Dow Gains 100 Points; McCormick Posts Upbeat Results

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones gaining around 100 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded up 0.25% to 39,413.30 while the NASDAQ rose 0.27% to 16,448.55. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.27% to 5,232.36.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares jumped by 0.8% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, energy shares fell by 0.6%.

Top Headline

McCormick & Co Inc MKC reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results.

McCormick reported first-quarter FY24 sales growth of 3% year-on-year to $1.60 billion, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. Adjusted EPS of 63 cents beat the consensus of 58 cents.

Equities Trading UP

Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. STOK shares shot up 73% to $11.25 after the company announced Phase 1/2a data supporting the potential for STK-001 in Dravet syndrome.

Shares of Mesoblast Ltd MESO got a boost, surging 36% to $3.00 after the FDA informed the company that the available clinical data from its Phase 3 study MSB-GVHD001 appears sufficient to support submission of the proposed Biologics License Application for remestemcel-L for treatment of pediatric patients with steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease.

OpGen, Inc. OPGN shares were also up, gaining 37% to $0.65 after the company entered into a securities purchase agreement with a private investor, David Lazar, to acquire 3 million shares of Series E Convertible Preferred Stock at $1.00 per share for aggregate gross proceeds of $3.0 million.

Equities Trading DOWN

Cardlytics Inc CDLX shares dropped 31% to $13.93 after the company announced a $150 million proposed convertible senior notes offering.

Shares of GDS Holdings Ltd - ADR GDS were down 19% to $6.76 after the company reported fourth-quarter results, disclosed equity raise and new CEO for its international business.

AppTech Payments Corp. APCX was down, falling 39% to $81.62 after the company priced its 2 million share offering at $1 per share.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.4% to $81.62 while gold traded up 0.3% at $2,183.00.

Silver traded down 0.7% to $24.71 on Monday, while copper fell 0.5% to $3.9975.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.16%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.11% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.31% The German DAX rose 0.74% French CAC 40 rose 0.35% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.22%.

The GfK Consumer Climate Indicator for Germany rose to -27.4 heading into April compared to a revised reading of -28.8 in the prior period. Spanish economy grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter, compared to a 0.4% increase in the prior period.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mixed on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.04%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.88%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.17% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.50%.

Hong Kong’s trade deficit narrowed to $41.7 billion in February versus a $45.4 billion gap recorded in the year-ago period.

Economics

U.S. durable goods orders increased by 1.4% month-over-month in February versus a revised 6.9% decline in January.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased by 6.6% year-over-year in January compared to a 6.2% gain in the prior month.

The FHFA house price index fell by 0.1% in January.

The Dallas Fed general business activity index for Texas' service sector fell to a reading of -5.5 in March from -3.9 in February.

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