US Stocks Higher; Accenture Issues Weak Sales Outlook

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones index gaining more than 50 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.17% to 37,369.84 while the NASDAQ rose 0.25% to 14,941.77. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.17% to 4,748.81.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares rose by 0.7% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, financial shares fell by 0.1%.

Top Headline

Accenture Plc ACN posted upbeat earnings for its first quarter, but issued weak sales outlook.

Accenture reported quarterly sales of $16.22 billion compared with the consensus of $16.20 billion, an increase of 3% Y/Y in U.S. dollars and 1% in local currency. Adjusted earnings came in at $3.27 per share, versus expectations of $3.14 per share.

Accenture expects second-quarter revenues of $15.40 billion to $16.00 billion (versus consensus of $16.25 billion), or negative 2% to 2% in local currency, reflecting the company’s assumption of a negative 0.5% foreign-exchange impact compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

Equities Trading UP

Compugen Ltd. CGEN shares shot up 218% to $2.32 after Gilead announced an agreement with the company to exclusively license its novel pre-clinical immunotherapy program.

Shares of Panbela Therapeutics, Inc. PBLA got a boost, surging 78% to $1.79. Panbela Therapeutics shares jumped 120% on Monday after US WorldMeds received FDA approval of eflornithine.

Jin Medical International Ltd. ZJYL shares were also up, gaining 65% to $168.00 after jumping around 264% on Monday.

Equities Trading DOWN

Motus GI Holdings, Inc. MOTS shares dropped 43% to $1.23 after the company priced its $5 million public offering.

Shares of BYND Cannasoft Enterprises Inc. BCAN were down 44% to $0.3877 after the company reported pricing of $1.5 million registered direct offering.

ETAO International Co., Ltd. ETAO was down, falling 39% to $0.2810. ETAO International received a staff determination letter, on Dec. 13, 2023, from the Listing Qualifications Department of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.6% to $72.90 while gold traded up 0.3% at $2,045.50.

Silver traded up 0.6% to $24.25 on Tuesday while copper rose 1.5% to $3.9110.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.1% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.4% The German DAX rose 0.4% French CAC 40 fell 0.1%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.2%.

Annual inflation rate in the Eurozone eased to 2.4% in November from 2.9% in the previous month.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.41%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declining 0.75% and China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.05%. India’s S&P BSE Sensex, meanwhile, rose 0.17%.

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate came in unchanged at 2.9% for the three months ending Nov. 2023. The Bank of Japan held its key short-term interest rate at -0.1% during its latest meeting.

Economics

Building permits in the U.S. declined by 2.5% to an annual rate of 1.460 million in November, down from market estimates of 1.470 million.

U.S. housing starts surged 14.8% month-over-month to an annualized 1.56 million in November, compared to market estimates of 1.36 million.

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