Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; D.R. Horton Profit Beats Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.18% to 27740.33 while the NASDAQ rose 0.35% to 8,493.98. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.38% to 3,098.68.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Materials shares climbed 0.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Verso Corporation VRS, up 20%, and Ferro Corporation FOE, up 11%.

In trading on Tuesday, industrial shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

D.R. Horton, Inc. DHI reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter.

D.R. Horton reported quarterly earnings of $1.35 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.25 per share. Its sales came in at $5.04 billion, versus expectations of $4.86 billion.

D.R. Horton raised its quarterly dividend from $0.15 to $0.175 per share. The company said it expects FY20 sales of $18.5 billion to $19.0 billion, versus estimates of $18.58 billion. It projects 2020 home sales to be between 60,000 and 61,000 homes.

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Equities Trading UP

Craft Brew Alliance, Inc. BREW shares shot up 121% to $16.23 after Anheuser-Busch BUD agreed to purchase the remaining shares of the company it does not already own in a merger transaction for $16.50 per share in cash.

Shares of Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. APDN got a boost, shooting up 89% to $8.33 after the company announced successful DNA tagging of leather at an Asia-based tannery.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. LTS shares were also up, gaining 23% to $3.46 after the company agreed to be acquired by Advisor Group for $3.50 per share in cash.

Equities Trading DOWN

Solid Biosciences Inc. SLDB shares tumbled 69% to $3.42 after the company put Phase I/II study of SGT-001 on clinical hold following notification from the FDA.

Shares of Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. DPLO were down 59% to $2.57 after reporting downbeat Q3 earnings.

Fluent, Inc. FLNT was down, falling 26% to $1.87 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 EPS and sales results. The company also cut FY19 sales guidance below analyst estimates.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.4% to $57.09, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,453.90.

Silver traded down 0.3% Tuesday to $16.75, while copper fell 0.4% to $2.654.

Euro zone


European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.2%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index climbed 1%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.6%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.2% while UK shares rose 0.4%.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index increased 0.6 points to a reading of 102.4 in October.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.1% during the first week of November versus October.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Patrick Harker is set to speak in New York at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari will speak in Madison, Wisconsin at 6:00 p.m. ET.