Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Lower; US Retail Sales Drop 1.3% In May

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.34% to 34,275.92 while the NASDAQ fell 0.09% to 14,161.73. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.10% to 4,250.89.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 33,475,350 cases with around 599,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 29,570,880 cases and 377,030 deaths, while Brazil reported over 17,452,610 COVID-19 cases with 488,220 deaths. In total, there were at least 176,329,880 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,813,670 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.


Leading and Lagging Sectors


Energy shares climbed 1.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRCH), up 46%, and Ring Energy, Inc. (NYSE:REI), up 6%.


In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.8%.


Top Headline

US retail sales fell 1.3% in May, following a 0.9% increase in April. However, analysts were expecting for a 0.8% decline.

 

 

Equities Trading UP


Alfi, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALF) shares shot up 85% to $6.30 after the company inked an agreement with All-Niter for the fulfillment, staging, and shipment of the first 10,000 digital tablets to countrywide Uber Technologies.


Shares of Torchlight Energy Resources, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRCH) got a boost, shooting 43% to $5.10. Torchlight declared a Special Dividend of Series A Preferred Stock.


Clearside Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLSD) shares were also up, gaining 28% to $3.89 after the company announced positive safety results from Cohort 1 (n=6) of OASIS Phase 1/2a trial of CLS-AX (axitinib injectable suspension) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

Check out these big movers of the day


Equities Trading DOWN

Document Security Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DSS) shares tumbled 41% to $1.63 after the company announced it priced a $43.5 million public offering of common stock. The public offering equates to 29,000,000 shares of the company's common stock at a price of $1.50 per share.

Shares of PDS Biotechnology Corporation (NASDAQ:PDSB) were down 26% to $9.58 after the company priced its underwritten public offering of 5,294,118 shares at $8.50 per share.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.3% to $71.79, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,868.10.


Silver traded down 0.9% Tuesday to $27.79 while copper fell 3.9% to $4.35.


Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.5% and the German DAX 30 rose 0.4%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.5% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.1%.

The Eurozone trade surplus increased to EUR 10.9 billion in April from EUR 2.3 billion in the year-ago month. The UK unemployment rate dropped to 4.7% during the three months to April. Germany's consumer price inflation rate rose to 2.5% year-over-year in May.


Economics

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


Producer prices for final demand rose 0.8% in May.


US retail sales fell 1.3% in May.


The New York Empire State Manufacturing Index dropped 7 points to a reading of 17.4 in June.


Total industrial production rose 0.8% in May.


US business inventories fell 0.2% for April.


The NAHB housing market index fell to 81 in June from 83 in each of the earlier two months.


The Treasury is set to auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.


The Treasury is set to auction 20-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.


The Treasury International Capital report for April will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here

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