Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Mixed; House Passes $2,000 Direct Payments

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.10% to 30,435.68 while the NASDAQ fell 0.33% to 12,856.75. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.08% to 3,738.25.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 19,310,590 cases with around 334,960 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,224,300 confirmed cases and 148,150 deaths, while Brazil reported over 7,504,830 COVID-19 cases with 191,570 deaths. In total, there were at least 81,380,390 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,776,990 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Health care shares climbed 0.9% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included BioNano Genomics Inc BNGO, up 33%, and Celyad ADR CYAD, up 7%.

In trading on Tuesday, energy shares fell 0.5%.

Top Headline

The House passed a bill Monday raising the payment to $2,000, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will try to pass the House bill by unanimous consent Tuesday.

Republicans are expected to object, which might mean a vote in a few days that would require 60 senators.

Equities Trading UP

Universal Security Instruments, Inc. UUU shares shot up 303% to $12.42. DPW Holdings, earlier during the month, entered into agreement to purchase a 9.9% equity interest in Universal Security Instruments.

Shares of Technical Communications Corporation TCCO got a boost, shooting 190% to $11.29. Technical Communications, on Monday, reported a net loss of $0.49 per share, on revenue of $4,108,000 for the year ended September 26, 2020.

Integrated Media Technology Limited IMTE shares were also up, gaining 37% to $5.40. Integrated Media Technology, last week, announced a 266,000 share offering.

Equities Trading DOWN

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. ARCT shares tumbled 56% to $40.85 after the company provided an update on data from its vaccine candidate, ARCT-021. Following the update, multiple firms, including Baird, HC Wainwright & Co and Raymond James downgraded ratings on the stock.

Shares of AeroCentury Corp. ACY were down 40% to $8.35. The company’s stock jumped 415% on Monday.

Ameri Holdings, Inc. AMRH was down, falling 35% to $2.40. AMERI’s stockholders approved all proposals to complete tender offer for Jay Pharma shares.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $48.18, while gold traded up 0.1% to $1,881.90.

Silver traded down 0.7% Tuesday to $26.36 while copper fell 0.1% to $3.5660.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today on continued optimism over Britain and the European Union signing the Brexit trade deal. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 rose 1%, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 0.4% and German DAX 30 gained 0.3%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 rose 0.4% and Italy’s FTSE MIB Index rose 0.1%.

Economics

The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 0.4% during the first four weeks of December versus November.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index increased 7.9% year-over-year in October, versus a 6.6% increase in the prior month.

The Treasury is set to auction 52-week bills and 7-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.