Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Surges Over 200 Points; Tufin Software Technologies Shares Plunge

Midway through trading Thursday, the Dow traded up 0.81% to 28978.62 while the NASDAQ rose 0.86% to 9208.09. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.64% to 3273.81.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 1.1% on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included GTT Communications Inc GTT, up 11%, and OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. OCFT, up 9%.

In trading on Thursday, energy shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Apple Inc. AAPL reported strong holiday sales.

Apple said its App Store customers had spent $1.42 billion between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, representing 16% growth versus the same period last year. Apple customers spent $386 million on New Year’s Day alone, setting a new single-day record.

Equities Trading UP

Genetic Technologies Limited. GENE shares shot up 29% to $4.21.

Shares of Tiziana Life Sciences PLC TLSA got a boost, shooting up 17% to $3.1854. Tiziana Life Sciences highlighted Phase 1 data showing oral treatment with foralumab was well tolerated.

ADMA Biologics Inc ADMA shares were also up, gaining 19% to $4.41 after the company reported preliminary Q4 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Tufin Software Technologies Ltd TUFN shares tumbled 24% to $3.43 after the company announced Q4 sales of $29.5 million-$30.1 million compared to the previous range of $34 million-$38 million.

Shares of Can-Fite BioPharma Ltd. CANF were down 21% to $2.74. Can-Fite announced exercise of warrants for cash proceeds of $2.4 million.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY was down, falling 19% to $13.44 after declining 25.78% after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its third quarter. The company expects sales and profitability to remain pressured and withdrew its 2019 fiscal year guidance.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.7% to $59.17, while gold traded down 0.8% to $1,548.40.

Silver traded down 1.6% Thursday to $17.88, while copper fell 0.3% to $2.8045.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.37%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.11%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.85%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1.35%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.14% while UK shares rose 0.28%.

Economics

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin will speak at 12:45 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 1:20 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.