Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Walmart Earnings Miss Estimates

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 300 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.97% to 32,536.92 while the NASDAQ rose 1.70% to 11,860.81. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.30% to 4,060.03.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financials shares jumped by 2.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. SUNL, up 15% and Forge Global Holdings, Inc. FRGE up 10%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell 1.4%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported mixed financial results and lowered earnings guidance.

Walmart said first-quarter revenue increased 2.4% year-over-year to $141.6 billion, which beat the $138.88-billion estimate. The company reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.30 per share, which missed the estimate of $1.48 per share.

Walmart said its U.S. comparable sales grew 3% year-over-year, while e-commerce sales grew 1%. Walmart cut its second-quarter earnings guidance from a low to mid-single-digit range. The company now expects earnings to be "flat to up slightly."

Equities Trading UP

Pioneer Power Solutions, Inc. PPSI shares shot up 22% to $3.9450 after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 sales results.

Shares of Okyo Pharma Ltd. ADR OKYO got a boost, shooting 53% to $6.11 as the company priced its IPO at $4 per ADS.

Scholar Rock Holding Corporation SRRK shares were also up, gaining 20% to $6.23 after the company posted a narrower Q1 loss.

Equities Trading DOWN

AutoWeb, Inc. AUTO shares tumbled 61% to $0.88 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 EPS results and announced the creation of a special committee of the board of directors to explore strategic alternatives.

Shares of PolarityTE, Inc. PTE were down 33% to $2.86 after the company announced a 1-for-25 reverse stock split.

Albireo Pharma, Inc. ALBO was down, falling 24% to $21.43 after the company reported downbeat Q1 results.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $114.45, while gold traded up 0.9% to $1,830.10.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $21.69 on Tuesday while copper rose 1.8% to $4.2660.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1.4%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.4%. The German DAX climbed 1.5%, French CAC 40 rose 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1.4%.

The number of people in work in the UK climbed by 83,000 on quarter to 32,569 during the three months to March, while labor productivity fell by 0.7% on quarter during the same period. The unemployment rate in the UK fell to 3.7% in the first quarter. The unemployment rate in France declined to 7.3% in the first quarter from the prior figure of 7.4%.

Economics

U.S. retail sales rose 0.9% from a month ago in April following a revised 1.4% increase in March.

U.S. industrial production rose 1.1% for April.

U.S. business inventories increased 2% from a month ago in March.

The NAHB housing market index declined for a 5th consecutive month to 69 in May from 77 in April.

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

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester is set to speak at 2:30 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans will speak at 6:45 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 84,230,820 cases with around 1,026,670 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,123,800 cases and 524,240 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,688,390 COVID-19 cases with 664,960 deaths. In total, there were at least 521,354,660 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,288,630 deaths.