Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Kimberly-Clark Beats Q1 Expectations

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 1.67% to 23403.13 while the NASDAQ rose 1.85% to 8416.02. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.66% to 2,781.87.

The U.S. is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 825,300 coronavirus cases with around 45,070 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 208,380 coronavirus cases with 21,710 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 183,950 confirmed cases and 24,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 2,585,460 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 178,840 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 3% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Delek Logistics Partners, LP DKL, up 45%, and Gulfport Energy Corporation GPOR, up 19%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.5%.

Top Headline

Kimberly-Clark Corp KMB reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Kimberly-Clark posted quarterly earnings of $2.13 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.96 per share. Its sales came in at $5.00 billion, versus expectations of $4.88 billion.

Equities Trading UP

The Peck Company Holdings, Inc. PECK shares shot up 117% to $7.61 after the company announced it would align capital for the construction of new solar projects with GreenBond Advisors from Green Bond Partnership.

Shares of SilverBow Resources, Inc. SBOW got a boost, shooting 35% to $5.14 after climbing 43% on Tuesday.

Immunic, Inc. IMUX shares were also up, gaining 32% to $11.34 after the company reported that IMU-838, its lead asset has successfully demonstrated preclinical activity against SARS-CoV-2. More specifically, IMU-838 was observed to inhibit replication of clinical isolates of SARS-CoV-2 associated with COVID-19, the company said.

Equities Trading DOWN

TORM plc TRMD shares tumbled 22% to $9.80 after jumping 66% on Tuesday.

Shares of Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ATNM were down 32% to $0.1612. Actinium Pharmaceuticals priced its 183 million share public offering at $0.15 per share.

VBI Vaccines Inc. VBIV was down, falling 28% to $1.12. VBI Vaccines priced its 45.45 million share offering at $1.10 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $11.75, while gold traded up 2.1% to $1,723.30.

Silver traded up 1.3% Wednesday to $15.065, while copper rose 1.1% to $2.255.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.8%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.3% while UK shares rose 1.4%.

Economics

The FHFA house price index climbed increased 0.7% in February, versus a revised 0.5% rise in January.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.