Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Flat; Seadrill Reports 3-Year, $199M Middle East Contract

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.03% to 28,453.27 while the NASDAQ rose 0.07% to 8,951.87. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01% to 3,221.62.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares climbed 0.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Great Panther Mining Limited GPL, up 4%, and Timkensteel Corp TMST, up 5%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

Seadrill Limited SDRL announced a contract extension for AOD II and AOD III in the Middle East, in direct continuation of their current contracts.

The total contract value is expected to be approximately $98 million and $101 million, respectively.

Equities Trading UP

Neovasc Inc. NVCN shares shot up 67% to $6.58 after the company submitted its premarket approval application to the FDA for its Neovasc Reducer product.

Shares of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. ONCY got a boost, shooting up 41% to $5.47 after jumping 36.27% on Monday.

Aurora Mobile Limited JG shares were also up, gaining 31% to $3.50 on more than triple average volume.

Equities Trading DOWN

Core Laboratories N.V. CLB shares tumbled 19% to $38.41 after the company issued soft Q4 and Q1 guidance and reduced its quarterly dividend, citing a decline in US offshore activity and slower-than-expected client discussions.

Shares of EyeGate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EYEG were down 18% to $10.05 amid access wire press release showing 500,000 share stock offering priced at $10/share.

Otonomy, Inc. OTIC was down, falling 10% to $3.40 after gaining 24.4% on Monday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $61.50, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,524.70.

Silver traded up 0.6% Tuesday to $18.105, while copper fell 0.9% to $2.8095.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.7%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 1.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.7%, and the French CAC 40 fell 0.1% while UK shares fell 0.6%.

Economics

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index increased 2.2% year-over-year in October, versus a 2.1% gain in the prior month.

The FHFA House Price Index rose 0.2% in October, versus a revised 0.7% increase in the prior month.

The Conference Board consumer confidence index fell to 126.5 in December, versus a prior revised reading of 126.8.