Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; CarMax Profit Tops Estimates

Following the market opening Wednesday, the Dow traded up 0.11% to 35,530.68 while the NASDAQ rose 0.02% to 15,344.33. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.13% to 4,655.40.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 52,253,840 cases with around 830,990 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 34,758,480 cases and 478,320 deaths, while Brazil reported over 22,219,470 COVID-19 cases with 617,990 deaths. In total, there were at least 276,681,680 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,388,050 deaths.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Consumer discretionary shares climbed 0.9% on Wednesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Lottery.com Inc. LTRY, up 13% and XL Fleet Corp. XL up 8%.

In trading on Wednesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.2%.

Top Headline

CarMax, Inc. KMX reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter.

CarMax reported third-quarter FY21 sales growth of 64.5% year-on-year, to $8.53 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $7.53 billion. EPS of $1.63 improved 14.8% from $1.42 a year ago. EPS for the current year’s quarter included a one-time benefit of $0.10 related to settlement proceeds in a class-action lawsuit. Analysts had expected the company to report EPS of $1.44.

Equities Trading UP

Vertical Aerospace Ltd. EVTL shares shot up 40% to $12.85.
Vertical Aerospace recently listed on NYSE following merger with Broadstone Acquisition Corp.

Shares of BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. BRTX got a boost, shooting 17% to $5.33 after the company entered into a Master Service Agreement with PRC Clinical, a contract research organization (CRO), to conduct BioRestorative's Phase 2 trial.

Barnwell Industries, Inc. BRN shares were also up, gaining 14% to $2.8475. Barnwell Industries recently reported Q4 EPS of $0.16 up from $0.08 in the year-ago period.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Allakos Inc. ALLK shares tumbled 88% to $10.16 after the company reported data from ENIGMA 2 Phase 3 study of lirentelimab in eosinophilic gastritis (EG) or eosinophilic duodenitis (EoD) and KRYPTOS Phase 2/3 study of lirentelimab in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). Both ENIGMA 2 and KRYPTOS studies met their histologic co-primary endpoints but did not achieve statistical significance on the patient-reported symptomatic co-primary endpoints.

Shares of CalAmp Corp. CAMP were down 26% to $7.31 after the company swung to a loss in the third quarter. Craig-Hallum downgraded CalAmp from Buy to Hold and lowered the price target from $14 to $10.

AgileThought, Inc. AGIL was down, falling 25% to $6.89 after the company priced 3.6 million shares at $7 per share to raise $24.9 million in a secondary public offering.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.5% to $71.45, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,789.20.

Silver traded up 0.4% Wednesday to $22.615 while copper rose 0.8% to $4.3820.

Euro zone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.2%, the Spanish Ibex Index surged 0.4% and the German DAX 40 gained 0.2%. Meanwhile, the London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1%, French CAC 40 climbed 0.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB slipped 0.1%.

The British economy grew 1.1% on quarter during the three months to September. Business investment in the UK dropped 2.5% quarter-over-quarter during the July-September period, while current account deficit widened to GBP 24.4 billion in the third quarter. Spain's producer price inflation increased to an all-time high of 33.1% year-over-year in November.

Economics

The US economy expanded by an annualized rate of 2.3% on quarter in the third quarter.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index fell to 0.37 in November versus a three-month high level of 0.75 in October.

Corporate profits increased 3.4% to a new record high of $2.52 trillion in the third quarter.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index climbed to 115.8 in December from revised reading of 111.9 in the earlier month.

Existing home sales in the US rose 1.9% to an annual rate of 6.46 million in November.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories in the U.S. is scheduled for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Check out the full economic calendar here