Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; General Electric Reports Upbeat Earnings

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.34% to 35,862.59 while the NASDAQ rose 0.96% to 15,372.26. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.66% to 4,596.24.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 46,417,520 cases with around 757,840 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,202,200 cases and 455,100 deaths, while Brazil reported over 21,735,560 COVID-19 cases with 605,880 deaths. In total, there were at least 244,972,070 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 4,973,480 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares gained by 1.6% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Unifi, Inc. UFI, up 8% and Cazoo Group Ltd CZOO up 8%.

In trading on Tuesday, industrials shares rose by just 0.1%.

Top Headline

General Electric Co GE reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter and raised earnings outlook for FY21.

General Electric reported a third-quarter FY21 revenue decline of 1% year-over-year to $18.43 billion, missing the consensus of $19.25 billion. Adjusted EPS improved to $0.57 from $0.38 in 3Q20, beating the consensus of $0.43.

For FY21, GE expects Industrial organic revenue growth to be approximately flat (prior view Low single-digit growth). Adjusted Industrial profit margin expansion of 350+ basis points (prior 250+ bps expansion). It expects adjusted EPS to $1.80–$2.10 (prior $1.20–$2.00) vs. consensus of $1.94. GE Industrial free cash flow of $3.75 billion –$4.75 billion (prior $3.5 billion–$5 billion).

Equities Trading UP

Wallbox N.V. WBX shares shot up 66% to $18.42. Uber and Wallbox N.V. disclosed a strategic partnership to simplify the transition to EVs for Bay Area ride share drivers using Uber.

Shares of Babylon Holdings Limited BBLN got a boost, shooting 52% to $14.88.

Redbox Entertainment Inc. RDBX shares were also up, gaining 41% to $16.80 after jumping around 24% on Monday.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Phunware, Inc. PHUN shares tumbled 31% to $4.9550.
Phunware Filing showed registration for $48.5 million share common stock shelf offering.

Shares of Remark Holdings, Inc. MARK were down 26% to $2.30 after jumping 45% on Monday.

Vertex Energy, Inc. VTNR was down, falling 18% to $4.3650 after the company announced a proposed private offering of $155 million principal amount at maturity of convertible senior notes.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $84.14, while gold traded down 0.5% to $1,798.20.

Silver traded down 0.7% Tuesday to $24.41 while copper fell 0.3% to $4.5140.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.6%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.9% and the German DAX 30 gained 1%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7%, French CAC 40 rose 0.7% and Italy’s FTSE MIB gained 0.6%.

Spain's producer price inflation rose to 23.6% year-over-year in September from a revised 17.9% in the prior month.

Economics

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 19.7% year-over-year in August.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency house price index rose 1.0% from a month ago in August.

New home sales in the US jumped 14% to an annual rate of 800,000 in September.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index climbed to 113.8 in October from 109.3 a month ago.

The Treasury is set to auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

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

Check out the full economic calendar here