Mid-Day Market Update: StoneCo Jumps Following Strong Q4 Results; Aquabounty Technologies Shares Slide

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.5 percent to 26,031.24 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.39 percent to 7,744.21. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.38 percent to 2,843.80.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

On Tuesday, the consumer discretionary shares climbed 1.1 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Michaels Companies Inc MIK up 13 percent, and Golden Entertainment, Inc. GDEN up 6 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares fell 0.6 percent.

Top Headline

Michaels Companies Inc MIK reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter.

Michaels reported quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share on sales of $1.789 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.42 per share on sales of $1.78 billion. Its same-store sales dropped 0.4 percent.

The Michaels Companies expects Q1 adjusted earnings of $0.28 to $0.33 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of $0.40 per share. The company projects FY19 adjusted earnings of $2.34 to $2.46 per share on sales of $5.19 billion to $5.24 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Altimmune Inc ALT shares got a boost, shooting up 21 percent to $3.5101 after reporting 'positive' results from NasoVAX extension study'.

Shares of Vaxart, Inc. VXRT shot up 127 percent to $3.81 after the company initiated a Phase 1b clinical trial for its bivalent norovirus vaccine.

StoneCo Ltd STNE shares were also up, gaining 23 percent to $42.41 after the company reported higher-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Urovant Sciences Ltd. UROV shares dropped 20 percent to $11.13 after the company announced its Vibegron met its primary endpoints in a phase 3 trial.

Shares of Aquabounty Technologies Inc AQB were down 20 percent to $2.2550. AquaBounty priced its 3.35 million share common stock offering at $2.25 per share.

resTORbio, Inc. TORC was down, falling around 19 percent to $7.32 after the company reported Q4 results and announced a $50 million common stock offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3 percent to $58.93 while gold traded up 0.4 percent to $1,307.10.

Silver traded up 0.4 percent Tuesday to $15.375, while copper rose 0.7 percent to $2.929.

Eurozone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.5 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.9 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 1.1 percent, and the French CAC 40 gained 0.2 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.4 percent.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 0.1 percent during the first two weeks of March versus February.

U.S. factory orders rose 0.1 percent for January, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.3 percent increase.