Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2%; Bellerophon Therapeutics Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.11% to 24569.40 while the NASDAQ rose 0.73% to 9302.01. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.19% to 2959.67.

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 1.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Opera Limited OPRA, up 22%, and MoneyGram International, Inc. MGI, up 18%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 1.3%.

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 93% to $12.35. Del Taco franchisee announced a partnership with ShiftPixy to combat COVID-19.

Shares of Kirkland's, Inc. KIRK got a boost, shooting 34% to $1.13 after the company said e-commerce demand was up 96% in the period since stores closed on March 19th.

Arbutus Biopharma Corporation ABUS shares were also up, gaining 25% to $2.3450 after the company highlighted single-dose week 12 data in chronic Hep B subjects with 60mg AB-729 showed "significant, continuous reduction in HBsAg."


Equities Trading DOWN

Gamida Cell Ltd. GMDA shares tumbled 24% to $4.4550 after the company announced the launch of a proposed stock offering of its common stock.

Shares of Bellerophon Therapeutics, Inc. BLPH were down 16% to $13.51 after the company announced a common stock offering of 3.077 million shares at $13 per share.

HEXO Corp. HEXO was down, falling 26% to $0.5528 after the company announced an offering of 55.6 million units at C$0.90 per unit.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $32.45, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,744.20.

Silver traded up 2.1% Tuesday to $17.83, while copper rose 0.3% to $2.412.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 slipped 0.75%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.41%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 2.07%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.14%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 1.07% while UK shares fell 0.81%.


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.

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

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
Date
ticker
name
Actual EPS
EPS Surprise
Actual Rev
Rev Surprise
Posted In: EarningsNewsPenny StocksEurozoneCommoditiesGlobalIntraday UpdateMarketsMid-Day Market Update
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!