Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Kymera Therapeutics Drops After Q1 Results; Belite Bio Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded slightly higher toward the end of trading on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 0.14% to 33,107.28 while the NASDAQ rose 0.19% to 12,559.22. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.43% to 4,173.11.

Also check this: Executives Buy Around $1.6M Of 4 Penny Stocks

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed 2.4% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included TETRA Technologies, Inc. TTI, up 18% and Borr Drilling Limited BORR up 17%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell by 0.5%.

Top Headline

Pfizer Inc. PFE posted upbeat results for its first quarter on Tuesday.

Pfizer posted quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.62 per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $1.50 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $25.70 billion, versus expectations of $23.95 billion.

Pfizer revised its FY22 adjusted EPS guidance to $6.25-$6.45 to reflect $0.11 negative impact for accounting policy change. The company also sees sales of $98 billion to $102 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Belite Bio, Inc BLTE shares shot up 36% to $12.04. The FDA has granted Fast Track Designation to Belite Bio’s LBS-008 for Stargardt disease (STGD1).

Shares of Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. SNOA got a boost, shooting 26% to $3.36 after the company and its partner MicroSafe Group DMCC received EPA approval for Nanocyn as a hospital-grade disinfectant.

Enovix Corporation ENVX shares were also up, gaining 21% to $10.83. Enovix announced initial smartwatch battery order from leading global consumer electronics company.

Equities Trading DOWN

Spero Therapeutics, Inc. SPRO shares tumbled 62% to $1.94. Spero Therapeutics will defer current commercialization activities for tebipenem HBr based on feedback from a recent Late Cycle Meeting (LCM) with the FDA.

Shares of Chegg, Inc. CHGG were down 29% to $1.94 after the company reported Q1 earnings results and issued Q2 and FY22 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Kymera Therapeutics, Inc. KYMR was down, falling 20% to $26.05 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.

Also check out: 4 Stocks Under $3 Insiders Are Aggressively Buying

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 2.8% to $102.27, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,868.70.

Silver traded up 0.1% Tuesday to $22.61 while copper rose 0.5% to $4.2890.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.53%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.22% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.83%. The German DAX gained 0.72%, French CAC 40 gained 0.79% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.61%.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone dropped to a record low of 6.8% in March from a revised 6.9% in February, while annual producer inflation rose to record high of 36.8% in March from a revised 31.5 percent in February. UK’s manufacturing PMI increased to 55.8 in April from a preliminary of 55.3, while unemployment rate in Germany remained at 5%.

Economics

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

Factory orders rose 2.2% month-over-month to $557.3 billion in March.

The number of job openings increased by 205,000 from a month ago to a series high of 11.549 million in March.

Check out this: Executives Buy More Than $90M Of 4 Stocks

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 83,170,400 cases with around 1,021,080 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,085,160 cases and 523,880 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,460,990 COVID-19 cases with 663,650 deaths. In total, there were at least 514,034,340 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,263,580 deaths.