Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Motors Posts Narrower-Than-Expected Loss

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.29% to 26456.98 while the NASDAQ rose 0.92% to 10498.18. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.69% to 3240.49.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 4,352,300 cases with around 149,260 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 2,483,190 COVID-19 cases with 88,530 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 1,531,660 confirmed cases and 34,190 deaths. In total, there were at least 16,762,600 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 661,010 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares rose 1.1% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Tupperware Brands Corporation TUP, up 60%, and L Brands, Inc. LB, up 38%.

In trading on Wednesday, utilities shares fell 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Motors Company GM reported a narrower-than-expected loss for its second quarter.

General Motors posted a quarterly loss of $0.50 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates for a loss of $1.77 per share. The company reported sales of $16.80 billion, missing expectations of $17.31 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Eastman Kodak Company KODK shares shot up 206% to $24.27 following comments by President Trump indicating the US has reached a 'historic' deal with the company to produce critical pharmaceuticals. Eastman Kodak shares jumped over 200% on Tuesday after the company announced it is pivoting to drug ingredient development and announced a large government loan.

Shares of Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNOA got a boost, shooting 77% to $11.55. Sonoma Pharmaceuticals and its distribution partner MicroSafe Group Dubai announced that Microsafe Disinfectant & Sanitizer manufactured by Sonoma successfully passed both the Boeing Specification Standard BSS7434 and the British Aerospace Airbus specification AIMS09-00-002.

Tupperware Brands Corporation TUP shares were also up, gaining 59% to $15.33 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results. Melvin Capital Management also reported a 7.5% passive stake in the company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Boxlight Corporation BOXL shares tumbled 26% to $2.1150 after the company reported a proposed public offering of 15 million shares of common stock at $2 per share.

Shares of Alector, Inc. ALEC were down 19% to $17.19. Alector announced at the virtual 2020 Alzheimer's Association International Conference, or AAIC, preliminary results from a Phase 1b and open-label Phase 2 studies of AL001 for the treatment of people with frontotemporal dementia with a progranulin gene mutation, or FTD-GRN, with the Phase 1 study showing AL001 was generally safe and well-tolerated.

Navios Maritime Partners L.P. NMM was down, falling 15% to $7.11 after the company reported downbeat Q2 results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $41.50, while gold traded up 0.5% to $1,953.60.

Silver traded up 0.7% Wednesday to $24.46, while copper rose 0.1% to $2.9195.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.4%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index declined 0.6%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 0.1%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.8% and UK shares rose 0.2%.

Economics

The US trade deficit on goods shrank to $70.64 billion in June, compared to a revised $75.26 billion in the earlier month.

U.S. wholesale inventories dropped 2% to $629.6 billion in June.

The pending home sales index increased 6.3% year-over-year in June after declining 5.1% in the prior month.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled to release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The business expectations and uncertainty indexes for July will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its policy decision at 2:00 p.m. ET.

The Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. ET.