Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; Tiffany Swings To Q1 Loss

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 1.29% to 27217.06 while the NASDAQ fell 0.50% to 9874.99. The S&P also fell, dropping 1.15% to 3195.28.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,961,180 cases with around 111,000 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 707,410 COVID-19 cases with 37,130 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 484,630 confirmed cases and 6,130 deaths. In total, there were at least 7,138,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 406,910 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Communication services shares slipped by just 0.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. LTRPB, up 52%, and Lizhi Inc. LIZI, up 13%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares tumbled 4.4%.

Top Headline

Tiffany & Co. TIF reported a wider-than-expected loss for its fiscal first quarter.

Tiffany posted Q1 loss of $0.53 per share, versus year-ago net income of $1.03 a share and missing analysts’ estimates for a profit of $0.03 per share. The company posted sales of $556.00 million, versus analysts’ estimates of $700.79M million.

Equities Trading UP

Immuron Limited IMRN shares shot up 251% to $7.84 after the company issued an update on its research collaboration with the Naval Medical Research Center to develop and clinically evaluate a new therapeutic against campylobacter and ETEC.

Shares of Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. MIST got a boost, shooting 37% to $5.88 following a 14% gain on Monday.

Fate Therapeutics, Inc. FATE shares were also up, gaining 21% to $34.13. Fate Therapeutics priced its underwritten public offering of 6.182 million shares of its common stock at $28.31 per share, before underwriting discounts, for an aggregate offering of approximately $175 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Soleno Therapeutics, Inc. SLNO shares tumbled 40% to $1.93 after the company said its Phase 3 trialevaluating once-daily Diazoxide Choline Controlled Release, or DCCR, tablets for patients with Prader-Willi Syndrome did not meet its primary endpoint of change from baseline in hyperphagia.

Shares of Whiting Petroleum Corporation WLL were down 42% to $2.00 after rising 152% on Monday.

California Resources Corporation CRC was down, falling 34% to $1.78 after climbing 34% on Monday.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 2% to $37.42, while gold traded up 0.6% to $1,715.00.

Silver traded down 0.5% Tuesday to $17.80, while copper rose 0.1% to $2.5675.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 1.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 2.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dropped 2%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 slipped 2.1%, French CAC 40 fell 2.1% and UK shares fell 1.7%.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today.

The NFIB small business optimism index rose to 94.4 in May versus a reading of 90.9 for April.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 3.2% during the first week of June versus May.

The number of job openings dropped by 965,000 to 5.046 million in April, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS report.

U.S. wholesale inventories increased 0.3% in April, versus a preliminary estimate of a 0.4% rise.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.