Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Rises 80 Points; MICT Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.13% to 27807.74 while the NASDAQ rose 0.72% to 11,210.10. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.28% to 3,391.38.

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 1.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included RISE Education Cayman Ltd REDU, up 26%, and MOGU Inc. MOGU, up 60%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1.6%.

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 51% to $5.28 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 Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. NGS got a boost, shooting 20% to $8.11 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 results.

9 Meters Biopharma Inc NMTR shares were also up, gaining 18% to $0.66 as Brookline initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and $5 price target.

Equities Trading DOWN

Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. PSTX shares tumbled 31% to $8.97 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 23% to $7.35 after the company reported a $25 million at-the-market equity offering program.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. SHIP was down, falling 53% to $0.5501 after the company reported pricing of $25.0 million underwritten public offering.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded down 0.1% to $42.88, while gold traded up 0.8% to $2,014.20.

Silver traded up 1.9% Tuesday to $28.185, while copper rose 2.6% to $2.978.

Euro zone

European shares closed lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.56%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.66%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.52%. Meanwhile, the German DAX 30 declined 0.30%, French CAC 40 rose 0.68% and UK shares fell 0.83%.

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.