Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Crude Oil Up 2%; argenx Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 2.80% to 25150.26 while the NASDAQ rose 0.99% to 9417.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 1.94% to 3012.86.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 1,662,760 cases with around 98,220 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 374,890 COVID-19 cases with 23,470 deaths, while Russia reported a total of at least 362,340 confirmed cases and 3,800 deaths. In total, there were at least 5,512,059 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 346,610 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financial shares climbed 5.7% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Colony Bankcorp, Inc. CBAN, up 17%, and Webster Financial Corporation WBS, up 13%.

In trading on Tuesday, information technology shares rose by just 0.6%.

Top Headline

AutoZone, Inc. AZO reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter.

AutoZone reported quarterly earnings of $14.39 per share on Tuesday, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $13.68 per share. The company reported quarterly sales of $2.80 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $2.67 billion.

Equities Trading UP

argenx SE ARGX shares shot up 36% to $215.30 after the company disclosed positive topline data from the pivotal ADAPT trial of efgartigimod.

Shares of Fly Leasing Limited FLY got a boost, shooting 37% to $8.43. JP Morgan upgraded Fly Leasing from Neutral to Overweight and lowered the price target from $17 to $15.

MMTec Inc MTC shares were also up, gaining 70% to $1.87 after reporting its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019. Revenues jumped 647% to $200,797, in 2019.

Equities Trading DOWN

BioLineRx Ltd. BLRX shares tumbled 29% to $1.69 after the company reported a $9 million registered direct offering.

Shares of Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. CLBS were down 14% to $1.78 after the company reported a $4.3 million registered direct offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules.

Genetic Technologies Limited GENE was down, falling 14% to $2.06 after the company announced pricing of $8.0 million public offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $33.91, while gold traded down 1.7% to $1,706.10.

Silver traded down 0.6% Tuesday to $17.595, while copper rose 1.4% to $2.42.

Euro zone

European shares closed higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 surged 1.08%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 2.15%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.5%. Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 1%, and the French CAC 40 climbed 1.46% while UK shares rose 1.24%.

Economics

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index dipped to -16.74 in April, versus a revised reading of -4.97 for March.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index rose 3.9% year-over-year in March, versus a 3.5% increase in the earlier month.

The FHFA house price index increased 0.1% for March.

U.S. new home sales gained 0.6% to an annualized rate of 623,000.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index climbed to -49.2 in May, versus prior reading of -74.0.