Dow Drops 100 Points; Verizon Issues Weak Earnings Forecast

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones dropping more than 100 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.31% to 33,524.12 while the NASDAQ fell 0.11% to 11,352.46. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.30% to 4,007.66.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

• Consumer discretionary shares gained by 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY, up 16%, and Bassett Furniture Industries, Incorporated BSET, up 5%.
• In trading on Tuesday, materials shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Verizon Communications Inc VZ reported better-than-expected Q4 sales results.

Verizon reported a fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 3.5% year-on-year to $35.3 billion, beating the consensus of $35.1 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.19 was in line with the consensus.

Verizon said it expects adjusted EPS of $4.55 - $4.85, below the consensus of $4.99.

Equities Trading UP

• Baudax Bio, Inc. BXRX shares shot up 83% to $5.76 after the company announced the outcome of its first interim analysis in a Phase II trial of BX1000 for neuromuscular blockade in patients undergoing elective surgery.
• Shares of Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. GROM got a boost, shooting 31% to $2.90.
• Compass Therapeutics, Inc. CMPX shares were also up, gaining 18% to $4.49. Compass Therapeutics recently said its combo therapy showed around 38% overall response rate in pretreated biliary tract cancer patients.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Satixfy Communications Ltd. SATX shares tumbled 41% to $4.2485. SatixFy recently appointed Ido Gur as its new Chief Executive Officer.
• Shares of Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. CYTO were down 30% to $3.4905 after the company provided an update on its clinical trials with Bentrio. The COVAMID study did not reach the primary efficacy endpoint.
• Cassava Sciences, Inc. SAVA was down, falling 18% to $29.73 after the company reported top-line clinical results in Phase 2 study evaluating simufilam in Alzheimer's disease.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $81.75 while gold traded down 0.1% at $1,927.50.

Silver traded down 0.3% to $23.49 on Tuesday while copper fell 0.4% to $4.2415.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.3% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index gained 0.1%. The German DAX declined 0.3% French CAC 40 fell 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.1%.

The S&P Global Eurozone services PMI climbed to 50.7 in January from 49.8 a month ago, while manufacturing PMI rose to 48.8 in January from 47.8. The consumer confidence indicator in the Eurozone climbed by 1.1 points to -20.9 in January. The S&P Global French composite PMI slipped to 49 from 49.1, while German composite PMI climbed to 49.7 in January from 49.0. The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator in Germany increased to -33.9 heading into February versus a revised reading of -37.6 in January.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI dropped to 48 in January from 49.9 in the previous month, while manufacturing PMI rose to 46.7 from 45.3.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 adding 1.46% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex gaining 0.06%. Many Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

The au Jibun Bank Japan composite PMI climbed to 50.8 in January versus a final reading of 49.7 in the prior month. Australian composite PMI rose to 48.2 in January from 47.5 in the previous month.

Economics

The S&P Global services PMI rose to 46.6 in January from 44.7 in the previous month, while manufacturing PMI rose to 46.8 in January from 46.2.

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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 103,888,290 cases with around 1,129,140 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,682,100 cases and 530,730 deaths, while France reported over 39,485,570 COVID-19 cases with 163,940 deaths. In total, there were at least 673,626,060 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,748,580 deaths.