Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Nasdaq Turns Negative; Ultralife Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.39% to 34,192.78 while the NASDAQ fell 0.11% to 13,364.14. The S&P also fell, dropping 0.42% to 4,145.60.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 32,994,750 cases with around 586,400 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 25,228,990 cases and 278,710 deaths, while Brazil reported over 15,657,390 COVID-19 cases with 436,530 deaths. In total, there were at least 163,675,910 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 3,391,530 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Agenus Inc. AGEN, up 22%, and Onconova Therapeutics, Inc. ONTX, up 55%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 2.4%.

Top Headline

Walmart Inc WMT reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and raised its full-year profit forecast .

Walmart reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $1.69 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $1.21 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $138.31 billion, exceeding market views of $131.95 billion. Sales at US stores open at least a year, excluding fuel, increased 6% last quarter.

Walmart now projects fiscal 2022 earnings to rise in high single digits, while the company had earlier expected a slight drop in profit.

Equities Trading UP

Onconova Therapeutics, Inc. ONTX shares shot up 55% to $0.968 after the company reported Q1 results. Guggenheim initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and $4 price target.

Shares of Ultralife Corporation ULBI got a boost, shooting 28% to $10.88 after the company announced it was awarded an IDIQ contract under the US Army's $1.25 billion conformal wearable battery program. The company will receive no more than $168 million over a 3 year base period.

Park City Group, Inc. PCYG shares were also up, gaining 31% to $6.68 after reporting Q3 results.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

TOMI Environmental Solutions, Inc. TOMZ shares tumbled 19% to $2.4250 after the company swung to a loss in the first quarter.

Shares of Evofem Biosciences, Inc. EVFM were down 35% to $0.8260 after the company reported pricing of $50 million public offering.

Trean Insurance Group, Inc. TIG was down, falling 11% to $14.55 after the company reported an offering of 5 million shares of common stock.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.4% to $65.37, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,868.60.

Silver traded up 0.3% Tuesday to $28.365 while copper rose 0.4% to $4.7315.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.17%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.31% and the German DAX 30 dropped 0.07%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.02%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.21% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.07%.

The Eurozone economy contracted 0.6% on quarter in January-March, while trade surplus shrank to EUR 15.8 billion in March from EUR 29.9 billion in the year-ago month. Italy's trade surplus shrank to EUR 5.19 billion in March from EUR 5.70 billion.

Labor productivity in the UK increased 0.8% on quarter during the first three months of the year, while unemployment rate dropped to 4.8% in the three months to March.

Economics

Housing starts in the US dipped 9.5% to an annualized rate of 1.569 million in April, while building permits rose 0.3% to an annual rate of 1.76 million.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 13% year-over-year during the first two weeks of May.

Check out the full economic calendar here