U.S. Stocks Open Higher; CarMax Posts Upbeat Earnings

U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Dow Jones gaining more than 500 points on Friday.

The Dow traded up 1.74% to 31,212.65 while the NASDAQ rose 2.26% to 11,486.42. The S&P also rose, gaining, 2.02% to 3,872.24.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Financials shares jumped by 2.8% on Friday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Azure Power Global Limited AZRE, up 29% and Cadiz Inc. CDZI up 13%.

In trading on Friday, utilities shares rose by just 0.7%.

Top Headline

CarMax, Inc. KMX reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.

CarMax reported first-quarter FY23 sales growth of 21% year-on-year to $9.31 billion, beating the consensus of $9.12 billion. EPS of $1.56 beat the consensus of $1.49.

Equities Trading UP

USA Truck, Inc. USAK shares shot up 110% to $30.76. DB Schenker and USA Truck announced plans to combine and create premier North American transportation solutions provider.

Shares of Zendesk, Inc. ZEN got a boost, shooting 28% to $73.94. Global investment firms Permira and Hellman & Friedman LLC agreed to takeover Zendesk in an all-cash transaction that values Zendesk at $10.2 billion.

Celularity Inc. CELU shares were also up, gaining 18% to $4.1750 after HC Wainwright initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and announced a $15 price target.

 

Equities Trading DOWN

Avaya Holdings Corp. AVYA shares tumbled 26% to $2.7650.

Shares of CalAmp Corp. CAMP were down 24% to $5.43 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 adjusted EPS and sales results.

JE Cleantech Holdings Limited JCSE was down, falling 34% to $11.75.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 3.1% to $107.53, while gold traded down 0.1% to $1,828.70.

Silver traded up 0.1% to $21.055 on Friday while copper fell 0.4% to $3.7245.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 2.5%, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 2.4% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index rose 1.8%. The German DAX gained 1.9%, French CAC 40 jumped 3.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index gained 2.2%.

The GfK Consumer Confidence indicator in the UK fell to -41 in June compared to -40 in May. Italian consumer confidence fell to 98.3 in June from 102.7 in the prior month, while manufacturing confidence rose to 110 in June from revised 109.4 in the previous month.

The Ifo Business Climate indicator for Germany declined to 92.3 in June from a 3-month high level of 93 in the earlier month. Spanish gross domestic product grew 0.2% on the quarter during the three months ending March.

Economics

New home sales increased 10.7% from a month ago to an annual rate of 696,000 in May.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was revised to a record low level of 50.0 in June versus a preliminary reading of 50.2.

The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the recent week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly will speak at 4:00 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 88,443,390 cases with around 1,039,770 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 43,347,590 cases and 524,940 deaths, while Brazil reported over 31,894,500 COVID-19 cases with 669,610 deaths. In total, there were at least 546,714,300 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with more than 6,345,980 deaths.