Dow Dips 150 Points; Laser Photonics Shares Spike Higher

U.S. stocks traded lower midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index falling around 150 points on Tuesday.

The Dow traded down 0.39% to 38,742.12 while the NASDAQ fell 0.16% to 16,227.77. The S&P 500 also fell, dropping, 0.29% to 5,187.10.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares jumped by 0.3% on Tuesday.

In trading on Tuesday, financial shares fell by 1.2%.

Top Headline

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index declined for a third straight month to a reading of 88.5 in March, compared to market estimates of 90.2.

Equities Trading UP

Laser Photonics Corporation LASE shares shot up 139% to $3.4239 after the company announced it secured an order for its LaserTower COMPACT marking and engraving system from L3Harris Technologies.

Shares of Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. ACRV got a boost, surging 69% to $10.00. The company announced a $130 million private placement financing.

Biophytis S.A. BPTS shares were also up, gaining 10% to $0.3493 after reporting FY23 results.

Equities Trading DOWN

Vincerx Pharma, Inc. VINC shares dropped 74% to $1.2250 after the company presented preliminary Phase 1 data for VIP236 and updates on pipeline progress at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024.

Shares of Cognyte Software Ltd. CGNT were down 16% to $7.04 after the company reported fourth-quarter results and issued FY25 guidance.

Tilray Brands, Inc. TLRY was down, falling 21% to $2.0393 after the company missed third-quarter estimates and said it no longer expects to generate positive adjusted free cash flow for the full fiscal year 2024.

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Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.9% to $85.65 while gold traded up 0.9% at $2,370.90.

Silver traded up 1.1% to $28.10 on Tuesday, while copper fell 0.1% to $4.2710.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.68%, London’s FTSE 100 fell 0.25% while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell 0.81% The German DAX fell 1.32% French CAC 40 fell 0.95% while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index fell 1.17%.

French trade deficit shrank to €5.2 billion in February 2024 versus a revised €7.2 billion gap in the prior month. Retail sales in the UK gained 3.2% from a year ago in March.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 gaining 1.08%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gaining 0.57%, China’s Shanghai Composite gaining 0.05% and India’s S&P BSE Sensex falling 0.08%.

Foreign exchange reserves in Hong Kong fell to $423.6 billion in March from $425.2 billion in the prior month. Japanese machine tool orders fell 8.5% year-over-year to JPY 135,647 million in March compared to a 8% decline in the prior month, while consumer confidence index in Japan rose to 39.5 in March versus a revised reading of 39.0 in the prior month.