16 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.01 percent.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.3 percent during the first two weeks of September versus August.

The NAHB housing market index was unchanged at 67 for September.

The Treasury International Capital report for July is schedule for release at 4:00 p.m. ET.