Mid-Day Market Update: Nasdaq Turns Positive; Gold Fields Shares Plunge

U.S. stocks pared losses midway through trading, with the Nasdaq Composite turning higher on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.18% to 33,154.67 while the NASDAQ rose 0.20% to 12,155.91. The S&P also fell, dropping, 0.12% to 4,153.24.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 1.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Indonesia Energy Corporation Limited INDO, up 15% and Ecopetrol S.A. EC up 14%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 1.3%.

Top Headline

US goods trade deficit shrank to $105.9 billion in April from a revised record high of $125.9 billion in the previous month, as exports rose 3.1% to a fresh all-time high of $173.9 billion.

Equities Trading UP

TherapeuticsMD, Inc. TXMD shares shot up 361% to $9.86 after the company announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of EW Healthcare Partners.

Shares of JanOne Inc. JAN got a boost, shooting 88% to $4.20 after the company announced it sold GeoTraq to SPYR Technologies in a $13.5 million transaction.

Houston American Energy Corp. HUSA shares were also up, gaining 56% to $5.87. Houston American Energy increased interest in the Colombian project. According to Stocktwits, Houston American Energy was the number one trending stock for the day.

Equities Trading DOWN

Kirkland's, Inc. KIRK shares tumbled 13% to $5.93 as the company reported a first-quarter FY22 sales decline of 16.4% to $103.29 million, missing the consensus of $110.46 million.

Shares of Gold Fields Limited GFI were down 22% to $9.46 after the company announced it will acquire Yamana Gold for $6.7 billion.

LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. LX was down, falling 14% to $2.04 after the company reported unaudited results for the first quarter.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 2% to $117.33, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,844.90.

Silver traded down 1.6% to $21.74 on Tuesday while copper fell 0.3% to $4.2950.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.73%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.08% and Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.89%. The German DAX dropped 1.29%, French CAC 40 fell 1.43% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.22%.

Italy’s gross domestic product expanded by 0.1% on the quarter during the three months leading to March. Household spending in France declined by 0.4% from a month ago in April. The annual inflation rate in France accelerated to 5.2% in May, while the country’s economy shrank by 0.2% on quarter during the first three months of the year.

Economics

The S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price index jumped 21.2% year-over-year in March, following a 20.3% increase in February.

The FHFA house price index rose 1.5% from a month ago in March.

The Chicago PMI for May climbed to 60.3 in May from April's reading of 56.4.

The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to 106.4 from previous reading of 108.6.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing index dipped to -7.3 in May from 1.1 in March.

Data on farm prices for April will be released at 3:00 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 85,730,590 cases with around 1,031,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,158,580 cases and 524,630 deaths, while Brazil reported over 30,977,660 COVID-19 cases with 666,560 deaths. In total, there were at least 532,218,740 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,312,140 deaths.