Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; IHS Markit Reports Mixed Q2 Results

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.77% to 26226.36 while the NASDAQ rose 0.86% to 10143.40. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.80% to 3,142.65.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 2,312,300 cases with around 120,400 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 1,106,470 COVID-19 cases with 51,270 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 598,870 confirmed cases and 8,340 deaths. In total, there were at least 9,115,870 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 472,540 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 1.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Aegon N.V. AEG, up 9%, and Focus Financial Partners Inc. FOCS, up 7%.

In trading on Tuesday, utilities shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

IHS Markit Ltd INFO reported better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter, while sales missed views.

IHS Markit posted Q2 adjusted earnings of $0.69 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.67 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.03 billion, missing expectations of $1.06 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Fuwei Films (Holdings) Co., Ltd. FFHL shares shot up 85% to $8.69 following Q1 results. Fuwei Films reported Q1 earnings per share of RMB3.97 ($0.56), versus a year-ago net loss per share of RMB1.03. Its net sales rose 2.6% to RMB83.2 million ($11.8 million).

Shares of Barnwell Industries, Inc. BRN got a boost, shooting 120% to $1.72 after the company reported a narrower quarterly loss. Barnwell Industries posted a Q2 loss of $0.18 per share on sales of $4.58 million.

Translate Bio, Inc. TBIO shares were also up, gaining 65% to $26.74. Sanofi SNY and Translate Bio agreed to expand collaboration to develop mRNA vaccines across all infectious disease areas.

Equities Trading DOWN

Sintx Technologies, Inc. SINT shares tumbled 33% to $1.34. SINTX Technologies shares jumped 160% on Monday after the company announced the SARS-CoV-2 virus was inactivated in a lab study when exposed to its sintered silicon nitride powder.

Shares of Kirkland's, Inc. KIRK were down 18% to $2.90 after rising more than 74% on Monday.

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNSS was down, falling 40% to $0.3751 after the company announced that it was shifting its resources from Vecabrutinib to the development of its PDK-1 inhibitor SNS-510.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.6% to $41.40, while gold traded up 0.2% to $1,769.60.

Silver traded up 0.1% Tuesday to $17.92, while copper rose 0.4% to $2.664.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.5%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.6%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.7%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 climbed 2.7%, French CAC 40 gained 1.7% and UK shares rose 1.2%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index dropped 1.4% during the first three weeks of June versus May.

The IHS/Markit composite PMI surged to 46.8 in June versus 37 in May. Manufacturing PMI rose to 49.6 from 39.8, while services PMI gained to 46.7 from 37.5.

New home sales climbed 16.6% to an annualized rate of 676,000 in May.

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index rose to a reading of 0 for June, versus prior reading of (27.00).

The Treasury is set to auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.