Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; Walmart Beats Q1 Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.31% to 24520.71 while the NASDAQ rose 0.60% to 9289.91. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.01% to 2954.11.

The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,508,950 coronavirus cases with around 90,360 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 255,360 coronavirus cases with 16,850 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 299,940 confirmed cases and 2,830 deaths. In total, there were at least 4,823,470 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 318,850 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed by 0.9% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Opera Limited OPRA, up 24%, and SiTime Corporation SITM, up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 1.2%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

Walmart reported first-quarter earnings of $1.18 cents per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.17 cents. The company reported quarterly sales of $134.60 billion, which exceeded the analyst consensus estimate of $130.31 billion.

Walmart’s US comparable sales rose 10.0% during the quarter, while ecommerce sales surged 74%.

Equities Trading UP

ShiftPixy, Inc PIXY shares shot up 121% to $14.10. Del Taco franchisee announced a partnership with ShiftPixy to combat COVID-19.

Shares of Dynavax Technologies Corporation DVAX got a boost, shooting 35% to $6.56 after the company said it intends to provide an update on early-stage coronavirus vaccine candidate collaborations on May 19.

Opera Limited OPRA shares were also up, gaining 28% to $7.31 after gaining around 7% on Monday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA shares tumbled 24% to $4.50 after the company announced the launch of a proposed stock offering of its common stock.

Shares of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. BLPH were down 17% to $13.41 after the company announced a common stock offering of 3.077 million shares at $13 per share.

Gossamer Bio, Inc. GOSS was down, falling 16% to $12.68 after the company said it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, shares of common stock and convertible senior notes due 2027 in separate concurrent underwritten public offerings.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.8% to $32.40, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,737.60.

Silver traded up 0.2% Tuesday to $17.495, while copper rose 0.3% to $2.41.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 1.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.5%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.9%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 1%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.3% while UK shares fell 0.6%.

Economics

U.S. housing starts dipped 30.2% to an annualized rate of 0.891 million in April, while building permits declined 20.8% to an annual rate of 1.074 million.

The Treasury will auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.