Mid-Afternoon Market Update: NASDAQ Surges More Than 2%; Itron Shares Slide

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.46% to 24095 while the NASDAQ rose 2.13% to 8896. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.75% to 2,892.

The U.S. is the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with the highest number of cases and deaths around the world. U.S. reported a total of 1,180,630 coronavirus cases with around 68,930 deaths. Spain confirmed a total of over 218,010 coronavirus cases with 25,420 deaths, while Italy reported a total of at least 211,930 confirmed cases and 29,070 deaths. In total, there were at least 3,601,760 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 251,910 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed by 2.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PTLA, up 130%, and Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. ADVM, up 33%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares rose by just 0.8%.

Top Headline

SYSCO Corporation SYY reported downbeat results for its third quarter.

SYSCO reported quarterly earnings of $0.45 per share, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $0.60. The company reported quarterly sales of $13.699 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $14.09 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PTLA shares shot up 130% to $17.86 after the company announced it will be acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ALXN for $18 per share in cash.

Shares of Genprex, Inc. GNPX got a boost, shooting 69% to $3.8950 after the company reported exclusive global patent and technology license deal for combo of its TUSC2 gene therapy with Immunotherapies.

CleanSpark, Inc. CLSK shares were also up, gaining 134% to $3.18 after the company reported a strong rise in year-to-date revenue through April 2020.

Equities Trading DOWN

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH shares tumbled 22% to $11.26 after the company reported a $350 million common stock offering. Norwegian Cruise's NCL Corp. reported a $400 million investment by L Catteron.

Shares of Capitala Finance Corp. CPTA were down 18% to $3.10 after reporting downbeat Q1 sales.

Itron, Inc. ITRI was down, falling 16% to $56.85 after the company reported weaker-than-expected Q1 sales. The company also suspended FY20 guidance.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 21% to $24.66, while gold traded down 0.2% to $1,709.50.

Silver traded up 2% Tuesday to $15.09, while copper rose 0.7% to $2.3295.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 2.15%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.11%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 2.06%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 2.51%, and the French CAC 40 rose 2.4% while UK shares rose 1.66%.

Economics

The US trade deficit increased to $44.4 billion in March, versus a revised $39.8 billion gap in the prior month. Exports fell 9.6% to $187.7 billion, while imports fell 6.2% to $232.2 billion.

The IHS Markit services PMI slipped to 26.7 in April, versus a preliminary estimate of 27.0.

The ISM non-manufacturing index dropped to 41.8 in April, versus a reading of 52.5 in the prior month.