Mid-Day Market Update: Crude Oil Rises 1%; PQ Group Shares Plummet

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.08% to 33,955.78 while the NASDAQ fell 0.30% to 14,096.16. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.09% to 4,183.81.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,125,470 cases with around 572,690 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 17,636,180 cases and 197,890 deaths, while Brazil reported over 14,369,420 COVID-19 cases with 391,930 deaths. In total, there were at least 147,925,410 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,122,310 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares climbed by 0.8% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Adams Resources & Energy, Inc. AE, up 7%, and Gran Tierra Energy Inc. GTE, up 12%.

In trading on Tuesday, health care shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

General Electric Company GE reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, while sales missed views

GE reported quarterly earnings of $0.03 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $0.01 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $17.12 billion, versus expectations of $17.59 billion.

GE said it expects 2021 adjusted earnings of $0.15 to $0.25 per share.

Equities Trading UP

Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd TIRX shares shot up 40% to $16.87 after the company reported its financial results for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020.

Shares of NetSol Technologies, Inc. NTWK got a boost, shooting 28% to $5.51 after the company announced it signed a five-year contract worth multi-million-dollar renewal with a Japanese automotive customer in APAC.

Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc. ALDX shares were also up, gaining 27% to $14.15 after the company announced positive top-line results from the Phase 3 INVIGORATE study of 0.25% reproxalap ophthalmic solution, an investigational new drug, in patients with allergic conjunctivitis. The clinical trial successfully achieved statistical significance for the primary endpoint and all secondary endpoints, it added.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Protagenic Therapeutics, Inc. PTIX shares tumbled 25% to $2.30 after the company priced an underwritten public offering of 3.18 million units at a public offering price of $4.15 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $13.2 million. In connection with the offering, the company has received approval to list its common stock and warrants on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Shares of RealNetworks, Inc. RNWK were down 23% to $2.6350 after the company priced 8.25 million shares at $2.7 per share to raise $22.3 million in a secondary public offering.

PQ Group Holdings Inc. PQG was down, falling 15% to $14.16 after the company reported preliminary Q1 results and announced a secondary offering of 12,500,000 shares of common stock by selling shareholders.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1% to $62.52, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,779.70.

Silver traded up 0.6% Tuesday to $26.365 while copper rose 0.8% to $4.4760.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.21%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.39% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.33%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.08% London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.28% and Italy’s FTSE MIB fell 0.25%.

Italy's manufacturing confidence index climbed to 105.4 in April from a revised reading of 101.9 in the previous month, while consumer confidence index surged to 102.3 from 100.9.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its two-day policy meeting today.

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index surged 11.9% year-over-year in February following a 11.1% increase in January .

The FHFA house price index increased 0.9% in February following a 1% rise in January.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped to 121.7 from March’s reading of 109.7.

The Richmond Fed manufacturing index came in unchanged at 17 in April.

The Treasury is set to auction 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Data on money supply for the March will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here