Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Edge Higher; Albertsons Earnings Beat Expectations

Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.15% to 31,055.70 while the NASDAQ rose 0.31% to 13,077.35. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.14% to 3,805.10.

The U.S. has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, reporting a total of 22,619,350 cases with around 376,280 deaths. India confirmed a total of at least 10,479,170 confirmed cases and 151,320 deaths, while Brazil reported over 8,131,610 COVID-19 cases with 203,580 deaths. In total, there were at least 90,995,180 cases of COVID-19 worldwide with over 1,947,750 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares gained by 3.1% on Tuesday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Transocean Ltd. RIG, up 16%, and Centennial Resource Development, Inc. CDEV, up 15%.

In trading on Tuesday, communication services shares fell 0.9%.

Top Headline

Albertsons Companies Inc ACI reported upbeat earnings for its third quarter and raised earnings forecast for the year.

Albertsons Companies reported quarterly earnings of $0.66 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $0.42 per share. The company posted sales of $15.41 billion, versus estimates of $15.34 billion.

Albertsons Companies said it now expects FY20 earnings of $3.05-$3.15 per share versus prior forecast of 2.75-$2.85 per share.

 

Equities Trading UP

Qilian International Holding Group Ltd QLI shares shot up 76% to $8.81 after the company priced its IPO at $5 per share.

Shares of ArcLight Clean Transition Corp. ACTC got a boost, shooting 73% to $21.04. Proterra said that it will become publicly listed through a deal with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp.

VOXX International Corporation VOXX shares were also up, gaining 44% to $21.31 after the company reported a strong rise in quarterly earnings.

Check out these big movers of the day

Equities Trading DOWN

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. LEXX shares tumbled 33% to $4.50 after the company reported a public offering of 1.83 million units at $5.25 per unit.

Shares of LM Funding America, Inc. LMFA were down 21% to $1.945 after jumping 15% on Monday. LM Funding, on Friday, announced filing of SPAC registration statement.

Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc. BDTX was down, falling 17% to $29.00.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 1.2% to $52.90, while gold traded up 0.4% to $1,857.90.

Silver traded up 0.7% Tuesday to $25.46 while copper rose 1.7% to $3.6265.

Euro zone

European shares were slightly lower today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 fell 0.1%, the Spanish Ibex Index fell 0.1% and the German DAX 30 declined 0.1%. Meanwhile, the French CAC 40 fell 0.1%, London’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.6% and Italy’s FTSE MIB declined 0.2%. U.K.’s retail sales increased 4.8% year-over-year in December.

Economics

The NFIB small business optimism index declined to 95.6 in December from 101.4 in the prior month.

The number of job openings fell by 105,000 to 6.527 million in November.

The IBD/TIPP economic optimism index increased 1.1 points to a reading of 50.1 in January.

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan is set to speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic will speak at 11:00 a.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Master is set to speak at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Esther George will speak at 1:00 p.m. ET

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

Check out the full economic calendar here