Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Dow Rises 50 Points; Sprint Shares Spike Higher

Toward the end of trading Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.18% to 29327 while the NASDAQ rose 0.67% to 9,693.02. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.48% to 3,368.03.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Real estate shares climbed 1.3% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included SBA Communications Corporation SBAC, up 8%, and Uniti Group Inc UNIT, up 5%.

In trading on Tuesday, consumer staples shares fell 0.4%.

Top Headline

Hasbro, Inc. HAS reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.

Hasbro reported quarterly earnings of $1.24 per share, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $0.91. The company reported quarterly sales of $1.428 billion, which missed the analyst consensus estimate of $1.44 billion.

Equities Trading UP

Sprint Corporation S shares shot up 74% to $8.33 following a report suggesting a US judge is expected to rule in favor of the company's proposed T-Mobile merger.

Shares of Amkor Technology, Inc. AMKR got a boost, shooting 19% to $13.77 after the company reported better-than-expected Q4 EPS and sales results. The company also issued Q1 EPS and sales guidance above estimates.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. REXN shares were also up, gaining 75% to $3.58 after the company announced a license agreement with Zhejiang HaiChang Biotechnology.

Equities Trading DOWN

Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp. PHIO shares tumbled 55% to $3.00 after the company priced 2 million share offering at $4 per unit.

Shares of Myomo, Inc. MYO were down 44% to $6.49 after the company announced pricing of public offering of common stock and warrants.

YayYo, Inc. YAYO was down, falling 69% to $0.3340 after the company announced it will voluntarily delist its common stock from the NASDAQ Capital Markets.

Commodities


In commodity news, oil traded up 1.1% to $50.11, while gold traded down 0.7% to $1,569.10.

Silver traded down 1.2% Tuesday to $17.57, while copper rose 1.3% to $2.5825.

Euro zone

European shares closed mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 0.90%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.68%, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.74% Meanwhile, the German DAX gained 0.99%, and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.23% while UK shares rose 0.71%.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index climbed to 104.3 in January, versus a reading of 102.7 in December.

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index fell 0.7% during the first week of February versus January.

The number of job openings declined 364,000 to 6.423 million for December, versus a revised reading of 6.787 million in the prior month, according to the Labor Department.