Mid-Afternoon Market Update: US Stocks Pare Losses; Meritor Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks pared back some losses toward the end of trading on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would recognize the independence of two Russian-led breakaway regions of Ukraine and ordered Russian troops to go into eastern Ukraine.

The Dow traded down 0.91% to 33,769.31 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 13,503.05. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.38% to 4,332.50.

Check out this: Insiders Buy More Than $170M Of 4 Stocks

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Utilities shares slipped by just 0.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Empresa Distribuidora y Comercializadora Norte Sociedad Anónima EDN, up 11% and Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo - SABESP SBS up 7%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer discretionary shares tumbled by 4.1%.

Top Headline

Home Depot Inc HD reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter and raised its dividend.

Home Depot reported fourth-quarter FY21 sales growth of 10.7% year-on-year, to $35.72 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $34.87 billion. EPS of $3.21 beat the analyst consensus of $3.17.

Home Depot raised the quarterly dividend by 15% to $1.90 from $1.65 per share, payable on March 24, 2022, to shareholders of record on the close of business on March 10, 2022.

The company expects FY22 EPS growth to be in the low single digits. Home Depot sees FY22 sales and comparable sales growth to be slightly positive.

 

Equities Trading UP

Meritor, Inc. MTOR shares shot up 45% to $35.80. Cummins Inc CMI agreed to acquire electric powertrain solutions provider Meritor for about $3.7 billion, including assumed debt and net of acquired cash.

Shares of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company HMHC got a boost, shooting 15% to $20.83 after the company announced it will be acquired by Veritas Capital.

Ocugen, Inc. OCGN shares were also up, gaining 23% to $4.2650 after the company announced the FDA lifted its clinical hold on the company's COVID-19 vaccine study in the US.

Also check this: Insiders Buying These 3 Penny Stocks

Equities Trading DOWN

Allarity Therapeutics, Inc. ALLR shares tumbled 30% to $4.5938. The FDA provided Allarity Therapeutics with a Refusal to File (RTF) letter for a marketing application for dovitinib for the third-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Shares of Dogness (International) Corporation DOGZ were down 41% to $2.51. Dogness entered into a securities purchase agreement with institutional investors for a registered direct offering of 1.96 million common shares at $2.88 per share.

Homology Medicines, Inc. FIXX was down, falling 31% to $2.6554. The FDA placed a clinical hold on Homology Medicines’ pheNIX gene therapy trial of HMI-102 from the FDA. An official clinical hold letter is expected within 30 days.

Also check out: Snap And 4 Other Stocks Sold By Insiders

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.5% to $92.41, while gold traded up 0.3% to $1,904.70.

Silver traded up 1% Tuesday to $24.235 while copper fell 0.5% to $4.4950.

Euro zone

European shares closed mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.07%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.13%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.05%. The German DAX fell 0.26%, French CAC 40 slipped 0.01% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 0.02%.

The UK government reported a £2.9 billion surplus in its public finances in January, versus a £2.5 billion deficit a year ago. The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany climbed to 98.9 in February from a revised level of 96 in January. The annual inflation rate in Italy increased to 4.8% in January from 3.9% in the earlier month.

Economics

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index surged 18.6% year-over-year in December.

The FHFA House Price Index rose 1.2% from a month ago in December.

The IHS Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 57.5 in February from 55.5 in the previous month, while services PMI climbed to 56.7 from 51.2.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell to 110.5 in February from previous reading of 111.1.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic is set to speak at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Check out this: Boeing And 3 Other Stocks Bought By Insiders

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 80,145,280 cases with around 960,150 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 42,851,920 cases and 512,370 deaths, while Brazil reported over 28,250,590 COVID-19 cases with 644,690 deaths. In total, there were at least 426,813,120 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 5,911,790 deaths.