Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Dow Jumps 400 Points

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 400 points on Tuesday.

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 1.24% to 34,839.55 while the NASDAQ rose 1.73% to 13,562.67. The S&P also rose, gaining, 1.35% to 4,451.15.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 2% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included American Campus Communities, Inc. ACC, up 13% and DigitalBridge Group, Inc. DBRG up 6%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 0.3%.

Top Headline

Johnson & Johnson JNJ reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, but suspended sales forecast for COVID-19 vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson reported Q1 FY22 adjusted earnings of $2.67 per share, up 3.1% Y/Y and ahead of the consensus of $2.61. Net sales increased 5% Y/Y (7.9% on an operational basis) to $23.43 billion, missing the consensus of $23.67 billion.

Johnson & Johnson expects an FY22 adjusted profit forecast of $10.15 - $10.35 per share, lower than the prior forecast of $10.40 - $10.60. The consensus estimate is $10.51. The Company expects sales of $97.3 billion – $98.3 billion, versus the consensus of $$99.31 billion. JNJ has suspended its sales forecast for the COVID-19 vaccine due to global supply surplus and demand uncertainty.

Equities Trading UP

Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CMPI shares shot up 329% to $10.43 after Regeneron announced a deal to acquire the company for $10.50 per share in cash.

Shares of Sono Group N.V. SEV got a boost, shooting 18% to $5.41.

Cyren Ltd. CYRN shares were also up, gaining 21% to $3.2599.

Equities Trading DOWN

System1, Inc. SST shares tumbled 33% to $13.70 as the company disclosed a previously-issued (from Feb. 9, 2022) shelf registration statement went into effect.

Shares of Enservco Corporation ENSV were down 20% to $2.92. Enservco shares gained 38% on Monday after the company announced the delay of its 2021 10-K filing to adjust for its utilization of certain deferred tax liabilities in 2021.

Arqit Quantum Inc. ARQQ was down, falling 16% to $10.48.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 4.3% to $103.51, while gold traded down 1.6% to $1,954.20.

Silver traded down 3.3% Tuesday to $25.295 while copper fell 2.1% to $4.7025.

Euro zone

European shares were mixed today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.5%, London’s FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 0.2%. The German DAX gained 0.2%, French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index dipped 0.8%.

Economics

Housing starts in the US rose 0.3% to an annualized rate of 1.793 million in March, while building permits rose 0.4% to an annual rate of 1.873 million.

The Treasury is set to auction 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans is set to speak at 12:05 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari will speak at 8:00 p.m. ET.

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COVID-19 Update

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 82,377,150 cases with around 1,015,790 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,045,520 cases and 521,990 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,261,080 COVID-19 cases with 662,070 deaths. In total, there were at least 505,279,780 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,225,190 deaths.