Mid-Day Market Update: Francesca's Drops After Q3 Results; Equillium Shares Surge

Midway through trading Tuesday, the Dow traded down 0.03% to 27,900.99 while the NASDAQ rose 0.17% to 8,636.55. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.02% to 3,136.67.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares climbed 0.5% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Wrap Technologies Inc WRTC, up 9%, and GTT Communications Inc GTT, up 9%.

In trading on Tuesday, real estate shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

AutoZone AZO reported better-than-expected Q1 EPS and sales results.

AutoZone reported quarterly earnings of $14.3 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $13.77 per share. Its sales came in at $2.79 billion, versus expectations of $2.77 billion. AutoZone’s Q1 same store sales increased 3.4%.

Equities Trading UP

Equillium, Inc. EQ shares shot up 17% to $4.7512 after the FDA granted fast track designation for Itolizumab for the treatment of Lupus Nephritis.

Shares of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. ASNA got a boost, shooting up 11% to $0.4931 after the company reported Q1 EPS of $0.18, up from $0.06 in the same quarter last year.

Avid Bioservices, Inc. CDMO shares were also up, gaining 18% to $6.90 after the company reported better-than-expected Q2 EPS and sales results. First Analyst also upgraded the stock from Outperform to Strong Buy.

Equities Trading DOWN

Francesca's Holdings Corporation FRAN shares tumbled 39% to $12.15 after the company reported Q3 EPS results down from last year and worse-than-expected Q3 sales results. Francesca's reported a Q3 loss of $1.12/share on sales of $95.5 million.

Shares of Conn's, Inc. CONN were down 30% to $14.35 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q3 sales results. The company also issued Q4 total retail sales down 5%-9%.

Construction Partners, Inc. ROAD was down, falling 16% to $17.28 after the company reported worse-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 0.2% to $59.12, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,470.00.

Silver traded up 0.3% Tuesday to $16.69, while copper rose 0.2% to $2.764.

Euro zone


European shares were mostly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 dropped 0.25%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.27%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.7%. Meanwhile, the German DAX dropped 0.31%, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.12% while UK shares fell 0.31%.

Economics

The Federal Open Market Committee begins its two-day policy meeting.

The NFIB small business optimism index increased to 104.7 in November, compared to 102.4 in October.

U.S. labor productivity declined by an annualized 0.2% in the third quarter, versus a preliminary estimate of a 0.3% drop. Unit labor costs increased by an annualized 2.5% during the quarter.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 5% year-over -year during the first week of December.

The Treasury is set to auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.