Markets Open Lower; US Housing Starts Fall In August

U.S. stocks traded lower this morning, with the Dow Jones falling around 40 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.12% to 34,581.70 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 13,665.29. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.15% to 4,446.78.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares rose by 0.4% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Housing starts in the U.S. fell 11.3% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.283 million in August, recording the lowest level since June 2020.

Equities Trading UP

Connexa Sports Technologies Inc. CNXA shares shot up 130% to $0.1740 after falling 15% on Monday.

Shares of Avinger, Inc. AVGR got a boost, shooting 66% to $10.15, adding to outsized gains from Monday. On Monday, Avinger shares soared 46.8% after the company announced the commercial launch of its Tigereye ST image-guided CTO crossing device.

Sezzle Inc. SEZL shares were also up, gaining 41% to $18.28.

Equities Trading DOWN

Digital Transformation Opportunities Corp. DTOC shares dropped 49% to $14.77 after jumping 173% on Monday.

Shares of Histogen Inc. HSTO were down 45% to $0.3622 as the company reported board approval of complete liquidation and dissolution.

Revance Therapeutics, Inc. RVNC was down, falling 33% to $11.20 after the company issued corporate update at Investor Day. Revance Therapeutics estimates total non-cash impairment charges from goodwill and other assets to be between an estimated $80 million and $100 million.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $92.37 while gold traded up 0.2% at $1,957.30.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $23.64 on Tuesday while copper fell 1% to $3.7430.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.1% London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.4% The German DAX fell 0.1% French CAC 40 rose 0.3%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 0.6%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone was revised lower to 5.2% in August versus an initial reading of 5.3%, recording the lowest reading since Jan. 2022. The Eurozone posted a current account surplus of €26.9 billion in July versus a €15.8 billion deficit in the year-ago month.

Italy's current account surplus widened to EUR 5.156 billion in July from EUR 0.795 billion in the year-ago month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.87%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rising 0.37% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.03%.

Hong Kong's unemployment rate came in unchanged at 2.8% during the three months ending Aug. 2023.

Economics

The FOMC will start its two-day policy meeting today.

Housing starts in the U.S. fell 11.3% month-over-month to an annualized rate of 1.283 million in August, recording the lowest level since June 2020.

Building permits rose 6.9% to an annual rate of 1.543 million in August, notching the highest level in 10 months.

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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 108,479,200 cases with around 1,175,350 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 44,998,210 cases and 531,930 deaths, while France reported over 40,138,560 COVID-19 cases with 167,640 deaths. In total, there were at least 695,437,400 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,916,330 deaths.