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.