Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mostly Lower; Walmart Beats Q2 Estimates

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.38% to 27739.73 while the NASDAQ rose 0.18% to 11,150.12. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.06% to 3,379.89.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 5,444,110 cases with around 170,550 deaths. Brazil confirmed a total of over 3,359,570 COVID-19 cases with 108,530 deaths, while India reported a total of at least 2,702,740 confirmed cases and 51,790 deaths. In total, there were at least 21,912,210 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 774,660 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained 1.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included RISE Education Cayman Ltd REDU, up 22%, and GrowGeneration Corp. GRWG, up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported better-than-expected results for its second quarter.

Walmart reported quarterly earnings of $1.56 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $1.25 per share. The company’s sales came in at $137.70 billion, exceeding expectations of $135.37 billion.

The company’s US e-commerce sales jumped 97%, while US same-store sales rose 9.3% during the quarter.

Equities Trading UP

MICT, Inc. MICT shares shot up 102% to $7.07 after the company announced its subsidiary Micronet has received the first significant order for its SmartCam following a successful pilot trial with a leading global telematics provider.

Shares of RISE Education Cayman Ltd REDU got a boost, shooting 25% to $7.25 after jumping 48% on Monday. RISE Education Cayman reported Q2 results last week.

iMedia Brands, Inc. IMBI shares were also up, gaining 18% to $6.66 after the company swung to a profit in the second quarter.

Equities Trading DOWN

Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. PSTX shares tumbled 30% to $9.12 after the company said the FDA has placed on clinical hold its Phase 1 trial for PSMA-101 in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. The clinical hold is due to the death of a patientwho failed treatment with multiple anti-cancer agents and was treated with PPSMA-101 in late July.

Shares of Urban One, Inc. UONE were down 25% to $7.16 after the company reported a $25 million at-the-market equity offering program.

LSB Industries, Inc. LXU was down, falling 20% to $2.43. LSB Industries, last month, reported better-than-expected Q2 sales.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.6% to $42.64, while gold traded up 0.6% to $2,010.80.

Silver traded up 1.8% Tuesday to $28.17, while copper rose 0.5% to $2.917.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.4%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.8%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index surged 0.9%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 gained 1%, French CAC 40 rose 0.5% and UK shares rose 0.3%.

Economics

U.S. housing starts climbed 22.6% to an annualized rate of 1.496 million in July, while building permits increased 18.8% to an annual rate of 1.495 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index increased 2.8% during the first two weeks of August versus July.