Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Nasdaq Surges Over 1%

U.S. stocks opened on a strong note this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite adding more than 1% on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.84% to 34,842.67 while the NASDAQ rose 1.18% to 14,001.53. The S&P also rose, gaining, 0.82% to 4,497.84.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financials shares jumped by 2.2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Bakkt Holdings, Inc. BKKT, up 15% and Qudian Inc. QD up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell by 1%.

Top Headline

Carnival Corporation CCL reported weaker-than-expected sales results for its first quarter on Tuesday.

Carnival posted adjusted loss of $1.66 per share, missing market expectations for a loss of $0.89 per share. The company’s quarterly sales came in at $1.62 billion, missing estimates of $2.30 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Forge Global Holdings Inc. FRGE shares shot up 89% to $19.14. True Global Ventures’ portfolio company Forge Global Holdings completed its business combination with Motive Capital Corp on the 22nd of March, 2022.

Shares of HireRight Holdings Corporation HRT got a boost, shooting 25% to $15.66 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 results. The company also issued FY22 EPS and sales guidance above analyst estimates.

Gevo, Inc. GEVO shares were also up, gaining 17% to $5.39. Delta Air Lines signed a 75 million gallon per year agreement with Gevo.

Equities Trading DOWN

ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ORIC shares tumbled 29% to $4.77 after the company decided to discontinue the further development of ORIC-101 after interim analyses from the two Phase 1b studies, wherein ORIC-101 did not demonstrate sufficient clinical activity. Oppenheimer and Guggenheim downgraded the stock.

Shares of NeuroSense Therapeutics Ltd. NRSN were down 22% to $4.8661. NeuroSense Therapeutics shares jumped around 300% on Monday as the company received clearance from the FDA to initiate a pharmacokinetic study of PrimeC in healthy adult subjects.

Kidpik Corp. PIK was down, falling 18% to $4.72. The company recently reported a partnership with Disney for the release of Cheaper By The Dozen on Disney+.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 1.6% to $110.33, while gold traded down 0.9% to $1,912.70.

Silver traded down 2.1% Tuesday to $24.775 while copper rose 0.1% to $4.7135.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 gained 0.7%, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.9%. The German DAX climbed 1%, French CAC 40 rose 1.1% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 1.2%.

Construction output in the Eurozone increased 4.1% year-over-year in January, following a revised 0.2% rise in December. The UK’s government reported a £13.1 billion deficit in its public finances for the month of February.

Economics

The Richmond Fed composite manufacturing index climbed to 13 in March from 1 in the previous month.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams is set to speak at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury will auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

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Check out our premarket coverage here .

COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 81,448,400 cases with around 998,840 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,010,970 cases and 516,570 deaths, while Brazil reported over 29,641,840 COVID-19 cases with 657,360 deaths. In total, there were at least 472,770,900 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,106,520 deaths.